Who 1 did. Who created the world's first television and in what year? Who invented color television

Just 100 years ago, humanity had no idea what a TV was. Society managed to get along without this device. A lot has changed since then. Today, TV technology is the basis of everyday leisure.

Who invented television? A very difficult question. There are several points of view regarding the creator of the world's first TV. Foreign sources indicate that the idea of ​​the invention belongs to the German technician Paul Nipkow. Domestic publications refute this position. Because they insist that the first TV device appeared in the USSR.

Now let’s try to understand this situation in order to understand whose side is right. We will also analyze when the first televisions appeared, as well as what they were like.

Perhaps the key prerequisite is the radio, which was invented shortly before the advent of the first television. Who invented radio? There is no clarity on this issue either. Some believe that this device was invented by A.S. Popov. Foreign sources defend the position that the idea of ​​the invention belonged to several researchers at once. Tesla, Marconi, Branly - you've probably heard these names before.

The invention of the television has an identical problem. It is very difficult to say who exactly is the “founding father”. Despite all the disputes and contradictions between the USSR and the West, Paul Nipkow should definitely be noted. A German technician came up with a disk that was named after him. This unusual device was invented in the second half of the 19th century. Radio signal and mechanical scanning are the catalysts for the creation of the first mechanical TV in 1928.

Few people know that using the Nipkow disk, the picture was read line by line and then transmitted to the receiver screen. The ambitious Scottish researcher John Baird showed the world the first TV device that worked on this principle in the late 20s of the 20th century. This project attracted public attention. So Baird tried to implement it.

The Scottish company Baird has long held a leading position in the manufacture of mechanical television receivers. The trend continued until the early 1930s. There was no sound, but the picture was quite clear.

The history of the development of television shows that the very concept of the receiver was invented in Germany, but it was the Scottish researcher John Baird who was able to implement this idea.

Who created the first electronic TV

The era of technical revolution has begun. World-renowned scientists were part of a team of specialists to accelerate this progress. This applied to all spheres of human life. The television sphere was no exception to the rule. Mechanical TVs quickly became a relic of the past. Researchers began working on creating a device capable of transmitting not only images, but also sound.

Who invented the first cathode ray tube TV? There is no clear answer to this question. In different countries, active work was carried out on the creation of such a device. The contribution of scientists from socialist countries should be highlighted separately. In 1907, B. Rosing received a patent for the creation of the very first CRT television. However, the idea itself was not invented by him.

The one who invented the first electronic television took old discoveries as a basis. Back in the 19th century, the German researcher Heinrich Hertz discovered the effect of light on electricity. This is how the photoelectric effect was invented.

The German deserves credit for making such a discovery. However, he was never able to justify why the photoelectric effect was needed and in what capacity it should be used. Literally a year later, Alexander Stoletov gave all the explanations. The researcher tried to create something like modern solar cells. This is how the “electric eye” appeared. Many scientists have tried to explain the specifics of this phenomenon. Among them is Albert Einstein.

Other discoveries also had a colossal impact. In 1879, physicist William Crookes from Great Britain invented phosphors - substances that begin to glow when exposed to a cathode ray. Karl Brown tried to create a prototype of the kinescope. It was thanks to the concept of the kinescope, invented by Brown, that B. Rosing, whom we mentioned earlier, was subsequently able to prove the theory of image acquisition. In 1933, TV with a kinescope appeared. V. Zvorykin invented the first TV, he is Rosing’s protégé.

It is Zvorykin who is considered by everyone to be the creator of TV with a cathode ray tube. First sample of this device was collected at a laboratory center in the USA, owned by Zvorykin. He himself was an emigrant who left his homeland after the Socialist Revolution. Already in 1939, mass production of TV equipment was launched.

The discoveries listed above led to the active popularization of televisions around the world. At first they began to be sold in Western Europe, but soon the devices appeared in the USSR. At first, image transmission was carried out in optical-mechanical scanning. Progress was not long in coming. Image quality was soon improved, leading to the transition to CRT technology.

When did television appear in the USSR?

