1Premech Mech Age

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History of Information

Technology and System

Four basic periods

Characterized by a principal technology used

to solve the input, processing, output and

communicationproblems of the time:

a. Pre mechanical,

b. Mechanical,c. Electromechanical, and

d. Electronic


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The Pre-mechanical Age:

3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.


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A.WRITING AND ALPHABETS--

COMMUNICATION.

1. First humans communicated only through

speaking and simple drawings known as

petroglyths (signs or simple figures carved in

rock).

E.g., cave painting from Lascaux,

France, c. 15,000-10,000 BC

Many of these are pictographs --pictures or sketches that visually

resemble that which is depicted.


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E.g., prehistoric petroglythic imagery from Western U.S.:

Geometric signs (dots, squares, etc.) with no apparent

depicted object = ideographs

( symbols to represent ideas or concepts.)


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Starting in c. 3100 B.C., the Sumerians in Mesopotamia(southern Iraq) devised cuneiform -- the first true written

language and the first real information system.

Early pictographic tablet (3100 B.C.).

2. First development of signs corresponding to spoken

sounds, instead of pictures, to express words.


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Pictographs were turned on their sides (2800 B.C.) and

then developed into actual cuneiform symbols (2500 B.C.) -

- as this clay tablet illustrates.

Pictographs for star (which also meant heaven or god),

head, and water (on the left) were turned on their side (in

the middle), and eventually became cuneiform symbols (on

right).


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A cuneiform table (c. 2100 B.C.) listing expenditures of

grain and animals.


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3. Around 2000 B.C., Phoenicians created symbols

that expressed single syllables and consonants (the

first true alphabet).

4. The Greeks later adopted the Phoenician alphabet

and added vowels; the Romans gave the letters

Latin names to create the alphabet we use today.


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1. Sumerians' input technology was a stylus that

could scratch marks in wet clay.

2. About 2600 B.C., the Egyptians wrote on the

papyrus plant

B. PAPER AND PENS--INPUT TECHNOLOGIES.

,

3. Around 100 A.D., the Chinese made paper from

rags, on which modern-day papermaking is based


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1. Religious leaders in Mesopotamia kept the earliest

"books"2. The Egyptians kept scrolls.

3. Around 600 B.C., the Greeks began to fold sheets of

papyrus vertically into leaves and bind them together.

C. BOOKS AND LIBRARIES--OUTPUT

TECHNOLOGIES (PERMANENT STORAGE

DEVICES).


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D. THE FIRST NUMBERING SYSTEMS.

1. Egyptian system:

The numbers 1-9 as vertical lines, the number 10 as a U or

circle, the number 100 as a coiled rope, and the number 1,000as a lotus blossom.

2. The first numbering systems similar to those in use today were

invented between 100 and 200 A.D. by Hindus in India who

created a nine-digit numbering system.

3. Around 875 A.D., the concept of zero was developed.

E. THE FIRST CALCULATORS: THE ABACUS.

One of the very first

information processors.


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B. The Mechanical Age:

1450 - 1840


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A. THE FIRST INFORMATION EXPLOSION.1. Johann Gutenberg (Mainz, Germany; c. 1387-

1468) . Invented the movable metal-type printing

process in 1450.2. The development of book indexes and the

widespread use of page numbers.


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B. THE FIRST GENERAL PURPOSE "COMPUTERS"Actually people who held the job title "computer are one

who works with numbers."

John Napier

introduces logarithms. He invents logs in 1614. Logsallow multiplication and division to reduced to addition and subtraction.

Wilhelm Shickard a professor at the University of Tubingen,

Germany, invents the first mechanical calculator, it can work with six

digits, and carries digits across columns. It works but never beyond the

prototype stage.

William Oughtred, an English clergyman, invented the slide rule.

Early example of an analog computer.

Slide rule


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Blaise Pascal a French Mathematician invented

a mechanical calculation machine called the

Pascaline.. The pascaline was made up of

clock gears, and levers, and could solve basicmathematical problems like addition and

subtraction

The Pascalin e (fron t)


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(rear view )

Diagram o f inter ior


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Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716),

German mathematician and philosopher

invented the stepped reckoner that couldmultiply 5 digit and 12 digit numbers yielding

up to 16 digit numbers.

The Reckoner (reconstru ct ion )


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Joseph Marie Jacquard developed an automatic loom thatwas controlled by punch cards.

Joseph Mar ie Jacquard 's loom .


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Charles Babbage invented the first, moderncomputer design: a steam-powered addingmachine called the difference engine. Healso invented the analytical engine which is

a mechanical adding machine that tookinformation form punched cards to solve andprint complex mathematical operations.Babbages inventions earned him the title,the father of computers

The Difference Eng ine. The Analyt ical Engine.


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The first program was written by Ada

Augusta Lovelacefor Babbages

Difference Engine. Thus Ada Lovelace

is credited with being the f i rs t

computer programmer. Theprogramming language Ada is named

in her honor.


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Continuation on the next slides.

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