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History of Computers: The
earliest computing device which consisted of the five fingers of
each hand. Since there are ten discrete fingers (digits) available
for counting, both digital computation and the decimal system have had a huge popularity throughout history. However, improvements were
made to replace the digits of the hand by a more reliable count-10
device. Pebbles were used 100' of years ago for counting purposes. However, the form the pebble container should take for handy calculations kept many of the best minds of the Stone Age busy for centuries. It was not till about five thousand years ago in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley (and as late as 460 BC in Egypt) that there arose the idea of arranging a clay board with a number of grooves into which the pebbles were placed. By sliding the pebbles along the grooves from one side of the board to the other, counting became almost semi-automatic. Even to the point allowing one hand to be kept free for other things. |