The Birth of Computers

The First Computer

Depending on the definition of 'computer' the first computer can vary. In 1822 the "Difference Engine" created by Charles Babbage is considered the first automatic computing machine. This was essentially a large calculator. It was capable of computing sets of numbers and printing out the results. It did not receive sufficient funding, so a completed model was never finished. From then and through the 1930s other computing models have been attempted and sometimes completed, but it wasn't until 1942 that the ABC Computer (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) was completed at Iowa State College by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff Berry that the first electronic computer was recognized and patented. However, while the ABC Computer is the first officially patented computer, many consider the ENIAC (the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) to be the first computer due to it being fully functional. The ENIAC (pictured) was invented 1946 by J. Presper Eckert, and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania. The ENIAC was 1,800 square feet and used 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighing in at nearly 50 tons. When we picture early computers, we likely picture the massive ENIAC (Computer Hope, 2017).