Who Invented the First Computer?

The answer to this question depends of your definition of a computer.

The first known counting devices or tools were Tally Sticks from about 35,000 BC.

The Abacus was then invented by the Babylonians in 2400 BC.

In 1837, Charles Babbage, a British professor of mathematics described his idea for the Analytical Engine, the first stored-program mechanical computer. The Analytical Engine was designed to be powered by a steam engine and was to use Punched Cards, which was used to program mechanical looms at the time.

What made the Analytical Engine unique was that it was designed to be programmed.

It was because of this and the fact that it would be more than 100 years that any similar devices would be constructed, Charles Babbage, would be considered by many as the “father of computing”. Because of legal, financial, and political obstacles, the Analytical Machine would never be completed. Charles Babbage was also difficult to work with and alienated the supporters of his work.

In 1939, John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry developed the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) at Iowa State University, which was regarded as the first electronic digital computer. The ABC was built by hand and the design used over 300 Vacuum Tubes and had capacitors fixed in a mechanically rotating drum for memory.

The First ComputerThe ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), constructed in the US in 1943, is widely regarded as the first functionally useful electronic general-purpose computer. Influenced by the ABC, it was a turning point in the history of computing and was used to perform ballistics trajectory calculations and used 160 kW of power. World War II is known to be the driving force of computing hardware development and one of such use of computers was in communications encryption and decryption.

The UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer) was the first commercially available, “mass produced” electronic computer manufactured by Remington Rand in the USA and was delivered to the US Census Bureau in June 1951. It used 5,200 vacuum tubes and consumed 125 kW of power. 46 machines were sold at more than $1 million each.

The microprocessor eventually led to the development of the microcomputer, small, low-cost computers that individuals and small businesses could afford.

By the 1990s, the microcomputer or Personal Computer (PC) became a common household appliance, and became even more widespread with the advent of the Internet.

Possibly Related Amazing Facts:

Post a comment

51 Comments

  1. Anonymous
    Posted 2007/07/15 at 8:44 pm | Permalink

    I thought the Indians invented the computer?

  2. Anonymous
    Posted 2008/07/27 at 1:46 am | Permalink

    gee..even im looking for who invented the first computer
    is it konrad zuse or is it charles babbage?
    im lost …o.o”"
    >_<

  3. Baah Richard
    Posted 2008/01/15 at 5:28 am | Permalink

    whats the definition for a computer

  4. Anonymous
    Posted 2008/04/24 at 4:55 pm | Permalink

    you people have like anger manegment problems…calm down. it’s just about stupid computers its not that big of a deal VVVV

  5. Mishka Sherwood
    Posted 2008/06/04 at 6:55 pm | Permalink

    This article which you called “crap” is helpful to those who were looking for such information, what you all should have done, was to check out another article on another site to find EXACTLY what you were looking for.

  6. smelly socks
    Posted 2008/09/05 at 1:14 am | Permalink

    oooh my god who is the proper inventer?!?!?!?! 0.o

    • Jasmine
      Posted 2010/03/23 at 4:24 pm | Permalink

      the FIRST PERSON WHO INVENTED THE COMPUTOR WAS J.H. SMITH!!!! BUT HE DIDNT BUILD IT SO CHARLES BABBEGE 100 YEARS LATER BUILT IT!!! WOW! U GUYS ARE SOOOOOOOOO STUPIdly dumb!!!!!!!!

      • cheryl cole
        Posted 2010/08/01 at 4:33 am | Permalink

        i know there like so like stupid hu but thats kinda rude wats ur ambition jasmin

  7. Pamella Amor Favia
    Posted 2008/09/19 at 4:30 am | Permalink

    you know i’m so thankful to have this site because it makes me inform in all the things i wanna know. i just hope that the informations shown above are all correct.
    that’s all thank you…..

  8. Jon
    Posted 2008/09/23 at 6:12 am | Permalink

    Charles Babbage DID NOT invent the first computer… pay more attn. to the reading…

    it clearly states that charles babbage only came up with and developed the schematics for the first computer… not the computer itself…

    DOWN at the next paragraph is clearly stated that the FIRST computer was developed, known as the ENIAC

    PAY SOME ATTENTION

  9. Pancakes
    Posted 2008/10/06 at 2:45 pm | Permalink

    There are alot of ppls who invented thet computer!!!! =P

  10. Anonymous
    Posted 2009/05/12 at 10:43 am | Permalink

    im sorry but a guy named konrad zuse created the first computer. bill gates just made it better

  11. jsexy323
    Posted 2008/11/04 at 10:13 am | Permalink

    LOOK you need to pay attention who ever you are read the damn article alright and check your damn attitude!!!

