Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

By: Robert O Connor

In this column, we at the TSSG usually write about new developments in the world of IT and telecommunications. However, we must remember that modern technologies are built upon the inspiration, inventiveness and tireless efforts of scientists and engineers of the past. In this article, I will give a brief history of computing, starting with early mechanical calculators and ending with the first programmable computers. All modern electronic devices have their roots in these machines and it is important that we do not forget the invaluable contributions their creators made to the world of today.

The first computing machine was built in 1642 by Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), the son of a French tax collector who created a mechanical addition calculator to help his father in his work. This instrument was improved upon in 1694 by a German mathematician and philosopher named Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716), who devised a machine that could also multiply. It wasn't until 1820 that any significant change took place with computational devices, when Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar (1785-1870) another Frenchman, invented a machine that could perform the four basic arithmetic functions: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Each one of these creations was a large, cumbersome, gear driven apparatus. Thomas de Colmar's machine was so big, it was known as the Piano Aritmometer, due to its physical similarities with the musical instrument.

The next giant leap in computing came with the construction of the Difference Engine by Charles Babbage (1791-1871) in 1822. Babbage was an English mathematics professor who grew frustrated with the errors he consistently found when examining calculations. He noticed there was a natural harmony between machines and mathematics, especially when dealing with repetitive calculations, which were the main source of human error. It is said that Babbage became so infuriated with these errors that he exclaimed "I wish to God these calculations had been performed by steam!" The Difference Engine had a stored program telling it how to operate, could perform a variety of mathematical functions and print its results. It was powered by steam and was a large as a locomotive. Inspired by his success, Babbage set to work on the first general-purpose computer, which he named the Analytical Engine. Although never built, Babbage's design outlined the basic elements of the modern computer and was a revolutionary concept.

Around the same time as Babbage was building his machine, another young mathematics professor was publishing theories that would have far reaching consequences. George Boole (1815-1864) while teaching at Queen's College Cork (later to become UCC), developed a mathematical fusion of logic and algebra which is now known as Boolean Algebra. Boole's theories are still used today for all binary operations performed by modern computers and switching circuits. (Boole was the subject of a previous article, which is available here.

In 1889 the next major step in computing was taken by Herman Hollerith (1860-1929), a statistician at the US Census Bureau. He was charged with the task of finding a faster way to compute the huge volume of data generated by the census, which usually took years to process. Hollerith hit upon the idea of using perforated paper ('punch cards') to store information, which could then be 'fed' into a computational machine and the results analysed mechanically. Using this punch card system, the information from the US Census was processed in a matter of weeks rather than years. Hollerith's punch cards were the first example of mass storage of electronic data.

The early part of the 20th century saw many more developments in electronic machines but in 1943, computing took another giant leap thanks to the work of Alan Turing (1912-1954). Turing was a Cambridge-educated mathematician employed by the British government as a code breaker during World War 2. His main responsibility was to develop methods to decipher the encrypted communications of the German forces. Code breaking was a laborious task, often taking many days and due to the seriousness of the wartime situation, a faster way of deciphering messages was required. At the Government Code and Cipher School in Bletchly Park, Turing along with other mathematicians and engineers such as Tommy Flowers (1905-1998), devised a machine named Colossus, which is regarded as the world's first programmable electronic computer. Consisting of more than 1800 vacuum tubes, operators would input the encrypted message, which Colossus would then process through thousands of possible cipher keys, outputting the deciphered text. While it didn't always find the correct key, the Allied forces broke a significant number of German codes saving many lives as a result. However, Colossus was a very specialist machine, built solely for code breaking, but a general-purpose machine was only a few years away. The Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC) was constructed between 1943 and 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania. Built by John William Mauchly (1907-1980) and John Presper Eckert Jr. (1919-1995), ENIAC was a huge machine standing over 10 feet tall, occupying approximately 1,000 square feet of floor space and weighing more than 30 tonnes. ENIAC was the first instance of a stored-program computer. That is to say ENIAC possessed an internal memory, which could be used to store both instructions and data. This allowed ENIAC to be programmed for a variety of calculative sequences instead of always following the same pre-determined set of instructions.

ENIAC brings us into the modern age of computing. As with all branches of science, modern developments are built on the outstanding work of individuals in the past. Of course, many more individuals were involved in this process - too many to list in this article. However, if anyone is interested in the subject and would like to learn more, I recommend the following websites as excellent historical resources:

- A History of Computers
- The Association for History and Computing
- The Charles Babbage Institute for the History of Information Technology
- The Official Bletchly Park Website