Page 7 - IT Essentials And Data Recovery For Online Businesses

The Analytical Machine would have been capable of storing 1,000 numbers of up to
fifty digits each, and perform six different mathematical operations, including the
calculation of square roots. Babbage’s ideas were incorporated into early electronic

computing devices being developed in the late 1930’s and 1940’s, although not all

of these were actually programmable. The first truly programmable computers –
able to store and use information – did not come into common use until the 1950’s,
and yes – made use of punch cards (those born before 1965 may remember

playing with them).

Communications and Information Storage

Other developments related to information technology involved major advances in

communication, such as the telegraph – which was really an electronic
improvement on ancient methods such as drums and smoke signals, and later
semaphore communication. The first telegraph was actually built in 1809, but the

technology matured during the mid-nineteenth century with the development of

methods whereby actual images could be transmitted electronically (1843).

With the laying of the Transatlantic Cable in 1866, communication that once took

weeks or months could be accomplished in minutes. Further advances included the

development of wireless communication in the 1890’s, and the combination of this
th
technology with the typewriter to create the teletype machine in the early 20
century.

Thomas Edison was the first to come up with a way to store sound information with
the invention of the phonograph in 1877, but it was really the development of audio
magnetic recording tape in 1926 by German inventor Fritz Pfleumer that would

become a method of storing information electronically. Magnetic tape was initially

used for recording sound. The technology finally arrived in the U.S. after the