EVOLUTION OF

INFORMATION AND
COMMNUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
1. THE PRE-MECHANICAL ERA (3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.)
• WRITING AND ALPHABETS- COMMUNICATION. First humans communicated only through speaking
and picture drawings in 3000 B.C., The Sumerians in Mesopotamia (what is today southern
Iraq) devised cuneiform (simply means “wedge shape), the earliest system of writing and
pictograms. Around 2000 B.C., Phoenicians created symbols. The Greeks later adopted the
Phoenician alphabet and added vowels. Phoenician alphabet (also known as proto-
canaanite alphabet), is the oldest alphabet, consisting of 22 letters, all consonant, with
matres lectionis used for some vowels in certain late varieties. It was derived from Egyptian
hieroglyphs. It became the most widely used writing system spread by Phoenician. The
romans gave the letters Latin names to create the alphabet we use today. Petroglyphs, are
images created by removing part of the rock surface by incising, pickling, carving or
abrading as form of rock art. The word petroglyph comes from the Greek prefix petro
meaning “stone” and glypho means “to carve” and was originally coined in French as
pretoglype. Ideographs are symbols to represent ideas and concept.
THE PRE-MECHANICAL ERA (3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.)

Cuneiform Writing Phoenician Alphabet Petroglyphs

Ideographs
THE PRE-MECHANICAL ERA (3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.)
• PAPER AND PENS- INPUT TECHNOLOGIES. Sumerians' input technology was a stylus
that could scratch marks in wet clay, made of sharp pointed objects. Clay tablets are
used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform. Tablets were dried in the
sun or air, remaining fragile. Unfired clay tablets could be soaked in water and recycled
into new clay tablets. The collection of these clay documents made up in very first
archive. About 2600 B.C., The Egyptians write on the papyrus plant around 100 A.D.
Papyrus was not pliable enough to fold without cracking and ling roll or scroll. The
earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus was excavated in 2012 and 2013. Papyrus
had the advantage of being relatively cheap and easy to produce. Cotton paper, or
also known as rag paper, it is made using cotton linters or cotton from used cloth (rags) as
the primary material. It is superior high concentration of acid and also absorbs ink and
toner. It is used for writing, art work and packaging. It is commonly white. The Chinese
made paper from rags, on which modern-day papermaking is based.
THE PRE-MECHANICAL ERA (3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.)

Stylus Pen or Reed Pen Papyrus paper Papyrus plant

Rag Paper
THE PRE-MECHANICAL ERA (3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.)
• BOOKS AND LIBRARIES: PERMANENT STORAGE DEVICES. Religious
leaders in Mesopotamia kept the earliest "books". The Egyptians kept scrolls
around 600 B.C. The Greeks began to fold sheets of papyrus vertically into
leaves and bind them together.

• THE FIRST NUMBERING SYSTEMS. EGYPTIAN SYSTEM: The numbers 1-9

as vertical lines, the number 10 as a U or circle, the number 100 as a coiled
rope, and the number 1,000 as a lotus blossom. The first numbering systems
similar to those in use today were invented between 100 and 200 A.D. By
Hindus in India who created a nine-digit numbering system. Around 875
A.D., The concept of zero was developed.
THE PRE-MECHANICAL ERA (3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.)

Egyptian Number System Hindu-Arabic Number System

THE PRE-MECHANICAL ERA (3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.)
• THE FIRST CALCULATORS: THE ABACUS. One of the very first information
processors. It is made of pebbles, stones, or wood. It was the man’s first
recorded adding machine. It was invented in Babylonia and popularized in
China.

Ancient Chinese Abacus

Mesopotamian Abacus
2. THE MECHANICAL PERIOD (1450-1840)
• The Mechanical Age is when we first start to see the connections between our
current technology and its ancestors.
• JOHANNES GUTENBERG- Invented the movable metal type printing process in 1450.
The development of book indexes and the widespread use of page numbers started.
• JOHN NAPIER- A baron of Murchison, Scotland invented the LOGS (logarithms), where
in it allows multiplication and division to reduce in addition and subtraction. He invented
the Napier bones in 1617, where in this are rods made of bone, ivory, wood, or metal.
This became very popular device for calculating in England and Western Europe,
because most people lacked these mathematical skills.
• ARABIAN LATTICE- Layouts a special version of the multiplication tables on a set of
four-sided wooden rods (multiply, divide large numbers, and find square and cube root).
2. THE MECHANICAL PERIOD (1450-1840)

