Dean Kamen’s Early Innovations

Dean Kamen, the inventor of the technology that the Segway utilizes, holds more than 440 U.S. and foreign patents. He developed a medical device, the first wearable infusion pump for chemotherapy, neonatology and endocrinology, as an undergraduate in college.  In 1976 Kamen became an entrepreneur by founding his first company: AutoSyringe, Inc. Kamen sold the company in 1982 and founded DEKA Research & Development Corporation to conduct research and development on his innovative products for major corporate clients.

Breakthrough Inventions-The IBOT and the Segway HT

The Segway stemmed from Kamen’s earlier balancing technology from the IBOT Mobility system he developed in 1990. The IBOT idea developed after Kamen became upset while watching a man try to get his wheelchair over the curb of a sidewalk. The solution he developed at DEKA, a six-wheeled motorized wheelchair, enabled the handicapped to climb stairs. It additionally lifted them to eye level.

In the mid 1990s, DEKA started developing the Segway Personal Transporter. Development on the HT took approximately $100 million. Commercial backers for it included Credit Suisse First Boston and Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. According to Vanity Fair, Kleiner Perkins’ partner John Doerr believed the Segway Company could potentially reach $1 billion in sales.

DEKA used the balancing technology used on the IBOT to create the device. The HT used microprocessors and solid-state gyroscopes to balance itself. The driver used handlebars while driving upright on the platform. Conventional friction brakes wouldn’t work on the device because it needed its wheels to balance its weight. When the HT stopped moving, the braking process energy transferred back into the batteries.

The Segway design didn’t take up much space. It provided extreme maneuverability and would work on pedestrian sidewalks and pathways. In addition, the device delivered zero emissions. Established in New Hampshire in 2000, Segway LLC developed and manufactured the HT. A separate venture from DEKA, it employed 130 workers.

Introducing the Segway to Consumers

Introduced to the public in December 2001, the first official Segway Human Transporter (HT) received a lot of attention as celebrities used it for the first time on national TV. The hit sitcom Frasier even featured it on an episode.

Legislation was passed on Feb. 15, 2002, that allowed Segways to operate on sidewalks. Within a year 30 other states passed laws that allowed the Segway HT to operate on sidewalks. On Nov. 18, 2002, the Segway HT was sold to the public for the first time on Amazon.com. The Segways sold for $3000.

The Segway didn’t sell as well to the public as backers hoped it would (only 50,000 sold by March 2009). Safety issues due to a software problem caused recalls in 2006, also. The Segway is still used in some theme parks by visitors and employees.

Special police forces trained to protect the public used The Segway during the 2008 Summer Olympics. As of May 2007 Segway had more than 250 retail points in 60 countries, and as of October 2008 over 1000 police and security agencies use Segway HTs in their patrolling operations.

Construction

White Star Line, a major British shipping company, decided at the beginning of the 20^th century that its engineers would build the biggest and most prestigious passenger ship in the world: the RMS Titanic. Thomas Andrews was in charge of the design, and construction began at the Harland and Wolf naval construction site in 1909.

The Titanic came toward the end of the steam-engine era and was an enormous ship whose size was intended to intimidate the competition. With over 880 feet of length (several times the size of a Boeing 747) and a tonnage of over 46,000 tons, the RMS Titanic was at the time the biggest ship ever built, carrying 3547 people in total.

The ship was meant to dazzle both with its sheer size and its luxury aboard. Engineers took pride in having built a fast and strong ship that would take high-end passengers across the Atlantic in style.

Life Aboard the Titanic

White Star Line had made a point of designing the most luxurious and sometimes over-the-top infrastructures possible to accommodate the very wealthy first-class passengers. Amenities were numerous and included a high-end restaurant, a swimming pool and a sports center. Second-class passengers had much more common traveling conditions, while third-class passengers were simply on board to get to the other side.

Inaugural Voyage and Sinking

The Titanic’s tragic ending occurred during its first and only voyage, which started April 10, 1912, from Southampton and meant to end in New York City. The ship carried a total of 2228 people of all walks of life, nationalities and social backgrounds. Edward John Smith, an experienced British captain, was in charge of the ship for what he intended to be his final trip before retirement.

The inaugural voyage of the Titanic was a major event that drew a host of English and American celebrities and businessmen, among which were Dorothy Gibson, John Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim, Isidor Straus (Macy’s co-founder) and many others.

The Titanic‘s sinking occurred in the night of April 14, 1912, four days into the journey, when the ship collided with an iceberg and its floating compartments gradually filled with water until they couldn’t support it anymore. It took almost three hours for the Titanic to become completely submerged, but poor decisions and lack of preparation led to the deaths of 1522 people out of the 2228 present on the boat.

The biggest cause of outrage in the tragedy is undoubtedly the lack of lifeboats, coupled with the priority given to first-class passengers during the evacuation. Amazingly, White Star Line had not deemed it necessary to equip the ship with more than 16 lifeboats, which amounted to a capacity of only 1178 people. Those lifeboats were also grossly underused and helped rescue only about 700 people, while the rest perished in the freezing waters.

Personal audio equipment, especially miniature radios that could receive medium wave (MW), short wave, and frequency modulated (FM) transmissions really became popular in the 1960s, although radio only permitted listening to music that was broadcast by a radio station according to their playlist. Demand for portable cassette players in the 1970s that allowed users to play music of their own choice was high, but most players were the size of a small shoebox.

