The history of the Computer Industry and how it has affected our lives. Only once in a lifetime a new invention comes along and affects every one life. This device changed the way we work, play, learn, and live. It has changed the aspect of everyone's life and that is a good reason this machine exists in nearly every business in the U.S and in one out of two households. This incredible invention is the computer. The electronic computer has been around for over half-century, but its ancestors have been around for about 2000 years. However it has most affect our lives in the past 40 years. From business use to personal use the computer has made our lives a lot easier to cope with.
The very first computer was the Abacus. It dated back almost 2000 years ago. It was just a wooden rack holding 2 parallel wires with beads strung on it. When these beads were move the user must memorize, and place that in arithmetic operations. In 1694 a man named Blaise Pascal invented the first digital calculating machine. It could add numbers by turning dials. It was used to help Pascal father as a tax collector. It save him time and made his job less stressful. Then in the early 1800's a man by the name of Charles Babbage invented a new calculating machine. It was automatic! Steam power this incredible machine and it could store up to 1,000 50-digit numbers. This machine not only did addition but it also stored data. This machine done all this by using cards with holes punched in them, which stored the data. His invention was a failure for the most part because lack of precision and lack of demand for such a machine. However between 1850 and 1900's there were great advances in mathematics and physics that began to rekindle the interest in such machines made by Pascal and Babbage. Many of these new advance involved complex calculations and formulas that were just too time consuming for human calculation. .
The first major use for the computer was during the 1890 census.