Serial production started in 1939. The technology began to appear in the countries that were part of the Soviet Union. The production of TV equipment was carried out by the Comintern plant, located in Leningrad. The devices worked on the principle of a Nipkow disk. The console was equipped with a three-centimeter screen. This entire structure was connected to a radio receiver. By changing radio frequencies it was possible to tune programs that were broadcast in Europe.

When the television was invented, a consultation of the editors of the Radiofront magazine took place in the Soviet Union. Journalists actively worked with the technicians. As a result, instructions appeared on the pages of the magazine, following which each user could independently assemble a TV.

Regular television broadcasts in Russia, then the USSR, were launched only in 1938. The scientists of the Leningrad Center had experience in this field, so it was they who were entrusted with the implementation of such a difficult project. In Moscow, television programs began to air after 6 months. The television centers in these cities used different decomposition standards. Therefore, special equipment was used.

To receive a television signal broadcast by the Leningrad Center, it was necessary to use a special device “VRK” - the abbreviation stands for All-Union Radio Committee. The device was equipped with a special screen - 130x175 millimeters. The kinescope operated due to the operation of 24 lamps.

The operation was based on the fact that there was a decomposition into 240 lines. In the 30s of the 20th century, 20 copies of the VRK devices were produced. The equipment was installed in pioneer houses and palaces of culture. The devices were intended for collective viewing.

Television broadcasting from the Moscow center was carried out in 343 lines. Such a signal could be received by TK-1 devices. This is a more complex technique, equipped with 33 lamps. During 1938, over 200 televisions were produced. By 1941, production turnover increased 10 times.

All these achievements did not stop the development of engineering. Experts tried to create a device with a simplified operating principle. At the Radist plant, which was located in Leningrad, the launch of the 17TN-1 series of televisions began in 1940. The main feature of this model is its versatility. The devices reproduced signals from Moscow and Leningrad television stations. The production process has been started. However, the war soon began. A total of 2000 copies were produced.

“ATP-1” is a clear example of a simplified TV model. The abbreviation stands for Subscriber Television Receiver No. 1. This is the prototype of modern cable TV. The Aleksandrovsky plant was engaged in the production of such devices.

How the first TVs worked

Previously, we established that the basis for the creation of the first television was the Nipkow disk. We determined in which country TV devices first appeared, and also found out who initiated the launch of mass production of the invented device. Only the operating principle of mechanical televisions remained unattended. This is exactly what we will talk about now.

To understand how a mechanical TV looked and worked, you need to understand the operating principle of a Nipkow disk. This is a rotating opaque disk. The diameter of the figure is no more than 50 centimeters. There are holes along the Archimedes spiral. Sometimes this disk is also called an electric telescope.

The light beam scanned the image. Subsequently, there was a transfer TV signal to a special converter. One photocell was sufficient for scanning. How many holes were there? There are devices with different numbers of holes. Sometimes their number reached 200 pieces.

The whole process was carried out in reverse order. To display the image on the screen, engineers used a Nipkow disk. Behind the holes was a neon lamp. Thus, the image was projected onto a television screen. The speed was sufficient, but the picture was transmitted line by line. The person could see the image.

The first mechanical televisions can also be called projection televisions. The picture quality was poor. Only silhouettes could be seen on the screen. The Nipkow disk became the basis of these devices. Used before the advent of the first CRT televisions.

Who invented color television

All the TV models examined assumed the display of a black and white image. Experts continued to work on improving the device.

Under what circumstances and when did color TV appear? The idea of ​​creating such a device first appeared during the period of popularity of projection receivers. Hovhannes Adamyan is considered one of the inventors of color television. The technician managed to make two-color TV back in 1908.

John Logie Baird made a significant contribution to the development of color TV. The creator of mechanical TV in the 20s of the XX century assembled a color device capable of transmitting a picture in three shades: blue, red, green. John equipped the TV with three filters.

However, all this is nothing more than attempts. A real breakthrough in the development of the TV industry occurred after the end of World War 2. All efforts and financial resources were directed towards production. This became a catalyst for progress.

