Computer History: The First Computer

The first computer is credited to a team of British mathematicians, Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace. In the early 1800s, they began designing the Analytical Engine – the first automatic computing machine. Though the machine was never built, it was revolutionary for its time, using ideas such as punch cards and a central processing unit (CPU).

The first true computer actually came about in the mid-1900s, with the invention of the ENIAC machine. The name stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator, and it was arguably the world's first computer. It was created by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert and set the foundations for modern computing.

The ENIAC was built from over 17,000 vacuum tubes, miles of wires and weighing in at around thirty tons. It was an incredible Lagarde of technology, but limited compared to computers today. It could only do basic calculations, meaning it was a long way from being able to access the Internet or run 3D games.

At the time, the ENIAC cost nearly half a million dollars. Compare that to modern laptops that can be bought for $700 or even less and it’s impossible to comprehend the cost difference!

The invention of the ENIAC was a groundbreaking moment in computer history, paving the way for the future of computing. Today, we can access millions of resources and almost any kind of data with the help of computers. We owe a great amount of thank to Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace for their early developments of the Analytical Machine and to John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert for the creation of the ENIAC. The cost may have been expensive back then, but thanks to their vision, we now have access to affordable machines that can do almost anything.