Who's Invented The Computer And When?

The answer to this question depends on your definition of computer.  The first computers were literally humans doing numerical calculation often with the aid of mechanical calculating devices that had been available in various forms since 1623.  In the 1820’s, Charles Babbage designed a computer known as a difference engine.  It was mechanical not electronic, decimal not binary, and it was designed for very limited types of calculations.  Babbage’s difference engine was based on an idea conceived by J. H. Muller and published in 1786, and Babbage never completed construction of the difference engine. Per Georg Scheutz completed construction of the first difference engine in 1843 after refining Babbage’s design.

After funds dried up for constructing the difference engine, Babbage realized he could develop a general purpose computer, and he went on to design the analytical engine in 1837.  Babbage’s analytical engine had many of the characteristics of modern computers, including the equivalent of a memory, a central processing unit (CPU), and an arithmetic unit that could add, subtract, multiply, divide, and compare.  The analytical engine could also loop and conditionally branch, and it could be programmed.  This achievement is generally cited for crediting Babbage with inventing the computer, but like the difference engine, it was mechanical and decimal, and Babbage never completed construction.

The Z3 is the first known working, programmable, general purpose computer.  It was designed by Konrad Zuse and became operational in May 1941.  It was electromechanical and binary.

An interesting side note is that Babbage’s analytical engine was designed to be programmed using punch cards.  Punch cards had been used since 1801 to control looms, but they had never been used to control calculating machines or computers.  Ada Lovelace wrote a program for Babbage’s analytical engine to calculate Bernouli numbers, but because Babbage’s analytical engine was not completed, the program was never actually run.  Nevertheless, Ada Lovelace is credited with being the first computer programmer.

Another interesting note is that construction was completed in 1991 on a difference engine built to Babbage’s design.  It was built to mechanical tolerances achievable in Babbage’s time.  A printer based on Babbage’s design was completed in 2000.  Both machines perform flawlessly, demonstrating that Babbage’s difference engine would have been fully functional if construction had been completed.

The first computer was invented in world war II. The Greek invented the first computer. For complete details  kindly visit: www.dreamscape.com answer of this question is not very simple but from many evidences it has proved that Greeks were the first to invent the computer.

Charles Babbage designed a computer known as a difference engine.  It was mechanical not electronic, decimal not binary, and it was designed for very limited types of calculations.  Babbage’s difference engine was based on an idea conceived by J. H. Muller and published in 1786, and Babbage never completed construction of the difference engine.  Per Georg Scheutz completed construction of the first difference engine in 1843 after refining Babbage’s design.

After funds dried up for constructing the difference engine, Babbage realized he could develop a general purpose computer, and he went on to design the analytical engine in 1837.  Babbage’s analytical engine had many of the characteristics of modern computers, including the equivalent of a memory, a central processing unit (CPU), and an arithmetic unit that could add, subtract, multiply, divide, and compare.

Charles Babbage ;)