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Evolution of the computer

Not many years ago the electronic computing machine was little more than, a highbrow laboratory instrument, to be found only in the more advanced mathematics departments of universities or government research establishments.

Nowadays it performs nearly all the functions of a large commercial accounts department. These machines are constructed on the best engineering principles.

But what is the reason for this sudden popularity? The answer is of course, that a new and advanced form of mechanization is beginning to appear in industry and commerce - mechanization of brain work.

Whereas in the Industrial Revolution it was man's muscles that were replaced by mechanical power, in this latest phase, which we sometimes call the Second Industrial Revolution, we see machines taking over some of his simpler mental processes. It is uneconomic to employ human beings, when there are machines which can do the same operations faster, cheaper and more reliably.

Answer the questions:

1. What was the electronic computing machine not many years ago?

2. Where could they be found?

3. What was replaced by mechanical power in the latest phase, which we sometimes call the Second Industrial Revolution?

4. What machine is economic to employ instead of human beings in taking over some of their simpler mental processes?

Text 2

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Evolution of the computer

Calculating machines as such are by no means new, of course. If one leaves out the abacus or counting frame, which appeared long before Christianity, they are about 300 years old or more: John Napier, a Scot, must be given credit for paving the way, at the beginning of the 17^th century. He did not devise a system of numbering rods as an aid to multiplication (known as Napier's «bones») but was the inventor of logarithms, which were almost immediately embodied in the slide rule.

The «bones» were an elementary aid to digital calculation while the slide-rule was probably the earliest analogue device and these represent the two main streams in computing technology, as we know today.

Napier’s «bones», however, had no real practical value, and were little more than a scientific curiosity. It was a Frenchman, Blaise Pascal, who achieved the first successful mechanization in 1642. His machines consisted of a series of wheels with numbers round them, the first wheel representing units, the second tens, the third hundreds, and so on, and it worked on the same sort of principle as the modern revolution counter.

Answer the following questions:

1. When did the abacus or counting frame appear?

2. Are calculating machines new?

3. What did John Napier invent?

4. What represents the two main streams in computind technology?

Text 3

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