Who Invented the Computer

If I were given the question 'Who invented the computer?' as a school project I would have to say that the question is posed knowing that there is no shorthand answer, perhaps no one answer at all, but lots to debate about

An invention is “A new device, method, or process developed from study and experimentation:” Common sense tells us that if the invention under discussion is a device, which a computer is, it has not been invented until a working version has been produced. A computer is “a programmable machine that performs high-speed processing of numbers, as well as of text, graphics, symbols, and sound.
So the question is ‘who produced the first working programmable machine that computed at high speed?’ so lets rule out the abacus or mechanical devices by Archimedes,

Some say the first computer is the "difference engine." Such a device was conceived in 1782 by J. H. Smith but it was never built. Ruled out then

Difference engines were forgotten and then rediscovered in 1822 by Englishman Charles Babbage... This machine used the decimal numbers system and was powered by cranking a handle. The British government first financed the project but then later cut off support. Babbage went on to design his much more general analytical engine but later returned and produced an improved design (his "Difference Engine No. 2") between 1834 and 1869.It is said that he failed to build a complete machine. The most widely accepted reason for this failure is that Victorian mechanical engineering were not sufficiently developed to produce parts with sufficient precision.
It all sounds to me to be abacus-like and I would rule it out. Babbage may be known as "the Father of the Computer" but he is certainly not the inventor of what we now call a computer

The first non programmable electronic computer was invented by Dr John Vincent Atanasoff assisted by one of his students Clifford Berry. He named it the Anatasoff Berry Computer, or the ABC.

Who Invented the Computer continues

However, I have to conclude that what we know as a ‘computer’ is an Electronic Computer which is programmable and its inventor was a man called Alan Turing from Cambridge UK

Memorial of Alan Turing

Turing was drafted in to Bletchley Park secret base where they worked at cracking the World War II enigma codes that the Germans used every day. It is said that the actual design of Collosus, the world's first programmable, digital, electronic, computing device was by a member of Turing's team Tommy Flowers.
The Collosus Marks I /II 1943/1944,were made from thousands of valves and were kept top secret up until the 1970's. They were smashed to pieces at the end of the war.
The buildings at Bletchley Park have now been restored as a tourist attraction

So, who invented the computer?

I’m going for Alan Turing / Tommy Flowers for the same reason as I go for Joseph Swan as the inventor of the light bulb (as against Thomas Edison who brought the light bulb to the masses.) They were both British and under resourced and have been overshadowed by those producing subsequently better resourced and commercially practical American versions

This 'Who invented the computer' blog page is copyright Jon Bratton 2009

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