Johannes Gutenberg Movable Metal Type John Napier Napier Bones

Printing
2. THE MECHANICAL PERIOD (1450-1840)
• The Mechanical Age is when we first start to see the connections between our
current technology and its ancestors.
• WILHELM SCHICKARD- A professor at University of Tubingen, Germany, invented the
first mechanical calculator that can work with six digits and can carries digits across
columns in 1623.
• WILLIAM OUGHTRED- Invented the slide rule, a ruler with a sliding central strip,
marked with logarithmic scales and used for making rapid calculations, especially
multiplication and division in 1622.
• BLAISE PASCAL- Invented the Pascaline, made of clock gears and levers, where in it
could solve mathematical problems like addition and subtraction in 1642.
• GOTTFRIED LEIBNIZ- Invented the Stepped Reckoner that could multiply 5-12 digit
numbers yielding up to 16 digit numbers in 1617.
2. THE MECHANICAL PERIOD (1450-1840)

Wilhelm Schickard Schickard’s Calculator William Oughtred Slide Rule

Stepped Reckoner
Pascaline
Blaise Pascal Gottfried Leibniz
2. THE MECHANICAL PERIOD (1450-1840)
• JOSEPH-MARIE JACQUARD- He developed the Automatic Loom (weaving loom) that was controlled by
punched cards in 1801.
• CHARLES XAVIER THOMAS DE COLMAR- Developed the Arithmometer, the first mass produced calculator in
1820. It is a mechanical calculating machine designed to perform four basic arithmetical operations: addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division. This is the first calculating machine that was commercialized and
manufactured in large quantities. The arithmometer practically dominated sales of calculating machines during
the second part of 19th century.
• CHARLES BABBAGE- Invented The Difference Engine In 1821, Designed To Calculate And Tabulate Polynomial Functions,
Calculate Series Of Values And Print Results Automatically In A Table, And Analytical Engine In 1823, Where In It Has
Many Essential Features Found In The Modern Digital Computer; A Programmable Computer Using Punched Cards, An Idea
Borrowed From The Jacquard Loom Used For Weaving Complex Patterns In Textiles. Tagged As The Father Of Modern
Computer.
• LADY ADA AUGUSTA LOVELAVE BYRON- A gifted mathematician, she is considered to have written instructions for the
first computer program in the mid-1800s. She translated an article on an invention by Charles Babbage, and added her
own comments. Because she introduced many computer concepts, Ada is considered the first computer programmer. Tagged
by her own mother as “princess of parallelograms.”
2. THE MECHANICAL PERIOD (1450-1840)

