There are millions of valid answers to this question, but here are some of
them:
- abacus: first computing machinery (i.e. no predecessors were computing
machinery at all)
- napier's bones: first device which tells you something you didn't first
tell it
- slide rule: first device capable of performing sophisticated
calculations, e.g. to do physics calculations
- you could nominate something as the first computing machine with gears or
some description of its moving parts -- Pascal's adding machine was one
of the first of these, although I'm not sure it was the first, but
we'll accept that here
- Jacquard loom: first algorithmic machine following a user-configurable
algorithm set out on punch cards
- Babbage's difference engine(s): seems like a modern computer in that you
set it a task (e.g. print a particular table of logarithms) and the
computation unfolds over time, then you have the result
- Hollerith card processing machines: something about working with large
quantities of data, or working with non-numeric data
- ENIAC: first electronic computer (vacuum tubes as opposed to gears and
other moving parts)
(I think that ENIAC is the last possible "first computer", although
conceivably some student answers could convince me otherwise!)
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