  12. Amira
    Posted 2008/11/06 at 6:48 am | Permalink

    it was Konrad Zuse who invented the first computer and most people wanna know tbhis stuff for their projects or hw or whatever so you guys need to chillax and stop calling everyone geeks id rather be a nerd than be some poor guy on the street dont you think? so keep you’re mouths shut

  13. Skyler J C
    Posted 2008/11/06 at 2:08 pm | Permalink

    if any one knows who invented the first computer can you reply and tell me cause im doing a project and need to know

  14. rjm
    Posted 2009/05/12 at 10:11 am | Permalink

    Charles Babbage had an assistant. A computor language
    was named after her ADA The daughter of Lord Byron
    She was a mathmatical genius I believe . It did in fact work
    but Babbage naturally wanted improvements the problem being
    the lack of fine quality engineering needed. And its cost
    I doubt the americans had a computer in ww2 because in the
    book COLLOSUS , Americans were invited to Bletchley Park
    to learn how it was done.

  15. At school
    Posted 2008/12/01 at 7:28 am | Permalink

    who invented the computer i need to know! i AM DOING A SKOOL PROJECT!!

    • fineguitar
      Posted 2010/03/08 at 5:25 am | Permalink

      You must qualify your question. computers can be mechanical, human and electronic. Mechanical see the abacus or ada, Human see how canon shot found its target. (it can be calculated in advance by having a room of Calculators as they called them – ie people sitting at desk working the formulas out by hand) and the Electronic calculator – IBM again! They once made a machine that they called a “time machine” but it was actually a “Time Clock” but an early one and thats how it all began.
      Bill Gates was only lucky very lucky. What he did was to take a computer language called CPM and made some simple changes.

  16. hakera94
    Posted 2009/02/10 at 12:58 am | Permalink

    John Atanasov and Clifford Berry invented the first computer, John Atanasov is bulgarian!

  17. Kristina
    Posted 2009/02/21 at 5:09 am | Permalink

    its not just kids or geeks who wonder about this stuff, its people who have a brain and know how to expand it without fear of being ridiculed for wanted to explore things that arnt everyday questions. i mean come on i was hanging out with some friends tonight just having a good time and having conversations, and we got curious i cant tell you how much i learned in the last 12.5 hours…yea we have been up all night searching stuff that lead us to the question who invented toliet paper…i have never even cared about what brand i used but now you guys better believe i will be reading the labels of all the brands on the shelf… but i gtg for now ill be on different topics all the time… so to all the haters out there for wondering about something, you guys are the losers, that are obviously not gonna be anybody to remember in this world, give people credit…

  18. Anonymous
    Posted 2009/03/18 at 7:11 pm | Permalink

    The Yankee hater was right the first computer was invented by the Brits during WWII to be able to decode german orders

  19. They should...
    Posted 2009/04/28 at 10:25 am | Permalink

    Make a computer out of cheese, because cheese tastes good. Or Ice cream. Maybe onions. But those don’t taste good…but it’d be funny… lol…

  20. Anonymous
    Posted 2009/10/08 at 6:43 am | Permalink

    Charles Babbage did not steal John atanasoffs idea because john was born in 1903 and charles died in 1871…

  21. Anonymous
    Posted 2009/05/09 at 5:55 am | Permalink

    Lets clear this up once and for all.

    Babbage NEVER actually made his computer he only came up with the idea.

    ENIAC, give me a break, in 1943 Britain had invented Colossus which was used to break the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park, England. Colossus is the first known computer, however due to the nature of its use it was kept secret at the time and infact at the end of the war all 10 of the machines were destroyed and the staff sworn to secrecy over their role in the breaking of the codes.

  22. Alex Mollov
    Posted 2009/05/10 at 1:23 am | Permalink

    All you people are so STUPID! John Atanasoff was the king inventor of the computer, along with his student Berry. Atanasoff is a US citizen, but his parents are BULGARIAN, and he came to BULGARIA and he was given a king MEDAL for his invention. HE IS THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE NAME IN BULGARIA OKAY?! ALSO GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH GAVE HIM A KING MEDAL, AND I’M TALKING ABOUT W’S FATHER BACK IN 1990. NOW ALL OF YOU IDIOTAS AND PUTAS SHUT THE K UP AND LEARN SOMETHING FOR A CHANGE!!!!!

  23. i pooped
    Posted 2009/06/06 at 2:07 pm | Permalink

    I heard once that the computer was invented by someone in the u.s in the twenties some time before the great depression but the government confiscated it thinking that the inventor was a threat to them and he was never seen again?

  24. Cyrus Nyonneoh
    Posted 2009/06/10 at 6:10 pm | Permalink

    Can anyone tell me who the true inventor of computer is?
    I did my own search and i saw it all started In 1837, by Charles Babbage, a British professor of mathematics.

    And when i went down i saw 1935-1938: Konrad Zuse builds Z1, world’s first program-controlled computer. Inventor of first working programmable computer.

