Computers

A computer is a machine that can be programmed to do something by itself. They have one main part to receive the orders and information, and another part to remember and store the information. Well, this sounds simple, but, of course, it isn’t.

The first computers did not use electricity. They just used mechanical parts which connected together to do mathematics – for example, to allow ships to work out where they were, and to predict the movement of the planets.

An Englishman, Charles Babbage, is now considered the ‘father of the computer’. He made the first programmable computer in 1833. Information was given to the machine using special cards with holes in them. For the output, the machine would have a printer and a bell. The trouble was, the machine was about a 100 years ahead of its time. All the thousands of parts had to be made by hand – and the machine could not be constructed in Babbage’s lifetime.

In the 1940s, electronics were used for these machines, and suddenly these those calculations could become faster and better. However, the first electronics were not primitive by today’s standards, so the first electronic computers were the size of large rooms. Now, in this modern age, computers used integrated chips, or ICs, and this makes them billions of times faster and stronger than the early mechanical machines. This allows computers to become smaller and more convenient, and with the development of better batteries, now everyone has a ‘personal computer’ – often in the form of a laptop which they can carry around. Computers are now part of the information age. Charles Babbage would certainly have been happy to know about this.

Question Time

What did the first computers use? …………………………………………………………

Who made the first computer? ……………………..……………………………………….

What invention allows computers to become faster? …………………………………….

What invention has made them even faster today? …………..………………………….

What final invention has allowed us to carry computers around? ………………………

Word-Learning Time

Do you know the meaning of the underlined words?

Mechanical

To predict

To program  

To construct 

Calculations 

To be primitive

Convenient   

Batteries       

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