Who Invented the Computer?

There are more than a dozen legitimate contenders to consider, all designers of unique, remarkable machines. But with facts and timelines clouded by controversy, contradictions, and intrigue, debate has raged in courtrooms and classrooms for decades. The answer may surprise you.

Who Invented the Computer?

Who Invented the Computer?

-legendary names legendary inventions but who invented one of the most significant inventions of all time the computer many embarked on the quest to invent such a machine but who was first and what machine qualifies as the first real computer in 1834 British mathematician Charles Babbage conceived of the analytical engine a machine with a memory and calculating unit which could be programmed

the analytical engine was never built but would it have worked in 1991 a difference engine based on a simpler Babbage design was built it operates exactly as Babbage predicted 150 years earlier can mathematical statements be proved true or false this question became the foundation of theoretical computer science Alan Turing a British mathematician and Crypt analyst imagined a machine that could compute any problem that was presented in a set of instructions in essence a general-purpose computer the universal Turing machine was a conceptual blueprint for automatic computation meanwhile German engineer Konrad Sousa built a series of machines for his calculations Souza's z3 was the earliest fully functioning program controlled machine but more isolated Sousa and his work wasn't widely known technology advances in world war ii catapulted computing into a new modern era american physicists john mauchly and engineer presper eckert built the ENIAC the first all-electronic computer controlled by a program it was much faster than previous machines but had no memory to store programs and needed to be tediously rewired for each problem after the war ENIAC was Declassified and unveiled to members of the scientific community now they saw the importance of storing the program in memory they rushed to build their own computers the Manchester baby was a prototype of just such a stored-program computer built by Manchester University it ran a program from memory On June 21st 1948 a patent for the computer has never been awarded Konrad Sousa tried in the 1940s but his first patent application was denied for being vague and his second was delayed for decades in 1964 a patent on the ENIAC was awarded to its inventors Eckert and Mauchly the Eckert Buckley computer corporation had been acquired in 1950 by the company that became Sperry Rand Sperry Rand now demanded royalties from anyone building

a computer when competitor Honeywell refused a fierce legal battle ensued but Honeywell's lawyers uncovered a little-known fact in 1940 John Vincent Antonov an assistant professor at Iowa State had shown his computing machine to a visitor John Mauchly because of that visit the court's opinion was that Mach Lianne Decker derived their idea from a prior work the general concept of the computer was not patentable so who invented computers not one person but many influenced and inspired by each other not a single breakthrough but a series of incremental steps that continues even today as new generations pursue new realms of computing and its vast possibilities.