, at least by Babbage (although a model was put together by his son, later), but the main thing about this was it manifested five key concepts of modern computers -- Input device Processor or Number calculator Storage unit to hold number waiting to be processed Control unit to direct the task waiting to be performed and the sequence of calculations Output device Parts of Babbage’s inventions were similar to an invention built by Joseph Jacquard. Jacquard, noting the repeating task of weavers working on looms, came up with a stiff card with a series of holes in it, to block certain threads from entering the loom and blocked others from completing the weave. Babbage saw that the punched card system could be used to control the calculations of the analytical engine, and brought it into his machine. Ada Lovelace was known as the first computer programmer. Daughter of an English poet (Lord Byron), went to work with Babbage and helped develop instructions for doing calculations on the analytical engine. Lovelace’s contributions were very great, her interest gave Babbage encouragement; she was able to see that his approach was workable and also published a series of notes that led others to complete what he prognosticated. Since 1970, the US Congress required that a census of the population be taken every ten years. For the census for 1880, counting the census took 7 years because all counting had to be done by hand. Also, there was considerable apprehension in official society as to whether the counting of the next census could be completed before the next century. A competition was held to find some way to speed the counting process. In the final test, involving a count of the population of St. Louis, Herman Hollerith’s tabulating machine com...