Joseph Marie Jacquard Automatic Loom Charles Xavier Arithmometer

Thomas De Colmar
Charles Babbage

Lady Ada Augusta

Lovelave Byron

Difference Engine Analytical Engine

11 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ADA LOVELACE
• SHE’S THE ONLY LEGITIMATE CHILD OF LORD BYRON.
• Yep, that Lord Byron. The all-limping, all-shagging poet Lord Byron. But she
never met him. He left her mother (and England) when she was only one
month old, and died when she was eight. She wasn’t even allowed to see the
family portrait of her father until she was 20. Far from distancing her from
her father, it simply made her even more obsessed with him. She named her
first-born son Byron, and when she died she requested to be buried
alongside the father she never knew.
• SHE WAS TAUGHT MATHEMATICS TO KEEP HER AWAY FROM POETRY
• Her mother was terrified that she’d turn out like her father – a debauched,
insane poet. So when she expressed an interest in mathematics, her mother
was happy to push her in that direction. However, Lovelace always
considered her work ‘poetical science’. Her imaginative approach to maths is
what made her so brilliant.
Lady Ada Augusta
• SHE WAS COUNTESS
Lovelave Byron
• Her husband was awarded the title of the 1st earl of Lovelace, making Ada
a countess.
11 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ADA LOVELACE
• HER PERSONAL LIFE IS A MYSTERY
• Her husband left her shortly before her death after she confessed
something to him. What that something was, no-one knows. But she did
request that her friend John Crosse burn all their correspondence after her
death, so she may have been having an affair.
• SHE WAS THE ‘ENCHANTRESS OF NUMBERS’
• That nickname was given to her by Charles Babbage, whose analytical
engine she worked on. He was smitten by her mind, but their relationship
was purely professional.
• SHE WAS ONLY SUPPOSED TO TRANSLATE A PAPER ON THE ANALYTICAL
ENGINE
• Instead, her own notes were more extensive and important than the
translation itself. Within these notes it fell to her to explain what the
Lady Ada Augusta
machine would do, as even scientists at the time did not understand what
Lovelave Byron Babbage was trying to achieve. It’s in these notes that she wrote the first
ever computer programme. Casual.
11 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ADA LOVELACE
• SHE WAS ALSO THE WORLD’S FIRST DEBUGGER
• She spotted an error in a programme that Babbage had written, and
corrected it. These days, that error would be called a bug.
• SHE WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO REALIZE THAT COMPUTER COULD ONE
DAY DO MORE THAN NUMBER-CRUNCHING.
• She made the conceptual leap to what computers might one day be
capable of – such as creating music, or controlling factory processes (she
was inspired by watching how a loom works). She suggested that computers
could one day effect society, or be used as a collaborative tool.
• This has led to her being considered ‘The Prophet of the Computer Age’.

• SHE HAD A BIT OF A GAMBLING PROBLEM

• Lovelace didn’t do things by halves. She didn’t just have the occasional
Lady Ada Augusta flutter on the horses – she formed a gambling syndicate and created a
Lovelave Byron mathematical model for placing large bets. Unfortunately, it all went a bit
wrong for her and she lost thousands.
11 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ADA LOVELACE
• A COMPUTER LANGUAGE IS NAMED AFTER HER
• The United States Department of Defense created a
computer language that they named ‘Ada’.
• ADA LOVELACE DAY ISN’T JUST FOR HER
• It’s dedicated to increasing the profile of women in the
STEM industries.

Lady Ada Augusta

Lovelave Byron
3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)

“THE BEGINNING OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS”

• TELECOMMUNICATION- THE TRANSMISSION OF SIGNS, SIGNALS, MESSAGES,

WORD, WRITING, IMAGES, AND SOUNDS OR INFORMATION OF ANY NATURE
BY WIRE, RADIO, OPTICAL OR ELECTROMAGNETIC SYSTEM.

• IN THIS PERIOD, USHERED IN A NEW AGE IN COMMUNICATIONS AND

INFORMATION. THE USE OF ELECTRICITY FOR INFORMATION HANDLING AND
TRANSFER BLOOMED.
3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)
• ALESSANDRO VOLTA- Invented the voltaic battery, the first electric know battery as voltaic pile in 1800. It is
to be considered the first source of stored electricity in the 8th century. The battery made by himself was
credited as the first electromechanical cell. It is consists of two electrodes: one made of zinc, the other was
copper. The electrolyte is sulfuric acid or a brine mixture of salt and water. It was the first electrical battery
that could continuously provide an electric current to a circuit.
• SAMUEL F.B. MORSE- conceived of his version of an Electromagnetic Telegraph in 1832. He developed Morse
code in 1838,these are code or codes that assigned a set of dots and dashes to each letter of the English
alphabet and allowed for the simple transmission of complex messages across telegraph lines.
• TELEGRAPH- Is a communication system in which information is transmitted over a wire through a series of
electrical current pulses, usually in the form of Morse code.
• The basic components include a source of direct current, a length of wire or cable, and a current indicating
device such as relay, buzzer, or light bulb.
• The term comes from the Greek word “tele”, meaning “at a distance”, and “graphien”, meaning “to
write”.
3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)

Alessandro Volta Voltaic Pile Battery

Samuel F.B. Morse

Telegraph
3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)
• ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL- Developed the first working TELEPHONE in march 7, 1876.
He made his first successful telephone call to his assistant, electrician THOMAS WATSON,
who would hear bell’s famous words transmitted through wire: “Mr. Watson, come here. I
want you.” Bell used gray’s liquid transmitter design in his famous experiment, but
avoided describing the liquid transmitter in his public demonstration. The liquid transmitter
had the problem that waves formed on the surface of the liquid, resulting in interference.
• GUGLIELMO MARCONI- Invented the RADIO in 1894. He discovered that electrical
waves travel through space and can produce and effect far from the point at which it
originated.
• DORR FELT- Devises the COMPTOMETER, the first commercially successful key-driven
mechanical calculator in 1885, but patented in US in 1887. After the successful of
comptometer, he designed also a printing adding machine dubbed as COMPTOGRAPGH.
3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)