The discovery took place in the USA. The researchers resorted to using decimeter wave technology to broadcast the picture. In 1940, American scientists presented new equipment called Triniscope. The device used 3 kinescopes with different colors from the glow of the phosphor. Each kinescope was responsible for reproducing a specific color.

As for the USSR, similar developments began to appear here in the 50s of the last century. Already in 1952, one of the central television channels conducted a color broadcast.

Since about 1970, televisions began to appear not only in cultural centers, but also in the homes of ordinary people. However, this applies to a greater extent to the USA and Europe. In socialist countries, color television receivers remained in short supply for quite a long time. Only in the early 80s could anyone afford to purchase such devices.

As you can see, TV technology has a very complicated and interesting history. It started back in the 19th century. Scientists all over the world worked on the development of televisions.

Note.

The world's first commercial laptop is considered to be the T1100 from Toshiba, released in 1985. Its technical characteristics were comparable to the first personal computers from IBM, just as ridiculous by today's standards: Intel processor with a frequency of 4.77 MHz, 256 KB random access memory(can be expanded to 640), floppy disk drive. The laptop did not have a hard drive, but it had a monochrome display with a resolution of 640x200 pixels. The T1100 weighed four kilograms and cost almost two thousand dollars. Looking at him, you understand especially clearly how far you have jumped forward Computer techologies over the past twenty years.

By the way, Soviet engineers copied this laptop and created the “Electronics MS 1504” - the first portable computer in the USSR.

Like the iPhone, Apple's iPad laid the foundations for what a modern tablet should be, but this type of device existed long before 2010. Plus, the iPad wasn't Apple's first tablet at all. It’s just that such gadgets weren’t particularly popular back then, so they’re not particularly remembered.

It’s difficult to say now who exactly made the very first tablet. But it all started in the late eighties: in 1987, for example, Linus Write-Top went on sale. Using a stylus, you could draw on the screen of this device.

In 1993 Apple year released MessagePad, a personal communicator that was proposed to be used as a digital diary: record contacts, notes, and reminders in the device’s memory. All this is also done using a stylus.

However, the first commercially successful tablet can be called the PalmPilot, a personal communicator from 1997 that became very popular in its time. It marked the beginning of the era of PDAs, portable computers with touch screens and styluses.

Modern PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are representatives of the eighth generation of gaming consoles. It all started more than forty years ago, when the American inventor Ralph Baer sold the project of a set-top box for a TV, with which you can play games, to Magnavox. Thus, in 1972, the Magnavox Odyssey, the world's first game console, appeared. In total, 12 games were released for it on six cartridges. Basically, these were simple arcade games, the graphics of which consisted entirely of dashes and dots. Odyssey was not in demand; then no one saw the potential in it.

First in history computer mouse was created by the outstanding engineer Douglas Engelbart in the 60s, and he patented his invention on November 17, 1970: “Indicator for the X and Y axes in systems with displays.” The mouse was first used in Xerox's Alto computer in 1973. The principle of operation was no different from today: by moving the mouse across the table surface, you could move the cursor on the computer screen.

At the time, this idea was met rather coolly. But it was ingrained in the memory of Steve Jobs: he saw the potential of a manipulator and believed that it was the most convenient way for a person to interact with a computer. Apple equipped its Lisa computer with a mouse - since then it has been impossible to imagine a modern PC without this controller.

By the way, Engelbart called his invention a mouse because the wire reminded him of a rodent’s tail.

There are so many models of Android devices now that it is very easy to forget who made the world's first gadget on this operating system. It was HTC, which, ironically, is now going through some of the toughest times in its history.

In addition, much later, in 2013, HTC released the One M7, the world's first smartphone with an all-metal body, which is now associated with everything “flagship”.

Few people know that the mathematical foundations of computer science and computer technology appeared in the Russian Empire. Who invented the first Russian computer, what BESM is, who benefits from the machine instead of the proletariat, and why there is not a single significant computer manufacturer in the country - T&P publish a chapter from Lauren Graham’s book “Can Russia Compete?” , published by Mann, Ivanov and Ferber.

