For the first time when was computer programmed to make calculations and printout solution to problems?
The first COMPUTER programmed, designed to receive instructions from punched cards, make calculations with the aid of a memory bank, and print out the solution to a problem, was the Analytical Engine, conceived by Charles Babbage and partially constructed by him in London between 1822 and 1871. Although Babbage lavished £ 6,000 of his own money and £ 17,000 of the Government’s on this extraordinarily advanced machine, the precision work needed to engineer its many thousand moving parts was beyond the technology of the day. It is doubtful whether Babbage’s brilliant concept could have been realized in his own century, using the available resources. If it had been, then it seems likely that the Analytical Engine could have performed the same functions as money of the early electronic computers.
The first practical programmed computer was built by George Scheutz of Stockholm, Sweden, and exhibition at the Paris Exposition of 1855. Based on the principles expounded by Babbage, but of simpler construction, Scheutz’s ‘calculating engine’ could compute to four orders of difference, and print out answers accurate to eight places of decimals. The prototype was acquired by the Dudley Observatory of Albany, New York, where it was used for calculating astronomical tables. A second model, built to Scheutz’s design by Bryan Donkin of London in 1858, was used by the Registrar-General’s Office for calculating life expectancy tables.