Alexander Graham Bell Guglielmo Marconi Dorr Felt

First Telephone First Radio Comptometer

3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)
• HERMAN HOLLERITH- The Father of Information Processing. He founded the Tabulating
Machine Company , later became the Computer Tabulating Recording Company and
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)
• PUNCH CARDS- Also known as Hollerith cards and IBM cards are paper cards containing
several punched or perforated holes that were punched by hand or machine to represent
data. These cards allowed companies to store and access information by entering the card
into the computer. The HOLLERITH TABULATING MACHINE, also known as the
TABULATING MACHINE, was an electrical counting machine invented by Herman Hollerith.
It was first described in his doctoral thesis, which he presented at Columbia university in
1889.
3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)

Punch Card for

Tabulating Machine Automatic Loom

Herman Hollerith Punch Card for Tabulating Machine

4. THE ELECTRONIC AGE: 1940 - PRESENT.
It is the last period in ICT history. The highlight of this period is the advent
of solid state devices or electronic devices. It started in 1940’s
• The four main events found in this period are:
• The Late Vacuum Tubes Period
• The Transistors Period
• The Integrated Circuits Period
• The Computer Processors Period
4. THE ELECTRONIC AGE: 1940 - PRESENT.
3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)
• The latter period of vacuum tube machines is the start of the electronic period. The dawn of the
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the first electronic and general
purpose computer, marked a revolutionary period in computing but the processing spewed was
slower than those of the machines used today. Developers John Mauchly, a physicist, and J.
Prosper Eckert, an electrical engineer. But it could not store its programs (its set of instructions).
• Early 1940s, Mauchly and Eckert began to design the EDVAC – the Electronic Discreet
Variable Computer. John Von Neumann's influential report in June 1945:
• Manchester Mark I went into operation in June 1948--becoming the first stored-program
computer.
• Maurice Wilkes, a British scientist at Cambridge university, completed the EDSAC (Electronic
Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) in 1949--two years before EDVAC was finished. Thus,
EDSAC became the first stored-program computer in general use (i.e., Not a prototype).
3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer

John Mauchly and J. Prosper Eckert

Electronic Discreet Variable Computer
3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)

Manchester Mark 1
Maurice Wilkes Electronic Delay Storage
Automatic Calculator
3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)
• Late 1940s, Eckert and Mauchly began the development of a computer called UNIVAC
(Universal Automatic Computer). But, a machine called LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) went
into action a few months before UNIVAC and became the world's first commercial computer.
• In 1947, transistors was invented. It was an electronic device with properties and functions
similar to vacuum tubes, but it is lightweight and faster. The first full transistor computer was
developed in 1957 and was faster than vacuum computers.
• An American electrical engineer named JACK KILBY was credited for introducing the Integrated
Circuit in 1958. Integrated circuit is a device that is composed of a group of transistors and
circuit elements compressed a single package, the integrated circuit elements compressed the
integrated circuit revolutionized the use of computers and electronic devices.
• This transformation was a result of the invention of the microprocessor. A microprocessor (up) is a
computer that is fabricated on an integrated circuit (IC). Computers had been around for 20
years before the first microprocessor was developed at intel in 1971.
3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)

Universal Automatic Computer JACK KILBY Integrated Circuit

3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD (1840-1940)
• The micro in the name microprocessor refers to the physical size. Intel didn't invent the electronic
computer, but they were the first to succeed in cramming an entire computer on a single chip
(IC).
• The microelectronics revolution is what allowed the amount of hand-crafted wiring seen in the
prior photo to be mass-produced as an integrated circuit which is a small sliver of silicon the size
of your thumbnail.
• Integrated circuits and microprocessors allowed computers to be faster. This led to a new age of
computers. The first home-brew computers is called the ALTAIR 8800.