wn very often...to the tune of once every fifteen minutes, and then it would take 15 minutes to locate the problem and fix it. This beast also used massive amount of power, and people used to joke that the lights would dim in the city of origin whenever the computer was used. The Early Days of Computers The very first computer, in the roughest sense of the term, was the abacus. Consisting of beads strung on wires, the abacus was the very first desktop calculator. The first actual mechanical computer came from an individual named Blaise Pascal, who built an adding machine based on gears and wheels. This invention did not become improved significantly until a person named Charles Babbage came along, who made a machine called the difference engine. It is for this, that Babbage is known as the “Father of the Computer." Born in England in 1791, Babbage was a mathematician, and an inventor. He decided a machine could be built to solve polynomial equations more easily and accurately by calculating the differences between them. The model of this was named the Difference Engine. The model was so well received that he began to build a full scale working version, with money that he received from the British Government as a grant. Babbage soon found that the tightest design specifications could not produce an accurate machine. The smallest imperfection was enough to throw the tons of mechanical rods and gears, and threw the entire machine out of whack. After spending 17,000 pounds, the British Government withdrew financial support. Even though this was a major setback, Babbage was not discouraged. He came up with another machine of wheels and cogs, which he would call the analytical engine, which he hoped would carry out many different kinds of calculations. This was also never built...
