Who invented the computer?

"Who invented the computer?" is not a question with a simple answer. The
real answer is that many inventors contributed to the history of computers
and that a computer is a complex piece of machinery made up of many
parts, each of which can be considered a separate invention.

This series covers many of the major milestones in computer history (but not
all of them) with a concentration on the history of personal home computers:

Year Invention Description

Konrad Zuse (1910-1995) was a

193 Z1 Computer by Konrad construction engineer for the
6 Zuse Henschel Aircraft Company in Berlin,
Germany at the beginning of WWII.
Konrad Zuse earned the semiofficial
title of "inventor of the modern
computer" for his series of automatic
calculators, which he invented to help
him with his lengthy engineering
calculations. Zuse has modestly
dismissed the title while praising
many of the inventions of his
contemporaries and successors as
being equally if not more important
than his own.
 Z1 Computer

One of the most difficult aspects of

doing a large calculation with either a
slide rule or a mechanical adding
machine is keeping track of all
intermediate results and using them,
in their proper place, in later steps of
the calculation. Konrad Zuse wanted
to overcome that difficulty. He realized
that an automatic-calculator device
would require three basic elements: a
control, a memory, and a calculator
for the arithmetic.

ABC Computer by John Professor John Atanasoff and

194 graduate student Clifford Berry built
Atanasoff & Clifford Berry
2 the world's first electronic-digital
computer at Iowa State University
between 1939 and 1942. The
Atanasoff-Berry Computer represented
several innovations in computing,
including a binary system of
arithmetic, parallel processing,
regenerative memory, and a
separation of memory and computing
functions.
 ABC Computer

Presper Eckert and John Mauchly were

the first to patent a digital computing
device, the ENIAC computer. A patent
infringement case (Sperry Rand Vs.
Honeywell, 1973) voided the ENIAC
patent as a derivative of John
Atanasoff's invention. Atanasoff was
quite generous in stating, "there is
enough credit for everyone in the
invention and development of the
electronic computer." Eckert and
Mauchly received most of the credit
for inventing the first electronic-digital
computer. Historians now say that the
Atanasoff-Berry computer was the
first.

194 MARK Computer by Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper

4 Howard Aiken & Grace designed the MARK series of
Hopper computers at Harvard University. The
MARK series of computers began with
the Mark I in 1944. Imagine a giant
roomful of noisy, clicking metal parts,
55 feet long and 8 feet high. The 5-ton
device contained almost 760,000
separate pieces. Used by the US Navy
for gunnery and ballistic calculations,
the Mark I was in operation until 1959.
 MARK Computer

The computer, controlled by pre-

punched paper tape, could carry out
addition, subtraction, multiplication,
division and reference to previous
results. It had special subroutines for
logarithms and trigonometric
functions and used 23 decimal place
numbers. Data was stored and
counted mechanically using 3000
decimal storage wheels, 1400 rotary
dial switches, and 500 miles of wire.
Its electromagnetic relays classified
the machine as a relay computer. All
output was displayed on an electric
typewriter. By today's standards, the
Mark I was slow, requiring 3-5 seconds
for a multiplication operation.