The history of computer can be traced back to the development of a pseudo mechanical decive known as the abacus. The abacus was one of the earliest known computational device which its origin in the ancient babylonian. This was a device in which beads held with strings were manually manipulated with the aim of effecting some calculations.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many significant development were made, finding an easier means of calculating. In 1649 john napier, a scottish mathematician develop a slide rule which had the capacity of performing multiplication, division, square roots, square, logarithm, e.t.c. The slide rule which is easy to operate is made up of two graduated rules 1 of which side upon the other. Suitable alignment for the slide leads solutions to mathematical problems, which are read of on one of the several scales on each wheel. In 1623, francis bacon made the first known use of binary code for number representation. The binary codes may use of strings of 0's and 1's. In 1642 french man blaise pascal invented the first mechanical adding machine known as machine arithmetic. The device was constructed by a system of dial, each connected to a drum. As the drums rotated cray was generated by a rocket device which caused the next higher drums be stepped onwards only one revolution. Additions and subtractions we are easily done in the device. Multiplications were achieved through a repeated addition while divisions were done though a repeated subtraction.
In 1671, Gottfried von leibnitz improved on blaise pascal's invention by introducing series of gear changes on the drum producing an effect of a modern gear which made it possible for a direct multiplication and division. Between 1802 and 1804 joseph jacquard french textile manufacturer perfected the idea of the automated loom.
