The First General-purpose Computers

In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement in the textile business by introducing a series of punched paper cards as a model that allowed her weaving intricate patterns automatically. The Jacquard loom was an important step that results in the development of computers because the use of punched cards to define woven patterns can be seen as an early, albeit limited, of programming.

It was the fusion of automatic calculation with programmability that produced the first computer to recognize. In 1837, Charles Babbage was the first in the conceptualization and design of a programmable mechanical computer, the search engine.

Limited financial resources and inability to resist tinkering with it meant Babbage's design, the unit was never completed, but his son, Henry Babbage, was a simplified version of the calculation unit of the analytical engine ( mill) in 1888. He gave a successful demonstration of its use in calculating the tables in 1906. This machine was donated to the Science Museum in South Kensington in 1910.