The first computers were people! That is, electronic computers were given this name because they performed the work that had previously been assigned. Originally a job title, "Computer" was used to describe those human beings, whose job it was to perform the repetitive calculations required to compute such things as navigational tables, tide charts, and planetary positions for astronomical almanac
s. Looking back to the history of computers, we can see the most dramatic evolution that one can ever imagine! Not only Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg have changed our lives. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) made drawings of gear-driven calculating machines, John Napier invented logarithms, magic ingredient to technological innovations, that allows multiplication to be performed via addition. In 1642 Blaise Pascal, at age 19, invented the Pascaline - a gear-driven one-function calculator. Hundreds more people contributed to the evolution of computers and computing technologies.
