[Anastasia.fr.1]

who invented the very first computer in the whole world ? [?] [?] [?]

[Karen W.]

  (Yells for loudly! GEORGE!!!!!!) He has tons of history around computers!

[paul.fr]

sorry, i deleted this by mistake.

[ukmicky]

Digital or Analog

[neilep]

Wasn't it Mr Cabbage !!...sorry...Mr Babbage !!

[rosalind dna]

who invented the very first computer in the whole world ? [?] [?] [?]

It was Augusta Ada Lovelace
(née Byron), 1815-1852 but in the 20th century it was Alan Turing,who's also been called the "father of Computer sciences"
who worked with the Enigma Code to decipher the German's codes to save our merchant ships.
http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/turing_alan.shtml

[another_someone]

I was wondering if you were going to bring up Ada Lovelace (after whom the Ada computer language was named).

I don't think one can really credit Ada as inventing the computer, although she is credited with possibly being the first computer programmer.

Whether Babbage, or Turing, or who, invented the computer rather depends on what you are defining to be a computer.

The French would argue that Pascal invented the computer, and some might even argue that the Chinese abacus was the first computer - but then these were not what we would now regard as programmable computers (actually, the term 'computer' initially was applied to people who computed, rather than computing machines.

The modern idea of a computer as a stored program machine did not come into being until 1948 (several designs were experimentally implemented by several groups in 1948 and 1949).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_complete

Charles Babbage's analytical engine (1830s) would have been the first Turing-complete machine if it had ever been built, but the first actual implementation appeared in 1941: the program-controlled Z3 of Konrad Zuse. The universality of the Z3 was shown by Raúl Rojas in 1998. Prior to Rojas' 1998 paper, the first machine known to be Turing-complete was ENIAC (1946).

[Pumblechook]

Tommy Flowers -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1010070

[another_someone]

Tommy Flowers -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1010070

The machine Tommy Flowers invented was not a stored program machine, and in any case was pre-dated by the Z3 of Konrad Zuse.

[Pumblechook]

Very few devices are the work of one person.  Some have the original ideas and others put the ideas into practice.  Some people are overrated.  Some are forgotten.  Each nation thinks its citizen(s) invented X.  Y might need to be invented before invention Z can be made.  Television is a good example.  There may have been a French bloke who thought up of scanning  and sequential tranmission.  Bain came near with the fax.  Personally I think Nipkow was a genious. 

[rosalind dna]

Very few devices are the work of one person.  Some have the original ideas and others put the ideas into practice.  Some people are overrated.  Some are forgotten.  Each nation thinks its citizen(s) invented X.  Y might need to be invented before invention Z can be made.  Television is a good example.  There may have been a French bloke who thought up of scanning  and sequential tranmission.  Bain came near with the fax.  Personally I think Nipkow was a genious. 

TV was invented by a Scotsman, John Logie Baird but it was actually Marconi,
who invented the way that TV was first shown with the Cathode tubes.
Also TV was first broadcast in 1936 from Alexandra Palace and it's still sometimes broadcast from there. It's quite near to me.

NO I did not equate Ada Babbage with the Ada computer as I had not heard of it
before today. But Turing did as history will tell and has told that he invented
the PC's of then and they filled whole rooms at that time. We know otherwise now.

[Pumblechook]

No,  Baird and others just put Nipkow's ideas into practice.  Marconi had nothing to do with TV.  The Marconi Company and EMI got together to develop the 405 line system which was the basis of all analogue systems. 

[rosalind dna]

No,  Baird and others just put Nipkow's ideas into practice.  Marconi had nothing to do with TV.  The Marconi Company and EMI got together to develop the 405 line system which was the basis of all analogue systems. 

In this Wikipedia's link shows as I mentioned that not only Baird was one
of the TV's inventor but the main person was Marconi along with EMI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_TV

[Pumblechook]

Not Marconi personally...the Company.    He was back in Italy and not even welcome in Britain having joined Mussolini's fascists. 

[rosalind dna]

Not Marconi personally...the Company.    He was back in Italy and not even welcome in Britain having joined Mussolini's fascists. 

I know that. But I do have photos from my own digi camera of the BBC plaque
and of the studio too. Logie Baird died penniless.

[Pumblechook]

I worked on the transmitters including the earliest one still in use in the 70s on the oldest TV transmitting site still use in the 70s (and still is now).

[that mad man]

What has surprised me by that history of tv link is that there is no mention whatsoever of Alan Blumlein!

Fair enough Baird did help invent the mechanical tv but he was not the first. Alan Blumlein who worked for Isaac Shoenburg was the main man who developed lots of the electronics in the modern system that we use. The 405 line TV transmission from Alexander Palace in 1939 was not a Baird mechanical system but an electronic system.

Back on topic...

Oh how I miss my Sinclair ZX81. []

[Pumblechook]

Campbell Swinton proposed electronic telly in 1905 I think.

[rosalind dna]

What has surprised me by that history of tv link is that there is no mention whatsoever of Alan Blumlein!

Fair enough Baird did help invent the mechanical tv but he was not the first. Alan Blumlein who worked for Isaac Shoenburg was the main man who developed lots of the electronics in the modern system that we use. The 405 line TV transmission from Alexander Palace in 1939 was not a Baird mechanical system but an electronic system.

Back on topic...

Oh how I miss my Sinclair ZX81. []

What has surprised me by that history of tv link is that there is no mention whatsoever of Alan Blumlein!

Fair enough Baird did help invent the mechanical tv but he was not the first. Alan Blumlein who worked for Isaac Shoenburg was the main man who developed lots of the electronics in the modern system that we use. The 405 line TV transmission from Alexander Palace in 1939 was not a Baird mechanical system but an electronic system.

Back on topic...

Oh how I miss my Sinclair ZX81. []

Actually you are wrong because if the BBC has is own historic facts wrong that
they did start broadcasting television at Alexandra Palace on 2/11/1936/
The 1937 football cup was broadcast from there and here is the BBC link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/heritage/story/history_text.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Television

[Karen W.]

I was wondering if you were going to bring up Ada Lovelace (after whom the Ada computer language was named).

I don't think one can really credit Ada as inventing the computer, although she is credited with possibly being the first computer programmer.

Whether Babbage, or Turing, or who, invented the computer rather depends on what you are defining to be a computer.

The French would argue that Pascal invented the computer, and some might even argue that the Chinese abacus was the first computer - but then these were not what we would now regard as programmable computers (actually, the term 'computer' initially was applied to people who computed, rather than computing machines.

The modern idea of a computer as a stored program machine did not come into being until 1948 (several designs were experimentally implemented by several groups in 1948 and 1949).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_complete

Charles Babbage's analytical engine (1830s) would have been the first Turing-complete machine if it had ever been built, but the first actual implementation appeared in 1941: the program-controlled Z3 of Konrad Zuse. The universality of the Z3 was shown by Raúl Rojas in 1998. Prior to Rojas' 1998 paper, the first machine known to be Turing-complete was ENIAC (1946).

There you are! Right up your alley!!Nice post George!