Predict the sequence of the sentences.

1. This device allows users to make computations using a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack.

2. Pascal invented a numerical wheel calculator to help his father with his duties.

3. Ch. De Colmar invented a machine that could perform the four basic arithmetic functions.

4. Powered by steam and large as a locomotive, Babbage's machine would have a stored program and could perform calculations and print the results automatically.

5. J. Atanasoff and CI. Berry envisaged all-electronic computers.
HI. Read the text "Early computing machines and inventors"

The abacus, which emerged about 5,000 years ago in Asia Minor and is still in use today, may be considered the first computer. This device allows users to make computations using a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack. Early merchants used the abacus to keep trading transactions. But as the use of paper and pencil spread, particularly in Europe, the abacus lost its importance. It took nearly 12 centuries, however, for the next significant advance in

computing devices to emerge, In 1642, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), the 18-year-old son of a French tax collector, invented what he called a numerical wheel calculator to help liis father with his duties. This brass rectangular box. also called a Pascaline, used eight movable dials to add sums up to eight figures long In 1694, a German mathematician and philosopher, Gottfried Wilhem von Leibniz (1646-1716), improved the Pascaline by creating a machine that could also multiply. Like its predecessor, Leibniz's mechanical multiplier worked by a system of gears and dials.Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar, a Frenchman, invented a machine that could perform the four basic arithmetic functions. Colmar's mechanical calculator, the arilhometer, presented a more practical approach to computing because it could add. subtract, multiply and divide. With its enlianced versatility, the arithometer was widely used up until the First World War. Although later inventors refined Colmar's calculator, together with fellow inventors Pascal and Leibniz, he helped define the age of mechanical computation.

The real beginning of computers as we know them today, however, lay with an English mathematics professor, Charles Babbage (1791-1871). Frustrated at the many errors he found while examining calculations for the Royal Astronomical Society, Babbage declared, "1 wish to God these calculations had been performed by steam!" With those words, the automation of computers had begun. By 1812, Babbage noticed a natural harmony between machines and mathematics: machines were best at performing tasks repeatedly without mistake; while mathematics, particularly the production of mathematic tables, often required the simple repetition of steps. The problem centered on applying the ability of machines to the needs of mathematics. Babbage's first attempt at solving this problem was in 1822 when he proposed a machine to perform differential equations, called a Difference Engine. Powered by steam and large as a locomotive, the machine would have a stored program and could perforin calculations and print the results automatically. After working on the Difference Engine for 10 years, Babbage was suddenly inspired to begin work on the first general-purpose computer, which he called the Analytical Engine Babbage's assistant, Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace and daughter of English poet Lord Byron, was instrumental in the machine's design, She helped revise plans, secure funding from the British government, and communicate the specifics of the Analytical Engine to the public.

Babbage's steam-powered Engine, although ultimately never constructed, may seem primitive by today's standards. However, it outlined the basic elements of a modern general рифове computer and was a breakthrough concept. Consisting of over 50,000 components, the basic design of the Analytical Engine included input devices in the form of perforated cards containing operating instructions and a "store" for memory of 1.000 numbers of up to 50 decimal digits long. It also contained a "mill" with a control unit that allowed processing instructions in any sequence, and output devices to produce printed results.

In 1889, an American inventor, Herman Hollerith (1860-1929) tried to find a faster way to compute. Unlike Babbage's idea of using perforated cards to instnict the machine, Hollerith's method used cards to store data (iirformation) which he fed into a machine that compiled the results mechanically. Each punch on a card represented one number, and combinations of two punches represented one letter. The punch cards served as a storage method for data and they helped reduce computational errors. Hollerith brought his punch card reader into the business world, founding Tabulating Machine Company in 1896, later to become International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924 after a scries of mergers. Other companies such as Remington Rand and Burroghs also manufactured punch readers for business use. Both business and government used punch cards for data processing until the I960's

In the ensuing years, several engineers made other significant advances. Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) developed a calculator for solving differential equations in 1931. The machine could solve complex differential equations that had long left scientists and mathematicians baffled. The machine was cumbersome because hundreds of gears and shafts were required to represent numbers and their various relationships to each other. To eliminate this bulkiness, John V. Atanasoff (b. 1903), a professor at Iowa State College (now called Iowa State University) and Ms graduate student, Clifford Berry, envisioned an all-electronic computer that applied Boolean algebra to computer circuitry. This approach was based on the mid-19th century work of George Boole (1815-1864) who clarified the binary system of algebra, which stated that any mathematical equations could be stated simply as either true or false. By extending tins concept to electronic circuits in the form of on or off, Atanasoff and Berry had developed the first all-electronic computer by 1940. Their project, however, lost its funding and their work was overshadowed by similar developments by other scientists.

IV. Understanding the text

Decide whether the following sentences are true or false

1. The numerical wheel calculator was invented earlier than

arithmometer.

2. The abacus emerged about five thousand years ago.

3. Babbage's steam-powered engine was constnicled in 1.822.

4. Leibniz improved the Pascaline by creating a machine that could also multiply and divide.

5. Babbage's assistant was the first female computer programmer.

 

6. The basic design of the Analytical Engine included input devices in the form of magnetized tape.

7. The punch card reader served for reading different texts,

8. The Pascaline used eight movable dials to add sums up to eight figures

long.

9. The arithmometer was widely used up until the Second World War.

10, In J 822 Babbage designed a machine to perform differential equations, called a Difference Engine.

V. Categorization