← Back to Gallery

History of Computing

From tally sticks to transistors — 37,000 years of humanity's quest to calculate

86
Interactive Demos
16
Galleries
37,000
Years of History

The Ancient World 35,000 BCE – 1500 CE

Humanity's first counting tools, astronomical calculators, and the mathematical instruments of antiquity

8
Ancient Computing Devices
Tally sticks, abacus variants (Sumerian, Roman, Chinese, Japanese), Inca quipu, Antikythera mechanism, astrolabe
 6
Scientific Instruments
Armillary sphere, orrery, equatorium, nomogram, Strasbourg astronomical clock, universal sundial

The Mechanical Pioneers 1597 – 1893

The birth and evolution of mechanical calculation — from Napier's bones to Babbage's visionary engines

6
Renaissance Calculators
Napier's bones, Galileo's sector, Schickard, Pascal's Pascaline, Leibniz Stepped Reckoner, Morland
 7
Industrial Age Calculators
Jacquard loom, Thomas Arithmometer, Babbage Difference & Analytical Engines, planimeter, Odhner, Millionaire

Analog Computing 1622 – 1949

Slide rules, tide predictors, differential analyzers, and purpose-built machines that solved equations with gears and water

6
Analog Computers
Slide rule, Kelvin's tide predictor & harmonic analyzer, Bush differential analyzer, Hollerith tabulator, Norden bombsight
 6
Analog Specialists
MONIAC hydraulic economics, Mark I fire control, torpedo data computer, Link Trainer, Strasbourg & Prague astronomical clocks

The Desktop Calculator Era 1887 – 1974

Mechanical workhorses of the 20th-century office — from key-driven adding machines to the legendary Curta

7
Desktop Calculators
Comptometer, Burroughs adding machine, Brunsviga, Monroe, Marchant, Friden, Curta
 8
Walther Calculators
German pinwheel calculators: RMKZ & WSR-160 simulators, carry mechanism, multiplication, division, timeline
 1
Felix Calculator
Soviet mechanical calculator based on the Odhner arithmometer design

Codes, Ciphers & Codebreakers 1795 – 1944

Secret codes and the machines that broke them — the crucible that forged modern computing

6
Cryptography Machines
Enigma, Lorenz SZ40/42, Turing's Bombe, Colossus, Zuse Z1, Zuse Z3
 6
Cipher Machines II
Jefferson wheel cipher, Hebern rotor, Purple (Japanese), SIGABA, Typex, M-209 Hagelin

Automata & AI Ancestors 1206 – 1912

Mechanical marvels that blurred the line between machine and mind — the philosophical roots of artificial intelligence

5
Automata & AI Ancestors
The Mechanical Turk, El Ajedrecista (first real chess AI), Jaquet-Droz Writer, Al-Jazari's Castle Clock, Vaucanson's Duck

The Electronic Dawn 1942 – 1973

From vacuum tubes to pocket calculators — the birth of the digital age

7
Dawn of Computers
Atanasoff-Berry, Harvard Mark I, ENIAC, Manchester Baby, EDSAC, UNIVAC I, LEO I
 7
Electronic Calculator Revolution
ANITA, Friden EC-130, Casio 14-A, Sharp Compet, Olivetti Programma 101, HP-35, TI SR-10