LaimanOctober 14, 2001ComputersComputers have been around for thousands of years. When you think of computers you probably only think of the one at your house or at the library. You usually don’t think about the computers that were used long ago. They were simple, but they were the beginning to what we have today. Through the years computers progressed and we were able to accomplish more and more. Our lives have been impacted greatly because of what we can do with computers today. There is so much more that the future holds in the advancement in computers. We probably can’t even imagine some of the stuff that we will be able to do. I think that computers are one of the greatest inventions because they have enhanced our lives so much and they have helped us accomplish things that we would have never thought could have been accomplished.Let’s start of by talking about the history of computers and how they came about. About two thousand years ago, originating in Egypt, the abacus was invented. This is considered to be the first computer ever made. This device was made up of a wooden rack that held two wires. Beads were placed on the wires where they could slide up and down. This machine could only do simple math problems, but it was a start and the beginning of one of the greatest inventions. Nothing else regarding the advancement of these type devices was invented until almost twelve centuries later. In 1642, Blaise Pascal invented a machine that would help his father, a tax collector, to keep track of his work. This machine consisted of eight dials which would do addition and count numbers. This is how it worked: Once you turned the first dial all the way around once it would then turn the second dial one place. Once the second dial made it around one time the third dial would then move one place. This sequence repeated for each of the eight dials (Computers: History and Development 2).Gottfried W...
