The Computers that Made the World

by Tim Danton

Overview

This book tells the story of the birth of the computing industry via the origins of ten influential computers built between 1939 and 1950

Starting with a short, sharp history of how we got to where we were on the eve of the second world war, this book illuminates humanity's desire for calculation aids throughout history, and how that led to the ready reckoner, Napier's bones, Pascal's calculator, the difference engine, the analytical engine, the comptometer and Herman Hollerieth's electronic tabulating machine.

This book is a world tour through the modern history of computing, and it begins in 1939 with the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff-Berry computer (ABC). From there, the book moves on to the World War II era with ENIAC, the first general-purpose digital computer. The story of computing in World War II takes us through Germany, UK, and the US, and right after that, the book explores the rapid growth of computing power in the post-war years.

The years of "big iron" in the US and UK takes you to the middle of the 1950s. In The Computers that Made the World, you'll learn about the computers (and more) that shaped the world we live in, and also about what happened behind the scenes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781916868076
Publisher:	Raspberry Pi Press
Publication date:	07/29/2025
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Tim Danton is author of The Computers That Made Britain, a Raspberry Pi book, and editor-in-chief of the British technology magazine PC Pro. He has also helped to launch several technology websites, most recently TechFinitive.com, where he is a senior editor.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Introduction: Charles Babbage — inventor of the first mechanical computer
• Chapter 1: ABC — the Atanasoff–Berry computer
• Chapter 2: Z3 — an early electromechanical computer
• Chapter 3: Stibitz's computers — building the foundations of digital computers
• Chapter 4: Colossus — codebreaking computer that helped win a World War
• Chapter 5: Harvard Mark 1 — another pioneering electromechanical computer
• Chapter 6: ENIAC — the first programmable digital computer
• Chapter 7: Manchester Baby — the first electronic stored-program computer
• Chapter 8: EDSAC — early British computing
• Chapter 9: BINAC and EDVAC — pioneering electronic computers
• Chapter 10: Pilot ACE — vacuum-tube powered early computing
• Chapter 11: The 1950s — the growth of commercial computing