1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:06,720 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff. From How Stuff Works Pay Brain 2 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:10,160 Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren Volga bam Here, who invented the first computer. 3 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:13,200 Speaker 1: One could argue that the abacus was the first computer, 4 00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:16,680 Speaker 1: or its descendant, the slide rule, invented by William Outred 5 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:20,800 Speaker 1: in sixteen twenty two, but the first computer resembling today's 6 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:24,320 Speaker 1: modern machines was the analytical Engine, a device conceived and 7 00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:28,000 Speaker 1: designed by British mathematician Charles Babbage between eighteen thirty three 8 00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:31,960 Speaker 1: and eighteen seventy one. Before Babbage came along, our computers 9 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:35,200 Speaker 1: were people who sat around all day adding and subtracting 10 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:38,519 Speaker 1: numbers and entering the results into tables. The tables then 11 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: appeared in books so that other people could use them 12 00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:44,199 Speaker 1: to complete tasks such as launching artillery shells accurately or 13 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:48,400 Speaker 1: calculating taxes. It was in fact, a mammoth number crunching 14 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:52,160 Speaker 1: project that inspired Babbage in the first place. Napoleon Bonaparte 15 00:00:52,159 --> 00:00:55,120 Speaker 1: initiated the project in seventeen ninety when he ordered to 16 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:57,680 Speaker 1: switch from the old Imperial system of measurements to the 17 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:01,880 Speaker 1: new metric system. For ten years, scores of human computers 18 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:05,920 Speaker 1: made the necessary conversions and completed the tables. Monapart was 19 00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:08,520 Speaker 1: never able to publish the tables, however, and they sat 20 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:12,319 Speaker 1: collecting dust in the Academy the Sciences in Paris. In 21 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:16,199 Speaker 1: eighteen nineteen, Babbage visited Paris and viewed the unpublished manuscript 22 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:19,320 Speaker 1: with page after page of tables. If only, he wondered, 23 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:21,840 Speaker 1: there was a way to produce such tables faster, with 24 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:24,920 Speaker 1: less manpower and fewer mistakes. He thought of the many 25 00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:28,680 Speaker 1: marvels generated by the Industrial Revolution. If creative and hard 26 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:32,000 Speaker 1: working inventors could develop the cotton engine and the steam locomotive, 27 00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:36,440 Speaker 1: then why not a machine to make calculations. Babbage returned 28 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 1: to England and decided to build just such a machine. 29 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:42,360 Speaker 1: His first vision was something he dubbed the difference engine, 30 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:45,639 Speaker 1: which worked on the principle of finite differences, or making 31 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:50,920 Speaker 1: complex mathematical calculations by repeated addition without using multiplication or division. 32 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: He secured government funding in eighteen twenty four and spent 33 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:57,640 Speaker 1: eight years perfecting his idea. In eighteen thirty two, he 34 00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:01,040 Speaker 1: produced a functioning prototype of his table making machine, only 35 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:04,360 Speaker 1: to find his funding had run out. Some people might 36 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:08,120 Speaker 1: have been discouraged, but not Babbage. Instead of simplifying his design. 37 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 1: To make the difference Engine easier to build, he turned 38 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:14,400 Speaker 1: his attention to an even grander idea, the Analytical Engine, 39 00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:17,440 Speaker 1: a new kind of mechanical computer that could make even 40 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:22,400 Speaker 1: more complex calculations, including multiplication and division. The basic parts 41 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:25,240 Speaker 1: of the Analytical Engine resemble the components of any computer 42 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:28,280 Speaker 1: sold on the market today. It featured two hallmarks of 43 00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:32,399 Speaker 1: any modern machine, a central processing unit or CPU, and 44 00:02:32,639 --> 00:02:35,680 Speaker 1: memory a Babbage, of course, didn't use those terms. He 45 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:38,840 Speaker 1: called the CPU the mill and the memory the store. 46 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,480 Speaker 1: He also had a device, the reader, to input instructions, 47 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:45,120 Speaker 1: as well as a way to record on paper results 48 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:48,880 Speaker 1: generated by the machine. Babbage called this output device a printer, 49 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:53,040 Speaker 1: which makes perfect sense to me. Babbage's new invention existed 50 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:56,880 Speaker 1: almost entirely on paper. He kept voluminous notes and sketches 51 00:02:56,919 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: about his computers, nearly five thousand pages worth, and although 52 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:03,440 Speaker 1: he never built a single production model of the Analytical Engine, 53 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:05,880 Speaker 1: he had a clear vision about how the machine would 54 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:09,320 Speaker 1: look and work. Borrowing the same technology used by the 55 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:12,440 Speaker 1: Jacard Loom, which was a weaving machine developed in eighteen 56 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:14,800 Speaker 1: o four that made it possible to create a variety 57 00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:18,360 Speaker 1: of cloth patterns automatically. Babbage's data would be entered on 58 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:22,239 Speaker 1: punched cards. Up to one thousand, fifty digit numbers could 59 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: be held in the computer's store. Punched cards would also 60 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,560 Speaker 1: carry the instructions which the machine could execute out of 61 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:32,519 Speaker 1: sequential order. A single attendant would oversee the whole operation, 62 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:36,320 Speaker 1: but steam would power it, turning cranks, moving cams and rods, 63 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: and spinning gear wheels. But if Babbage was a genius 64 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:43,480 Speaker 1: behind the Analytical Engine, then Augusta Ada Byron or Ada 65 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 1: Lovelace was its publicist and arguably the very first computer programmer. 66 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 1: She met Babbage at a party when she was seventeen 67 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:53,280 Speaker 1: and became fascinated by the idea of the analytical Engine. 68 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: From that chance meeting grew a strong dynamic relationship. Lovelace 69 00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:00,960 Speaker 1: was gifted in mathematics and offered Babbage numerous insights. In 70 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:03,720 Speaker 1: eighteen forty three, she published an influential set of notes 71 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: describing the Analytical Engine. She also added in some stage predictions, 72 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:11,560 Speaker 1: calculating that Babbage's mechanical computers might one day act upon 73 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:15,440 Speaker 1: other things besides numbers, and even compose elaborate and scientific 74 00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: pieces of music of any degree of complexity. Unfortunately, the 75 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:23,000 Speaker 1: technology of the day could not deliver on their ambitious designs. 76 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:27,040 Speaker 1: It wasn't until nineteen that their particular ideas were finally 77 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:31,080 Speaker 1: translated into a functioning computer. That's when the Science Museum 78 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:35,120 Speaker 1: in London built to Babbage's exact specifications a Difference Engine. 79 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 1: It stands eleven feet long and seven feet tall that's 80 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:41,039 Speaker 1: about three meters long and two meters tall, contains eight 81 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 1: thousand moving parts and ways fifteen tons or just over 82 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:47,120 Speaker 1: thirteen and a half metric tons. A copy of the 83 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:50,000 Speaker 1: machine was built and shipped to the Computer History Museum 84 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:53,360 Speaker 1: in Mountain View, California, where it remained on display until December. 85 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:57,040 Speaker 1: Neither device would function on a desktop, but they are 86 00:04:57,080 --> 00:05:00,000 Speaker 1: no doubt the first computers and precursors to the modern 87 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:07,960 Speaker 1: in PC. Today's episode was written by William Harris and 88 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:10,520 Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots 89 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:13,480 Speaker 1: of other analytical topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff 90 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: Works dot com.