The Mechanical Age
 1450 - 1840
The First Information
Explosion.
 Johann Gutenberg (Mainz, Germany)
 Invented the movable metal-type
printing process in 1450.
 The development of book indexes and
the widespread use of page numbers.
Johann
Gutenberg
Johann Gutenberg
• Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in the
1450's, and the first book to ever be printed was a Latin
language Bible, printed in Mainz, Germany. Gutenberg’s
Bibles were surprisingly beautiful, as each leaf
Gutenberg printed was later colorfully hand-illuminated.
• Born as “Johann Gensfleisch” (John Gooseflesh), he
preferred to be known as “Johann Gutenberg” (John
Beautiful Mountain).
• Ironically, though he had created what many believe to be
the most important invention in history, Gutenberg was a
victim of unscrupulous business associates who took control
of his business and left him in poverty.
• Nevertheless, the invention of the movable-type printing
press meant that Bibles and books could finally be
effectively produced in large quantities in a short period of
time. This was essential to the success of the Reformation.
The first general purpose
"computers"
 Actually people who held the job title
"computer: one who works with
numbers."
1614
 John Napier introduces logarithms
 He is born from Baron of Merchiston,
Scotland, invents logs in 1614.
 Logs allow multiplication and division to be
reduced to addition and subtraction.
 In 1617, he employ an ancient numerical
scheme as the Arabian lattice, lays out a
special version of the multiplication tables
on a set of four-sided wooded rods,
allowing users to multiply and divide large
numbers and find square and cube roots.
•Napier was so intelligent, many of the locals believed him
to be in league with the Devil.
•Napier himself, and ardent protestant, accused the Pope of
being the Anti-Christ, and in a document he considered to
be his finest achievement, went as far as predicting the end
of the world.
•Napier was also a nobleman, a baron, the 7th Laird of
Merchiston, and owner of a considerable estate.
•Napier was loved by all, and he was respected by many
illustrious scientists and mathematicians of the age, to the
point of being considered some sort of scientific superstar,
with "fans" awaiting his next publication the way we await
the release of a movie or pop album.
•Napier's "greatest hits" include such groundbreaking texts
as A Description of the Admirable Table of Logarithms, and
his invention of divining rods used as multiplication tables.
1623
 Wilhelm Shickard, a professor at the
University of Tubingen, Germany,
invents
the
first
mechanical
calculator.
 It can work with six digits and carries
digits across columns.
 It works, but never makes it beyond
the prototype stage.
Wilhelm
Shickard
1625
 Early 1600s, William Oughtred, an
English clergyman, invented the slide
rule.
 Early example of an analog
computer.
1642
 A French mathematician named
Blaise
Pascal
invented
the
a
mechanical calculation machine.
 He called it the Pascaline.
 The Pascaline was made out of clock
gears and levers and could solve
basic mathematical problems like
addition and subtraction.
Blaise Pascal
Rear View
The Pascaline
Front View
Interior Diagram
1671
 Leibniz's Machine.
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (16461716), German mathematician and
philosopher.
 Invented a machine called the
stepped reckoner that could multiply
5 digit and 12 digit numbers yielding
up to 16 digit number.
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
Stepped Reckoner
1801
Joseph-Marie Jacquard
Joseph Marie Jacquard's automatic loom.
Designed during the 1830s
Parts remarkably similar to modern-day computers.
 The "store"
 The "mill"
 Punch cards.
 Punch card idea picked up by Babbage from Joseph
Marie Jacquard's (1752-1834) loom.
 Introduced in 1801.
 Binary logic
 Fixed program that would operate in real time.




Joseph Marie Jacquard's automatic
loom.
1820
 Arithmometer became the first massproduced calculator
 Developed by Charles Xavier Thomas de
Colmar (1785-1870) in France.
 This device performed the same type of
computations
as
Leibniz’s
Stepped
Reckoner, but was more reliable.
 These pinwheel-type mechanical adding
machines were fixtures in banks accounting
offices and stores.
1821
 Babbage's Engines
 Charles Babbage (1792-1871), eccentric
English mathematician
 Invented the first modern computer design:
a steam powered adding machine called
“the difference engine”.
 He understood that long math problems
were just repetitive operations.
 Therefore, the machine can automatically
solve math problems.
The Difference Engine
1832
 Babbage also invented the “analytical
engine”.
 This engine was a mechanical adding
machine that took information from punched
cards
to
solve
and
print
complex
mathematical operations.
 Babage’s difference engine and the analytical
engine are regarded as the first “thinking
machines”.
 These engines were easy to operate and
produced solutions at the turn of a hand
crank.
 Babage’s inventions earned the title “father
of computers”.
The Analytical Engine
1842
 Ada Augusta Lovelace (1815-52).
 The first program was written by Lady
Byron.
 She is credited as being the first
computer programmer.
 The programming language Ada is
named in her honor.
Lady Byron