The Russians were pioneers in the development of computing devices, electronic computers (computers), mathematical foundations computer science. In the last years of the Russian Empire, Russian engineers and scientists took important steps towards the development of computing devices. During the Soviet period, a whole group of mathematicians, among them Vladimir Kotelnikov, Andrei Kolmogorov, Israel Gelfand and others, made a significant contribution to the development of information theory. Soviet scientists and engineers created the first digital electronic computer in continental Europe. When American and Soviet engineers began collaborating on space exploration, in some cases the Soviet engineers "calculated" problems much faster than their American counterparts. However, in subsequent years, interest in computers increasingly turned to the commercial plane, and the Soviet Union could not withstand the competition. Soviet scientists working in the field computing technologies, were forced to abandon their developments and adopt IBM standards. Today, not a single significant computer manufacturer from Russia is represented on the international market.

“Few in the West know that two years earlier, Russian logician Viktor Shestakov put forward a similar theory of ladder circuits based on Boolean algebra, but he did not publish his work until 1941.”

Russians began to show scientific activity quite early in the development of computers, information theory and computers. Even before the 1917 revolution, Russian engineers and scientists had made significant progress in this area. Russian naval engineer and mathematician Alexei Krylov (1863–1945) was interested in the application of mathematical methods in shipbuilding. In 1904, he created an automatic device for solving differential equations. Another young engineer, Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich (1888–1940), also working in St. Petersburg, worked on vacuum tubes and their use in radio engineering. Around 1916 he invented one of the first two-position relays (the so-called cathode relay) based on electrical circuit with two cathode tubes.

One of the pioneers of information theory in the West was Claude Shannon. In 1937, he defended his master's thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in which he demonstrated that relay complexes, combined with the binary number system, could be used to solve problems in Boolean algebra. The results of Shannon's scientific work form the basis of the theory of digital networks for computers. But few in the West know that two years earlier, in 1935, Russian logician Viktor Shestakov put forward a similar theory of ladder circuits based on Boolean algebra, but he did not publish his work until 1941, four years after Shannon. Neither Shannon nor Shestakov knew anything about each other's work.

The first electronic computer in continental Europe was created in secrecy in 1948–1951 in a place called Feofaniya near Kyiv. Before the revolution, there was a monastery here, surrounded by oak forests and flowering meadows, abundant with berries, mushrooms, and wild animals and birds were found here. In the early years of Soviet power, a psychiatric hospital was located in the monastery buildings. Converting religious institutions into research or medical institutions was a fairly common practice in the Soviet state. During World War II, all of the hospital's patients were killed or disappeared, and the buildings were destroyed. In spring and autumn, the road to this place was so damaged that it was impossible to drive along it. And in good weather we had to bounce over bumps. In 1948, the dilapidated buildings were transferred to electrical engineer Sergei Lebedev to create an electronic computer. In Feofaniya, Lebedev, 20 engineers and 10 assistants developed the Small Electronic Computing Machine (MESM) - one of the fastest computers in the world, which had many interesting characteristics. Its architecture was completely original and did not resemble the architecture of American computers, which were the only ones in the world that were superior to it at that time.

“He usually took his papers and the candle into the bathroom, where he spent hours writing ones and zeros.”

Alisa Grigorievna Lebedeva about the life of her husband, the founder of computer technology in the USSR Sergei Lebedev, in Moscow in 1941 during the bombing of German aircraft.

Sergei Lebedev was born in 1902 in Nizhny Novgorod (later renamed Gorky, but not so long ago his former historical name was returned to him). His father was a school teacher, he was often transferred from place to place, so Sergei spent his childhood and youth in different cities, mainly in the Urals. Then his father was transferred to Moscow, and there Sergei entered the Moscow Higher Technical School named after Bauman, known today as the Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman. There Lebedev became interested in high voltage technology - an area that required good mathematical training. After graduation, he worked as a teacher at Bauman University and was engaged in research work in the Laboratory electrical networks. Lebedev was an avid climber and later named one of his computers after Europe's highest peak, Elbrus, which he successfully conquered.

