File 002: Your Laptop Is a 190-Year-Old Idea

Your laptop began as a machine nobody could finish building. In the 1830s, Charles Babbage designed the Analytical Engine, a computer with memory and a processor, a century before anyone could build one. This is the history of the computer, from Babbage and Ada Lovelace to the laptop in front of you. Punch cards counted the 1890 census. Relays clicked inside the Harvard Mark I. ENIAC traded clicks for electrons. Stored programs, time-sharing and the microprocessor did the rest, until the computer reached everyday life. CHAPTERS 0:00 The machine on your desk 0:16 Babbage, Lovelace and the Analytical Engine 0:38 The 1890 census and Hollerith's punch cards 0:59 Howard Aiken, Grace Hopper and the Harvard Mark I 1:22 ENIAC: clicks become electrons 1:41 Software moves inside: Manchester Baby and EDSAC 2:02 The IBM 650, Dartmouth and BASIC 2:24 The microprocessor and the personal computer race 2:54 Babbage's mill and store, inside your laptop 3:21 Next time In this video: • Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine: the "store" (memory) and the "mill" (processor) • Ada Lovelace's idea that computers could handle more than numbers • Herman Hollerith's tabulator, and how his business became part of IBM • The Harvard Mark I, Grace Hopper, and ENIAC's 18,000 vacuum tubes • The stored-program idea (Manchester Baby, 1948 · EDSAC, 1949) • Dartmouth time-sharing and BASIC (1964) • The microprocessor (1971), the Altair, the Apple II, the IBM PC and Dell For more remarkable stories behind the ideas shaping our world, subscribe. CREDITS Archival images via Wikimedia Commons: • Babbage's Analytical Engine (mill, trial piece), Science Museum London, CC BY-SA 2.0 • EDSAC, Cambridge, CC BY 2.0 • Intel 4004, Science Museum, CC BY 4.0 • MITS Altair 8800, Sandra Fauconnier, CC BY 4.0 • Apple II, Computer History Museum, "The wub", CC BY-SA 4.0 • Hollerith census tabulator, Tomwsulcer, CC0 • Portraits of Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace (A. E. Chalon), Herman Hollerith (C. M. Bell), Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper (James S. Davis, US Navy); ENIAC (US Army); Harvard Mark I; Manchester Baby replica; IBM 650; IBM PC 5150; Hollerith punched card; card puncher (NARA): public domain Music and sound effects: HeyGen audio library Narration: AI voice #HistoryOfComputers #CharlesBabbage #AdaLovelace