Computer

From enormous “engines” to tiny devices that fit inside phones, computers have revolutionized our lives.

The start of the INFORMATION AGE

Apple’s popular iMac computer was released in 1998.

Engines

Englishman Charles Babbage was way ahead of his time: He designed three computing machines in the 1820s and 1830s, which he called “engines,” though he never managed to build these huge mechanical contraptions. English mathematician Ada Lovelace devised a sequence of operations intended to allow Babbage’s Analytical Engine to solve a math problem—making her the first computer programmer.

By the way... “Ada Lovelace Day” is celebrated in the middle of October—its goal is to encourage more girls to study the sciences.

It paved the way for…

Programmed computers control

industrial robots, which do all kinds of work too difficult or dangerous for humans, such as lifting heavy loads or performing intricate tasks. The internet grew from a network of computers in the United States in the late 1960s, and the World

Wide Web brought it to the masses in the 1990s.

The world’s first working computers were both kept top secret. The first programmable computer was the Z3, invented by Konrad Zuse during World War II, and was used to make secret codes for Germany. Britain, Germany’s enemy in the war, built Colossus (right), the first digital electronic computer. Colossus enabled Britain and its allies to break the German codes, giving them access to top-secret German information.

Did you know? Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2 was first built in 1991, 142 years after it was designed— and it worked!

Apple Macintosh

The early computers were the size of several elephants. Transistors and then microprocessors gradually made computers smaller and cheaper, but early computer users needed skill and specialized technical knowledge.

In 1976, Americans Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs began to change that with their Apple computers, designed so that anyone could use them. Other companies soon followed, making computers cheaper, smaller, and easier to use. Soon, they were in schools, offices, and homes across the world, in technology as diverse as cell phones, cars, and even toilets.

The iMac featured a computer and monitor display in one colorful case.

How it changed

Computers have revolutionized almost every part of modern life in some way—our workplaces, schools, and even our social lives, since they are in the things we use every day.

the world

Books were once an expensive rarity, but the printing press turned them into a means of spreading ideas and information far and wide.

Chinese printing People in China were turning the pages of books printed using wooden blocks more than 1,000 years ago. Later, they invented movable type – raised letters that could be moved into place and used to E-book rEadErs have been around since 1998, but started to become popular in the 2000s,

and tablEt computErs followed not long after.

social nEtworking sites have sprung up thanks to computers and the Internet. The most famous is FacEbook, started in 2004 by American Mark Zuckerberg.