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The emergence of information technology: A state of practice report
Published in F.B.J. Barends, J. Lindenberg, H.J. Luger, L. de Quelerij, A. Verruijt, Geotechnical Engineering for Transportation Infrastructure, 2017
The earliest known analogue computing devices were sticks or ropes used specially for measuring length. The Abacus frame was probably the first calculation machine, which had its origin in China around 2000–500 BC. In 1400 the first slide rule was developed which could be used for all four calculation methods. Mechanical calculating machines were invented in Europe during the 17th century. In Germany, Schickard, a friend of the astronomer Kepler, invented around 1623 the first mechanical calculator. The records were lost, however, during the Thirty Years’ War. Pascal (1623–1662) constructed the first calculation machine, developed for tax collection, used cog-wheels to drive the machine. This machine could only perform addition and subtraction. 30 years later, the German mathematician and philosopher von Leibnitz (1646–1716) developed a machine, which also could perform multiplications and divisions. Another important invention which influenced computer technology was by Newton (1643–1727) who among others developed differential calculus and integration which are foundations of modem mathematics.
Three-Dimensional Molecular Electronics and Integrated Circuits for Signal and Information Processing Platforms
Published in Sergey Edward Lyshevski, Nano and Molecular Electronics Handbook, 2018
In 1623, Wilhelm Schickard built his “calculating clock,” a six-digit machine that can add, subtract, and indicate overflow by ringing a bell. Blaise Pascal is usually credited for building the first digital calculating machine. He created it in 1642 to assist his father who was a tax collector. This machine was able to add numbers entered with dials. Pascal also designed and built a “Pascaline” machine in 1644. These five- and eight-digit machines used a different concept compared with the Schickard’s “calculating clock,” however. In particular, rising and falling weights instead of a gear drive were used. The “Pascalian” machine can be extended for more digits, but it cannot subtract. Pascal sold more than ten machines, and several of them still exist. In 1674, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz introduced a “stepped reckoner” using a movable carriage to perform multiplications. Charles Xavier Thomas applied Leibniz’s ideas and in 1820 made a mechanical calculator (see Figure 6.1[b]). In 1822, Charles Babbage built a six-digit calculator which performed mathematical operations using gears. For many years, from 1834 to 1871, Babbage carried out the Analytical Engine project. His design integrated the stored-program (memory) concept, envisioning the memory may hold more than 100 numbers. The proposed machine had a read-only memory in the form of punch cards. These cards were chained, and the motion of each chain could be reversed. Thus, the machine was able to perform conditional manipulations and integrated coding features. The instructions depended on the positioning of metal studs in a slotted barrel, called the control barrel. Babbage only partially implemented his ideas in designing a proof-of-concept programmable calculator because his innovative initiatives were far ahead of his era’s technological capabilities and theoretical foundations. Nevertheless, the ideas and goals were set.
Engineering Readiness: How the TRL Figure of Merit Coordinates Technology Development
Published in Engineering Studies, 2020
Charles Anthony Bates, Christian Clausen
According to Callon and Muniesa, these sorts of manipulations and transformations occur in both ‘a very material sense, as in the case of a mechanical calculator’ and are also ‘at work in less mechanical situations’ where the evolution of multiple entities is observable in a single space.79 While our manipulations and translations occurred in wholly different contexts than those demonstrated by Callon and Muniesa, Figure 5 is intended to illustrate both the material and less mechanical situations they describe. In the context of complex engineering processes of technological development, it appears that the working of a calculative device hardly follows any particular order along separate moments. Qualculations are seemingly performed as interconnected and reciprocating engagements.