In the late 1930s, Lebedev became interested in the binary number system. In the fall of 1941, when Moscow was plunged into complete darkness, fleeing fascist air raids, his musician wife recalled that “he usually took his papers and a candle to the bathroom, where he spent hours drawing ones and zeros.” Later during the war he was transferred to Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), where he worked for the military industry. Lebedev needed a computer capable of solving differential and integral equations, and in 1945 he created Russia's first electronic analog computer. At the same time, he already had the idea of ​​​​creating a digital computer based on the binary number system. Interestingly, as far as we know, at that time he was not familiar with the scientific developments in this area of ​​either his compatriot Shestakov or the American Claude Shannon.

Mastering the first personal computers at the Department of Electrical Systems and Networks of St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University

In 1946, Lebedev was transferred from Moscow to Kyiv, where he began work on a computer. In 1949, Mikhail Lavrentyev, a leading mathematician and member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, who was familiar with Lebedev's work, wrote a letter to Stalin asking him to support work in the field of computer technology, while emphasizing its importance for the country's defense. Stalin instructed Lavrentyev to create a laboratory for modeling and computer technology. Lavrentiev invited Lebedev to head this laboratory. Lebedev now has funding and status. At the same time, Stalin's order demonstrated the role of political power—indeed, the importance of one man—in advancing technology in the Soviet Union.

Lebedev developed MESM just three or four years after the creation of the world's first electronic computer, ENIAC, in the USA and simultaneously with the British EDSAC. By the early 1950s, MESM was being used to solve problems in nuclear physics, space flight, rocketry, and electrical power transmission.

In 1952, following the creation of MESM, Lebedev developed another computer - BESM (short for Large (or High-speed) Electronic Computing Machine). It was the fastest computer in Europe, at least for some period, capable of competing with the world's best developments in this field. It was a triumph. BESM-1 was produced in a single copy, but subsequent models, especially BESM-6, were produced in hundreds and used for different purposes. Production of BESM-6 was discontinued in 1987. In 1975, during the joint Soyuz-Apollo space project, Soviet specialists processed the parameters of the Soyuz orbit on BESM-6 faster than the Americans.

But after such a promising start in the field of computing, Russia today lags behind the industry leaders. The reason for this failure can only be understood by analyzing the history of the industry, taking into account the social and economic factors that influenced its transformation. In leading Western countries, the field of computing after World War II was shaped by three main driving forces: the scientific community, the state (in terms of military applications), and the business community. The role of the scientific community and government was especially important at the initial stage, the role of business emerged later. The field of computer technology in the Soviet Union was successful as long as the development of these devices primarily depended on the achievements of scientific thought and government support. Government support for computing technology was unlimited if it was used for air defense or nuclear weapons research. However, then business became the main driving force in the West. Symbolically, this transition point is General Electric's decision in 1955 to purchase IBM 702 computers to automate payroll and other paperwork at its Schenectady plant and Bank of America's decision in 1959 to automate processes (using the Stanford ERMA computer). research institute).

"The concept of cybernetics contradicts Marx's theory of dialectical materialism, and characterized computer science as a particularly harmful attempt by Western capitalists to make more profit by replacing workers"

These decisions marked the beginning of large-scale computerization of the banking and business sphere. In the 1960s and 1970s, electronic computers became commercial product, this entailed a reduction in their cost, improvements in terms of ease of use, which the market demanded. The Soviet Union, with its planned economy and centralized, non-competitive market, could not keep up with the technological improvements taking place. As a result, in the 1970s the USSR abandoned its initially impressive attempt to develop its own independent course in computing and adopted IBM standards. From that moment on, in the field of computer technology, the Russians found themselves and continue to remain in the position of catching up and never again became leaders. Sergei Lebedev died in 1974. Another leading scientist, the developer of the first Soviet computers, Bashir Rameev, deeply regretted the decision to adopt the IBM architecture until his death in 1994. The Soviet computing industry was not brought down by a lack of knowledge in this area, it was brought down by the irresistible force of the market.

