The History of Calculating
The History of Calculating is rich in its appearance and can be inspected
from many different angles. In this article I will attempt to give a short
and informative description of some of the milestones in this History. This
article will inspect the non electrical devices only which were to do with
computing. I have omitted the chapter about Charles Babbage as this is well
described in many current books, and deserves an article by itself.
The Abacus
The name Abacus derives from the Greek word ABAX meaning table or board
covered with dust. The origins of the Abacus are buried deep in the history
of mankind. It is known that in its 'modern' form it appeared in China in
the 13th century AD. The Chinese Abacus is made of 13 columns with 2 beads
on top (heaven) and 5 beads bellow (earth). The Japanese copied the Chinese
Abacus around the 17th century AD and adapted it to their more delicate
way of thinking. It has 21 columns with 1 bead on top (heaven) and 4 beads
below (earth). The Abacus is still taught in the Far East as regular school
training, and is used commonly in many places. In 1946 a contest between
a Japanese Abacist (Kiyoshu Matzukai) and an Electronic computer was held
for 2 days resulting in an unmistakable victory of the Abacist. The third
modern form of the Abacus is Russian with 10 beads in 10 arched rows.
Logarithms
John Napier: 1550 - 1617
Napier played a key role in the history of computing. Besides being a clergyman
and philosopher he was a gifted mathematician and in 1614 (not long before
his death) he published his great work of Logarithms in the book called
"Rabdologia". This was a remarkable invention since it enabled
to transform multiplication and division (which were very complicated tasks
at the time) into simple addition and subtraction. His Logarithm tables
soon became wide spread and were used by many people. Funnily enough Napier
is often remembered more by another invention of his nicknamed 'Napier's
Bones'. This was a small instrument constructed of 10 rods, on which was
engraved the multiplication table. This simple device enabled to carry out
multiplication in a fast manner provided one of the numbers was of one digit
only (i.e. 6 X 6742)
The Slide Rule:
The first Slide Rule appeared in 1650 and was the result of a joint effort
of two Englishmen Edmund Gunter and the reverend William Oughtred. This
slide rule based on Napier's logarithms was to become the first analog computer
(of the modern ages) since multiplication and subtraction were figured out
by physical distance. This invention was dormant until 1850 when a French
Artillery officer Amedee Mannheim added the movable double sided cursor,
which gave it it's appearance as we know it today.