Four ages of

Technology
Technology are divided into 4 main ages. There are Premechanical ,
mechanical, electromechanical and electronic. It is important to learn
about how technology develop from the past until today.
 The Premechanical Age:3000 B.C-1450
A.D
• The Premechanical age is the earliest age of information technology. It can be defined as the time
between 3000 B.C and 1450 A.D. We are talking about a long time ago. When human first started
communicating they would try to use language or simple picture drawing known as petroglypts which
were usually carved in rocks. Early alphabets were developed such as the Phoenician alphabet.

• Petroglypts
• The first development of signs corresponding to spoken sounds
instead of pictures, to express words.
• Starting in 3100 B.C.., the Sumerian in Mesopotamia devised
cuneiform –the first true written language and the first real
information system. Cuneiform pronounced “ coo-nay-eh-form”
• Paper and Pens– input technologies
• Sumerians input technology was a stylus that could scratch marks
in wet clay.
• 2600 B.C – The Egyptians wrote on the papyrus plant.
• Around 100 A.D – The Chinese made paper from rags, on which
modern day papermaking is based.
Books and libraries– output technologies (permanent storage device)

• Religious leaders in Mesopotamia kept the earliest “books”

• The Egyptian kept scrolls.
• Around 600 B.C- the Greeks began to fold sheets of papyrus vertically
into leaves and bind them together.
The first numbering system

• Egyptian system – the numbers 1-9 as vertical lines, the number 10 as a U or

circle ,the number 100 as a coiled rope and the number 1000 as a lotus blossom.
• The first numbering system similar to those in use todays were invented between
100 and 200 A.D by Hindus in India who created in nine digit numbering
system.
• Around 875 A.D the concept of zero was developed
• The first calculators – The abacus
• One of the very first information processors
 Mechanical Age (1450-1840)

• The mechanical age is when we first start to see connections between our
current technology and its ancestor. The mechanical age can be defined as
the time between 1450 and 1840. A lot of new technologies are developed
in this era as there is a large explosion in interest in this era. Technologies
like the slide rule (an analog computer used for multiplying ang dividing
were invented.
1600s: William Oughtred , an English clergy man invented the slide rule
Early example of an analog computer.
 1642: The Pascaline

• Blaise Pascal the famous mathematician inventor , He invented the

Pascaline which was a very popular mechanical computer. This device
inspired other inventors to automate counting and calculations.
 1671: The Liebniz Calculator

• Invented by Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz [1646-1716]

• The calculator can add, subtract, multiply and divide. Wheels are placed at
right angles which could be displaced by special stepping mechanism.
 1823: The difference Engine

• The first mechanical computer created by Charles Babbage, is an

automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial
functions. Its name is derived from the method of divided differences, a
way to interpolate or tabulate functions by using a small set of polynomial
coefficients. Most mathematical functions commonly used by engineers,
scientist and navigators, including logarithmic and trigonometric
functions, can be approximated by polynomials, so a difference engine
can compute many useful tables of number.
 1837:The Analytical Engine

• The analytical engine was a proposed mechanical general purpose computer design
by English mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage. It was first
described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage difference engine, a design for a
simpler mechanical computer. The analytical Engine incorporated an arithmetic
logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops, and
integrated memory, making it the design for a general purpose computer that could
be described in modern term as Turing-complete. In others word , the logical
structure of the Analytical Engine was essentially the same as that which has
dominated computer design in the electronic era. The Analytical Engine is one of
the most successful achievement of the Charles Babbage.
 Electromechanical Age 1840-1940

• The electromechanical age can be defined as the time between 1840 and 1940.
These are beginning of telecommunication.
• The telegraph was created in the early 1800s.
• Morse code was created by Samuel Morse in 1835
• Telephone( one of the most popular form of communication ever) was created by
Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.
• First Radio developed by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894
• All of these were extremely crucial emerging technologies that led to big
advances in the information technology field.
The electronic period is the last period in I.C.T. history. It started in the
1940s and continues up to the present. The highlight of this period is focused
on the advent of solid state devices. The electronic age is what we currently
live in . The ENIAC was the first highspeed digital computer capable of
being reprogrammable to solve a full range of computing problems. This
computer was designed to be used by the U.S Army for artily firing tables
This machine was developed by John Mauchly and J Prosper Eckert.
• There are four main section of digital computing. The first was the era of vacuum
tubes and punch card like the ENIAC and Mark 1. Rotating magnetic drums were
used for internal storage. The second generation replaced vacuum tube with
transistors punch card were replaced with magnetic tape and rotating magnetic
drums were replaced by magnetic cores for internal storage . Also during this time
high level programming languages were created such as Fortran and Cobol. The
third generation replaced transistor with integrated circuits, magnetic tape was
used throughout all computers and magnetic cores turned into metal oxide
semiconductors. An actual operating system showed up around this time along
with the advanced programming language basic. The fourth and latest generations
brought in CPUs (central processing unit) which contain memory, logic , and
control circuits all on a single chip.
• Television (1941) sometimes shortened to tele or telly, is a telecommunication
medium used for transmitting moving images in monochrome(black and white)
The term can refer to a television program (Tv Show) or the medium of
television transmission.

1943 Enigma- the enigma machine is a piece of spook hardware invented by a

German and used by Britains codebreakes as a way of deciphering German
signals traffick during World War Two.
• 1946 Eniac –First electronic computer, developed by John Mauchly , a
physicist and J Prosper Eckert , an electrical engineer.

• 1947 Transistor Radio- is a smaller portable radio receiver that uses

transistor based circuity.

• 1949 EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Calculator) – is an early British

computer considered to be the first stored program electronic computer.
• 1950 OHP(PROJECTOR)

• 1952 UNIVAC 1(Universal Automatic Computer) – is a line of electronic

digital stored program computers starting with the products of the Eckert-
Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division
of the Remington Ram Company and successor organization.
• 1960 IBM 704 – the first mass produced computer with floating point arithmetic
hardware.

• 1968 Hewlett Packard 9100A – is an early computer or programmable calculator

• 1970 Floppy Disc- is a removable magnetic storage medium. This used for moving
information between computers, laptop or other device
• 1976 Apple 1 -is a desktop computer released by the Apple computer company
in 1976. It was designed and hand built by Steve Wozniak. The idea of selling
the computer came from Wozniak friend Steve Job

• 1980 Walkman – orginaly used for portable audio cassette players.

Differences and Similarities of each
Era
PREMECHANICAL AGE MECHANICAL AGE (1450-1840)
(3000 B.C – 1450 A.D) first connections between our current
Is the earliest age of information technology and its ancestors. The first information
technology. This age in which there no kinds explosion.
of computer system.

ELECTROMECHANICAL AGE ELECTRONIC AGE (1940- Present)

(1840-1940) The stage of information technology that we
Beginning of telecommunications. currently live in
The discovery of ways to harness electricity
was the key advance made during this period.
Knowledge and information could now be
converted into electrical impulses.