Another factor, although not decisive in this particular case, was ideology. In the 1950s, Soviet ideologists were very skeptical about cybernetics and called it “the science of obscurantists.” In 1952, a Marxist philosopher branded the field a "pseudoscience," questioning the claim that computers could help explain human thought or social activity. In another article published a year later, entitled "Who Does Cybernetics Serve?", the anonymous author, writing under the pseudonym "Materialist", argued that the concept of cybernetics contradicted Marx's theory of dialectical materialism, and characterized computer science as a particularly harmful attempt by Western capitalists to extract more. profits by replacing wage workers with machines.

Although such ideological accusations could theoretically have a negative impact on the development of computer technology in the USSR, the development of computers, given the interest of the military-industrial complex in them, continued at the same pace8. As one of the Soviet scientists in this field told me in 1960, “We were doing cybernetics, we just didn’t call it cybernetics.” Moreover, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, cybernetics took a 180-degree turn in the Soviet Union and began to be extolled as a science serving the purposes of the Soviet state.

In 1961, a collection was even published entitled “Cybernetics - at the service of communism.” Cybernetics departments have opened in many Russian universities. A more serious political threat to the development of computing technology in the USSR arose with the advent of personal computers. The Soviet leadership liked computers while they were huge units in central government, military and industrial departments, but they were much less enthusiastic when computers moved into private apartments and ordinary citizens were able to use them to disseminate information uncontrollably. In an attempt to exercise control over the transfer of information, the state has long prohibited ordinary citizens from owning printers and copying machines. A personal computer with a printer was equivalent to a small printing press. But what could the Soviet authorities do about this?

The most heated debates among members of the Soviet leadership over computers occurred in the mid and late 1980s. In 1986, I discussed this problem with the leading Soviet scientist in this field, Andrei Ershov. He was frank, agreeing that the Communist Party's desire to control information was hindering the development of the computer industry. Then he said the following: “Our leadership has not yet decided what a computer looks like: a printing press, a typewriter or a telephone, and much will depend on this decision. If they decide that computers are like printing presses, they will want to continue to control the industry the same way they currently control all printing presses. Citizens will be prohibited from buying them; they will only be in institutions. On the other hand, if our leadership decides that computers are like typewriters, they will be allowed to be owned by citizens, the authorities will not seek to control every device, although they may try to control the dissemination of information that is produced with their help. And in the end, if management decides that computers are like telephones, most citizens will have them and they can do whatever they want with them, but online data transmission will be checked from time to time.

“Today in Russia there is not a single computer manufacturer that is a significant player in the international market, despite the fact that the Russians can rightfully claim that they were among the pioneers in the field.”

I am convinced that eventually the government will have to allow citizens to own and control personal computers. Moreover, it will become obvious that personal computers are not like any previous communication technology: not like printing presses, not like typewriters, not like telephones. On the contrary, they are a completely new type of technology. The time will soon come when any person anywhere in the world will be able to communicate almost continuously with any other person anywhere in the world. This will be a real revolution - not only for the Soviet Union, but for you too. But here its consequences will be most significant.”

This statement clearly confirms what a difficult problem computers were for the Soviet state. However, this issue quickly lost its relevance. Five years after this conversation with Ershov, the Soviet Union collapsed, and with it control over communication technologies ceased (however, this did not affect control over the media, in particular over television). In modern Russia, the computer industry has never caught up with the lag that it experienced in the last years of the Soviet state. As we have seen, this lag was caused more by an inability to compete in the market than by political control, although the latter played a role. Today in Russia there is not a single computer manufacturer that is a significant player in the international market, despite the fact that the Russians can rightfully claim that they were among the pioneers in the development of computing technologies.

Today's personal computers are very different from the massive, clunky devices that emerged during World War II, and the difference isn't just their size. The “fathers” and “grandfathers” of modern desktops and laptops could not do much of what modern machines can easily handle. However The very first computer in the world was a breakthrough in the field of science and technology. Sit back in front of your monitor and we'll tell you how the PC era began.

Who created the very first computer in the world

In the 40s of the last century, there were several devices that could lay claim to the title of the first computer.