    And when i went deep down in my search…this is what i saw:

    Note: Babbage (UK, around 1840) planned but was unable to build a non-binary, decimal, programmable machine. The binary ABC (US, 1942) of Atanasoff (of Bulgarian origin) and Eckert and Mauchly’s decimal ENIAC (US, 1945/46) were special purpose calculators, in principle like those of Schickard, (1623), Pascal (1640) and Leibniz (1670), though faster (with tubes instead of gears; today we use transistors). None of these machines was freely programmable. Neither was Turing et al.’s Colossus (UK, 1943-45) used to break the Nazi code. The first programmable machine built by someone other than Zuse was Aiken’s MARK I (US, 1944) which was still decimal, without separation of storage and control.

    So i am confused and dont know who is who.

  25. Anonymous
    Posted 2009/06/19 at 7:32 pm | Permalink

    The really first programable computer invented is the Mark1/Z1 Computer by Konrad Zuse in the year 1936. I know it because i have studied it.

  26. Anonymous
    Posted 2009/07/09 at 6:12 am | Permalink

    JOHN ATANASOV invent the first electronic digital computer!!!He is bulgarian!!!!!

  27. Regine Espala Tan
    Posted 2009/07/21 at 11:57 pm | Permalink

    hello!! im regine from bacoor cavite..
    the realhitory of computers starts out about 5000 years ago BC, at the birth of the abacus, a woowden rack holding two horizontal wires with beads strung on them and develop by the chinese!!!

  28. Anonymous
    Posted 2009/11/12 at 8:44 pm | Permalink

    bill gates was the inventor of MICROSOFT!!!!! get your facts straight there is NO TRUE INVENTOR! People have been taking diff. machines and systems while slowly evolving them into what we have today. Can we at least all agree on that?!

  29. Anonymous
    Posted 2008/06/18 at 2:59 am | Permalink

    WE LOVE THE ENIAC!

  30. Woser lama
    Posted 2010/02/07 at 9:15 am | Permalink

    Who is the first Computer maker? Charles Babbage or Konrad Zuse?

  31. Computer
    Posted 2010/02/27 at 8:24 am | Permalink

    shut up u peoples, computers are invented by Charles Baggage. Stop arguing and beside, what does computers got to do with god and jesus.

  32. mac
    Posted 2010/03/02 at 9:17 am | Permalink

    computer are a waste of time..i hate them i barley ever use them only to look up things for work…..computers do not help me at all!!!!!!!!!!! screw u guys

  33. easton
    Posted 2010/03/04 at 9:18 am | Permalink

    I love vidio games and therefore, computers and all that resemble their awesomeness

  34. nioka bennet
    Posted 2010/04/27 at 4:59 pm | Permalink

    i wanted to know about who made the first computer not all this

  35. DUMBASS MOFO
    Posted 2010/04/30 at 10:12 pm | Permalink

    I Married My Laptop :)

  36. patrik
    Posted 2010/05/07 at 7:18 am | Permalink

    hi,i want to know wheather he whose the only one to invert the firts computer?, ok if so then what whose the name of that paticular computer

  37. Anderson dessapes
    Posted 2010/05/12 at 10:28 am | Permalink

    the person who’s invented the computer is a did he use to be a rich man

  38. nicholas
    Posted 2010/05/18 at 8:40 am | Permalink

    i think according to what i read charles babbage invented the first computer

  39. kyoyahitschi
    Posted 2010/06/21 at 5:04 am | Permalink

    maybe this is the answer to my assignment..

  40. rajla
    Posted 2010/07/22 at 5:35 am | Permalink

    it is charles babbage

  41. Close Up
    Posted 2010/07/28 at 1:02 pm | Permalink

    the creator of the first working electronic computer was John Vincent Atanasov and Clifford Berry the computer was called Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). The ENIAC was built first but was invalidated due to not working as supposed to, so the ABC was considered the first electronic computer ever made. Heh i am proud of John Atanasov his family comes from bulgaria ! :D

  42. jeff clutch
    Posted 2010/08/30 at 4:56 pm | Permalink

    Alan Turing invented the worlds first programmable computer, in england, not USA, read your history folks

  43. D.L.G
    Posted 2010/08/30 at 5:26 pm | Permalink

    I still dont get it i have a project and i need to know like who invinted the laptop or regular comp.

  44. fivecakes
    Posted 2009/12/28 at 10:08 am | Permalink

    I think your caps lock key got stuck somewhere

  45. olive
    Posted 2010/02/24 at 10:52 pm | Permalink

    i know that assiments suck and i thnk that i have one cameing up soon and how are u not to be rude and were do u live it is cuz that i want someone to hang out and if u smoke we can smoke to and to go out with at night time about 11:30 cuz that is when my aunty goes to bed.

  46. Need 2 know
    Posted 2010/04/10 at 3:48 pm | Permalink

    Well who invented the computer evrybody has a different opinion???

    Need the answer!!!!

  47. vanah bubbles
    Posted 2010/05/17 at 1:41 pm | Permalink

    you are so weird and your name is funny

  48. Phil
    Posted 2010/08/17 at 2:20 pm | Permalink

    You shouldn’t be talking since he’s not the one who doesn’t know how to spell.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>