1st Generation

17th century-1956

 

The Pascaline calculator, the first mechanical device of its kind, was created by Blaise Pascal in 1642. The Pascaline could add, subtract, multiply and divide two numbers repetitively. This design was merely a prelude to the life of the computer. 

Charles Babbage, known as the "father of the computer," is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer. Although never completed due to lack of funding, Babbage designed the Babbage Machine. Often referred to as the difference machine, it was designed to compute values of polynomial functions.

Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

In 1939, a Mathematics and Physics professor at Iowa State University named John Atanasoff and his student Clifford Berry, built the first electric digital computer called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC).  The first computer to use the binary system, the ABC was invented to automatically calculate complex formulas. Powered by vacuum tubes, as opposed to the mechanical switches of previous designs, this innovation was the first of its kind. A vacuum tube is a device that controls the electronic current in a sealed container, used as a switch or an amplifier. 




Atanasoff-Berry Computer

Widely considered the first high-speed electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was placed in operation in 1944. It was created by John W. Mauchly and J. Esper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania. The ENIAC (see below) required vacuum tubes to operate, generated a lot of heat and typically filled an entire room. The ENIAC was funded primarily by the United States Military and was designed to calculate artillery firing tables.




ENIAC, 1,800 square feet

The Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC), was the second commercial computer produced in the United States. The same inventors of the ENIAC, Mauchly and Espert, contributed to this invention. This computer is most famous for correctly predicting the Dwight D. Eisenhower presidential victory over Adlai Stevenson in 1952. The ENIAC and the UNIVAC were the last computers of their kind to use vacuum tubes for data storage. 



UNIVAC prediction of 1952

Fun Fact:

Prior to the invention of electronic computers, “computer” was a job description, not a machine. The men and women who ran large-scale computers like the ENIAC and the UNIVAC were considered "computers." 

Bell Laboratories logo, 1939

In 1948, the invention of the transistor drastically changed the computer's development. The transistor, created by Bell Telephone Laboratories, replaced the large, inconvenient vacuum tube of the first generation computer. It not only transformed the world of computers, but everything from radio to telephones and hearing aides. For more on the evolution of transistors, see Second Generation computers.