An abacus is considered one of the first calculating devices invented by man. It is a manual device which takes time and a great deal of experience to master. An abacus uses several rows of beads to represent numbers; each row stands for a place value and the arrangement of beads in a row stands for a digit.

The first mechanical calculating machine was invented in 1642 by Blaise Pascal, a 19-year-old Frenchman. Pascal's machine used gears and could add and subtract. Pascal's gear system was widely used in mechanical calculators built during the next few hundred years.

In the early 1800's, a British mathematician named Charles Babbage designed the Difference Engine and later the Analytical Engine. These machines used punched cards to operate the gears. Many of the ideas and parts conceived by Babbage were used in the creation of modern computers. Many have tagged Babbage as being the "father of the idea behind the computer".

Ada Lovelace, known as Lady Lovelace, worked with Babbage on his computing machines. She contributed much to the creation of mechanisms for input, processing, and output used by computers throughout history.

In the late 1800's, an American, Dr. Herman Hollerith, invented a way to record the U.S. census information on punched cards. In 1890, he calculated the census for 63 million people by using punched cards. Using his system, Dr. Hollerith decreased the tabulating from 7 1/2 years to 2 1/2 years by having this tabulating machine do the work. He created the Hollerith Code and established a company, tabulating Machine Corporation, which later became IBM (International Business Machines).

Creator: Ann Wiley, Johnston Community School District, 2007-2008