Z3

Konrad Zuse

An early computer created by German engineer Konrad Zuse, who worked in complete isolation from the developments of other scientists. It had a separate memory block and a separate console for data entry. And their carrier was an eight-track punched card made by Zuse from 35 mm film.

The machine had 2,600 telephone relays and could be freely programmed in binary code floating point. The Z3 was used for aerodynamic calculations, but was destroyed during the bombing of Berlin at the end of 1943. Zuse oversaw the reconstruction of his brainchild in the 1960s, and the programmable machine is now on display in a museum in Munich.

The Mark 1, conceived by Professor Howard Aiken and released by IBM in 1941, was America's first programmable computer. The machine cost half a million dollars, and was used to develop equipment for the US Navy, such as torpedoes and underwater detection. Mark 1 was also used in the development of implosion devices for the atomic bomb.

It is “Mark 1” that can be called the very first computer in the world. Its characteristics, unlike the German Z3, made it possible to perform calculations in automatic mode, without requiring human intervention in the work process.

Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC)

In 1939, Professor John Vincent Atanasoff received funds to create a machine called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). It was designed and assembled by Atanasov and graduate student Clifford Berry in 1942. However, the ABC device was not widely known until the patent dispute surrounding the invention of the computer. It was only resolved in 1973, when it was proven that ENIAC co-author John Mauchly had seen the ABC computer shortly after it became functional.

The legal outcome of the litigation was landmark: Atanasov was declared the originator of several major computer ideas, but the computer as a concept was declared non-patentable and therefore freely open to all developers. A full-scale working copy of ABC was completed in 1997, proving that the ABC machine functioned as Atanasov claimed.

ENIAC

ENIAC

ENIAC was developed by two scientists from the University of Pennsylvania - John Eckert and John Mauchly. He could solve "a wide range of numerical problems" by reprogramming. Although the machine was introduced to the public after the war, in 1946, it was important for calculations during subsequent conflicts such as the Cold War and the Korean War. It was used for calculations in the creation of the hydrogen bomb, engineering calculations and the creation of firing tables. She also made weather forecasts in the USSR so that Americans knew where radioactive fallout might fall in the event of a nuclear war.

Unlike the Mark 1 with its electromechanical relays, the ENIAC had vacuum tubes. It is believed that ENIAC performed more calculations during its ten years of operation than all of humanity up to that time.

EDSAC

EDSAC

The first computer with stored software was called EDSAC. It was collected in 1949 at the University of Cambridge. The project to create it was led by Cambridge professor and director of the Cambridge Computational Research Laboratory Maurice Wilkes.

One of the major advances in programming was Wilkes's use of a library of short programs called "subroutines." It was stored on punch cards and used to perform general repetitive calculations within the lager program.

What did the first computer in the world look like?

The American Mark 1 was huge, measuring over 17 meters in length and over 2.5 meters in height. The machine, encased in glass and stainless steel, weighed 4.5 tons, and the total length of its connecting wires almost reached 800 km. A fifteen-meter shaft, which drove a 4 kW electric motor, was responsible for synchronizing the main computing modules.

Mark 1 at the IBM Museum

Even heavier than the Mark 1 was the ENIAC. It weighed 27 tons and required 174 kW of electricity. When it was turned on, the city lights dimmed. The machine had neither a keyboard nor a monitor, occupied an area of ​​135 square meters and was entwined with kilometers of wires. To get an idea of ​​the appearance of ENIAC, imagine a long row of metal cabinets, which are filled from top to bottom with light bulbs. Since the computer did not yet have high-quality cooling, it was very hot in the room where it was located, and ENIAC malfunctioned.

ENIAC

The USSR did not want to lag behind the West and carried out its own developments to create computers. The result of the efforts of Soviet scientists was (MESM). Its first launch took place in 1950. The MESM used 6 thousand lamps and occupied an area of ​​60 square meters. m and required power up to 25 kW for operation.

MESM

The device could perform up to 3 thousand operations per second. MESM was used for complex scientific calculations, then it was used as tutorial, and in 1959 the car was dismantled.

In 1952, MESM had an older sister - (BESM). Quantity vacuum tubes it increased to 5 thousand, and the number of operations per second also increased - from 8 to 10 thousand.

