A History of the Computer and its Networks

This book chronicles the history of the digital computer from its humble beginnings as an art form of the cave man and concludes with a discussion of complications facing the use of the atom as a processing tool. Along the way, my journey examines the ancient societies of Greece, Rome, and Mesopotamia where I examine analog computers, origins of money, and ancient counting devices. Eventually my study reaches the beginnings of the mechanical age and works its way through the Industrial Revolution to the present day. Subjects covered in this book addition to computers are electricity, integrated circuits, and the necessity of writing, numbers, and its symbiotic relationship with money. Some of the inventors discussed are T. J. Watson, William Gates, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Charles Xavier Thomas, Charles Babbage, Vannevar Bush, Frank Steven Baldwin, William Seward Burroughs, Herman Hollerith, and William Hopkins. It is an insightful journey through time. Students of computing history and amateur historians will covet this book as a starting point of exploration. It is the perfect companion for those interested in computer science history from middle school to adult.