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Chapter Profile
                                                                                         Chapter Profile
                  1                                                                 Early Counting Tools

                                                                                     Abacus—First Calculating Device

                                                                                          Pascaline Adding Machine

                                                                                         Leibniz Step Reckoner
                                 Evolution of                                                   Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine
                                                                                             Lady Ada Lovelace’s Programs
                                 Computers                                                           Herman Hollerith’s Tabulating
                                                                                                 Machine
                                                                                                  Computer Generations









                 Dear Students! You have learnt about computers in your previous class.
                 Computer is a familiar word for you today. But have you ever thought ‘Who invented the
                 computer?’  This  machine  is  an  outcome  of  labour  of  a  number  of  minds.  No  particular

                 person can be credited with the invention of computers, but several names stand out in the
                 crowd.


                        EARLY COUNTING TOOLS


                 Since ancient times, people have invented tools for calculations. Early man tied knots in a
                 rope and carved marks on clay in order to keep the records. They also used to count with
                 the help of fingers, toes, pebbles, stones, sticks, bones, etc.













                                                         Early Counting Tools

                        ABACUS—FIRST CALCULATING DEVICE


                 The first step towards computing was the invention of Abacus around 3000
                 years ago, in China. It is a wooden frame with beads on parallel wires which
                 can do simple calculations like addition and subtraction. This device is used

                 to calculate numbers at a fast speed.
                                                                                                           Abacus







                                                                                              Evolution of Computers   7
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