BESM

The world's first commercial computer

Introduced in the United States in 1951, it can be called the first computer intended for commercial use.

He became famous after using polling data from the 1% of the voting population to correctly predict that General Dwight Eisenhower would win the 1952 election. When people realized the capabilities of computer data processing, many businesses began to purchase this machine for their needs.

The very first personal computer in the world

For the first time, the term “personal computer” was applied to the creation of the Italian engineer Pier Giorgio Perotto called Program 101. It was released by Olivetti.

Program 101

The device cost $3,200 and sold about 44,000 copies. NASA bought ten of them to use in calculations for the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. The ABC (American Broadcasting Company) network used Programma 101 to predict the 1968 presidential election. The US military used it to plan their operations during the Vietnam War. It was also purchased for schools, hospitals and government agencies and marked the beginning of an era of rapid PC development and sales.

The first mass-produced home computer abroad

In 1975, an article about the new computer typing— Altair 8800. Within a few weeks of the device's appearance, customers flooded its manufacturer, MITS, with orders. The machine was equipped with 256-byte memory (expandable to 64 KB) and a universal interface bus, which evolved into the "S-100" standard, widely used in amateur and personal computers of the era.

Altair 8800 could be purchased for $397. After the purchase, the radio amateur owner had to independently solder and check the functionality of the assembled components. The difficulties did not end there; we still had to master writing programs using zeros and ones. The Altair 8800 had no keyboard or monitor, no hard drive, and no floppy drive. To enter the desired program the user clicked the toggle switches on the front panel of the device. And checking the results was carried out by observing the lights flashing on the front panel.

A in 1976 the first apple computer , designed and handcrafted by Steve Wozniak and promoted by his friend as the first product Apple Computer Company. The Apple 1 is considered the first PC to be shipped off the shelf.

Apple 1

In fact, the device had neither a monitor nor a keyboard (the possibility of connecting them was provided). But there was a fully equipped circuit board, which contained 30 microcircuits. The Altair 8800 and other devices that entered the market did not have this; they had to be assembled from a kit. The Apple 1 originally had a near-hell price of $666.66, but was reduced to $475 a year later. Later, an additional board was released that allowed data to be written to cassette recorder. It cost 75 dollars.

The first mass-produced home computer in the USSR

Since the 80s of the 20th century, a computer called “Pravets” began to be produced in Bulgaria. It was a clone of the second version of Apple. Another clone included in the Pravets line was the “Soviet” IBM PC, based on Intel processors 8088 and 8086. A later clone of Oric Atmos was the “home” model “Pravets 8D” in a small case and with a built-in keyboard. It was produced from 1985 to 1992. Pravets computers were installed in many schools in the Soviet Union.

Those who want to collect home computer could use the instructions in the magazine "Radio" 1982-83. and reproduce a model called "Micro-80". It was based on the KR580VM80 microprocessor, similar to the Intel i8080.

In 1984, the Agat computer appeared in the Soviet Union, quite powerful compared to Western models. The amount of RAM was 128 KB, which was twice the amount of RAM in Apple models of the early 80s of the twentieth century. The computer was produced in several modifications, had an external keyboard with 74 keys and a black-and-white or color screen.

Production of "Agates" continued until 1993.

Computers of our time

Nowadays, modern computer technology is changing very quickly. modern people are billions of times greater than their ancestors. Every company wants to surprise already jaded users, and so far many have succeeded in doing so. Here are just some of the main topics in recent years:

• The laptop that had an important impact on the development of the industry: Apple Macbook (2006).
• A smartphone that had an important impact on the development of the industry: Apple iPhone(2007).
• The tablet that had an important influence on the development of the industry: Apple iPad(2010).
• The first smart watch: Pulsar Time Computer (1972). They can be seen on James Bond's hand in the 1973 action film Live and Let Die.

And, of course, various game consoles: Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo, etc.

We live in interesting times (even if it sounds like a Chinese curse). And who knows what awaits in the near future. Neural computers? Quantum computers? Wait and see.