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History of Computers Computers are a major part of society. They allow us to communicate, keep organized, calculate bills, and they’re even used to entertain people. There is a long history behind computing that goes back to almost 5,000 years ago. The evolution of computers is very important to us today because in this day and age we wouldn’t be anything without them. (The Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History ) The abacus, which emerged about 5,000 years ago in Asia Minor and is still used today, can be considered the first computer. This machine used a system of sliding beads, arranged on a rack to calculate. When pencil and paper were more used in Europe, the abacus was not used anymore and it took twelve centuries to come up with a new invention. In 1642, Blaise Pascal, the 18-year-old son of a French tax collector invented a numerical wheel calculator to help out his father. It’s a rectangular box also called a Pascaline that used eight movable dials to add sums up to eight figures long. After summing, a new method of multiplying was introduced by a German mathematician and philosopher, Gottfried Wilhem Von Leibniz.
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