Timeline of Computer Evolution: The Acient Time

To commemorate the 50th year of modern computing and the ComputerSociety, the timeline on the followingpages traces the evolution of computingand computer technology.

Timeline research by Bob Carlson, Angela Burgess,and Christine Miller.Timeline design and production by Larry Bauer.We thank our reviewers: Ted Biggerstaff, GeorgeCybenko, Martin Campbell-Kelly, Alan Davis,Dan O’Leary, Edward Parrish, and Michael Williams.

4000-1200 B.C.
Inhabitants ofthe first knowncivilization inSumer keeprecords ofcommercialtransactions onclay tablets.

250-230 B.C.
The Sieve ofEratosthenes is used to determineprime numbers.

About 79 A.D.
The “AntikytheraDevice,” when set correctlyaccording to latitude and day ofthe week, gives alternating29- and 30-day lunar months.

About 1300
The more familiar wireand-bead abacus replaces the Chinesecalculating rods.

1612-1614
John Napier uses the printeddecimal point, devises logarithms, anduses numbered sticks, or Napiers Bones,for calculating.

1623
William (Wilhelm)Schickard designs a“calculating clock” witha gear-driven carrymechanism to aid inmultiplication of multidigitnumbers.

1666
InEngland,SamuelMorlandproduces amechanicalcalculatorthat can addand subtract.

1674
Gottfried Leibniz builds the“Stepped Reckoner,” a calculator usinga stepped cylindrical gear.

1774
Philipp-Matthaus Hahn builds andsells a small number of calculatingmachines precise to 12 digits.

1777
The third Earl of Stanhopeinvents a multiplying caculator

1801
A linked sequence of punchedcards controls the weaving of patternsin Joseph-Marie Jacquard’s loom.

1820
The ThomasArithmometer, basedon Leibniz’ steppeddrumprinciple, isdemonstrated to theFrench Academy ofScience. It becomes thefirst mass-producedcalculator and sells formany years.

1838
In JanuarySamuel Morseand Alfred Vaildemonstrateelements of thetelegraph system.

1842-43
Augusta Ada,Countess of Lovelace,translates LuigiMenabrea’s pamphleton the AnalyticalEngine, adding herown commentary.

1847-49
Babbage completes 21 drawings forthe second version of the Difference Enginebut does not complete construction.1844 SamuelMorse sends atelegraphmessage fromWashington toBaltimore.

1876-1878
BaronKelvin builds aharmonic analyzerand tide predictor.1876 AlexanderGraham Bellinvents andpatents thetelephone.

1882
William S. Burroughsleaves his bank clerk’s jobdetermined to invent anadding machine.

1915
Use of microchips is foreshadowed asphysicist Manson Benedicks discovers thatthe germanium crystal can be used toconvert alternating current to direct current.

1919
Eccles and Jordan, US physicists,invent the flip-flop electronic switchingcircuit critical to high-speed electronic counting system.

1920-1921
The word “robot” (derived fromthe Czech word for compulsory labor) is firstused by Karel Câpek in his play RUR (Rossum’sUniversal Robots).

1924
T.J. Watsonrenames CTRto IBM andpopularizes the“Think” slogan hecoined at NationalCash Register.

1934
In Germany, KonradZuse seeks to build a bettercalculating machine thanthose currently available.

1931
Reynold B. Johnson,a high school teacher inMichigan, devises a way toscore multiple-choice testsby sensing conductivepencil marks on answersheets. IBM later buys thetechnology.

1935
IBM introduces notonly the 601 multiplyingpunch-card machine butalso an electric typewriter, known as one of the early computer accessories.

1936

Konrad Zuse realizesthat programs composedof bit combinations canbe stored, and he files apatent application inGermany for theautomatic execution ofcalculations, including a“combination memory.”

1937
Claude Shannonpublishes the principles for anelectric adder to the base two.

1937
George Stibitz developsa binary circuit based onBoolean algebra.

(to be continued)

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