Sony had been one of the first companies to introduce a miniature radio to the market in the late 1950s, and a corporate culture of miniaturization developed resulting in the first Sony Walkman coming to market in 1980. The Walkman was an immediate hit due to being only slightly bigger than a tape cassette, and encouraged executives at Sony to think about a compact disc player that would achieve the same aims.

In October 1982 the very first compact disc player was released to the market, the CDP-101, and was marketed by Sony though Sony had announced only two months previously that Philips, CBS/Sony, and Polygram had jointly developed the compact disc technology. The very first commercially available audio compact disc was Billy Joel’s 52nd Street being released on the CBS/Sony label. By 1983 only 1000 titles had been released and Sony who had invested a lot of research into the product were keen to see compact disc players being sold in the same numbers as vinyl record players.

In 1983 Katsuaki Tsurushima, head of Sony’s Engineering Development Department came up with the idea of creating a portable CD player which could be powered by batteries, be transportable, and lead to increased demand. His hope was to create a CD player that would be no bigger than three or four CD cases stacked together and which could be sold at a price that even students could afford. The idea became known as the CD CD project, a mouthful that meant compact disc cost down project.

With the approval of Nobuyuki Idei, head of the Audio Division, Kozo Ohsone, head of the General Audio Division, and Akio Morita, Sony’s CEO, a meeting was held in Tsurushima’s department with Sony’s best and brightest engineering staff. A block of wood measuring 13cm by 4cm was held up in the air and Ohsone exhorted the technical staff to design a CD player exactly this size. Looks weren’t important, Sony wanted to be first on the market with a portable compact disc player.

At the time this sort of miniaturization was almost considered impossible with the technology of the time but by November of 1984 Sony engineers had managed to fit a CD player into a case a little smaller than the block of wood, and that month the D-50, internally nicknamed as the Discman,was Sony’s first portable CD player released to Japanese music lovers. It was priced at 49,800 yen which was actually half the cost of manufacturing the product but Sony were confident the D-50 would become profitable.

The Sony D-50 never shipped with the Discman branding but it is nevertheless the spiritual ancestor of all Sony Discman portable CD players. Curiously, Sony D-50s didn’t ship with their own power supply or the ability to fit batteries. Instead, separate battery packs or power supplies could be purchased, with different models of power supply for different purposes. The most popular being a battery case that  this was a separate device that could be added to the D-50 and included either 6 C size batteries or a custom rechargeable battery, and a strap for carrying the entire kit.

In those early days CD players were highly susceptible to skipping, the D-50 being no different, and essentially meaning that Sony’s first portable CD player was only portable in the sense that it could be taken from place to place, and using this first generation Discman while on the move required very careful walking, certainly jogging or other exercise activities weren’t practical with this device although it didn’t stop sales people and marketers from promoting the D-50 as an on the go CD player.

The technology didn’t improve substantially with international models of the the Sony Discman being much the same as the D-50, in that all required a separate battery pack or power supply, but they did vary in features and looks. The Discman D-100 is paticularly noted for being slightly slimmer than the D-50 yet packing a full range of software enhancements that effectively rendered it no different from top end home CD players, including track programing and selective repeat.

By 1987 compact displayer technology had improved to the extent the Discman D-20 was able to offer a built-in battery compartment that would take both a factory supplied rechargeable battery, or the option of using 4 AA batteries. An optional remote control unit could also be used allowing the D-20 Discman to be used in place of a Hi-Fi CD player. By 1992 Sony had produced the Discman D-66 which incorporated a ‘dual damper anti-shock mechanism’ where the optical mechanism and motor was suspended on springs inside the case, but also damped with small fluid filled rubber bags.

The early 2000s saw the growth of the MP3 music format and a significant design change in Sony Discman’s which were now round portable CD players and incorporated Sony’s ‘G Protection’ anti-skipping system. The explosive growth of computer chips for mobile phones, laptop computers and other consumer electronics made it feasible for Sony to develop an anti-skip technology that would read ahead and store data into onboard memory for real-time playback. The technique was self correcting and skips in data would be read again before play resulting in a mostly skip free experience for the listener.

The Discman nickname was finally retired in favor of CD Walkman in 2000, around the same time Sony introduced the new ‘W’ logo, composed of several joined together dots, for the Walkman range of products. The Discman trademark is still owned by Sony who reserve the right to resurrect the brand in the future.

As humans, we continue to strive to make our lives more fulfilling. Our quest for knowledge and understanding nature around us is inherent in all of us. Technology in a sense can be defined as inventing tools and advancing knowledge. In addition, technology also utilizes the cumulative knowledge and technologies already available to further advance our knowledge and build upon or discover new tools which can be utilized by mankind.

Defining Technology Through the Ages

Since the beginning of man, we have utilized tools and developed technology- such as stones to kill prey and butcher meat. Since different technologies have come to define the different ages of man and civilization, here is the history of technology based on specific ages.

The Stone Age

During the Stone Age, which many consider lasted from about 2.5 million years ago as humans started to develop to about 3300 BC, which began the Bronze Age; there were several technologies that developed. While they required little knowledge to harness these technologies, nevertheless they were instrumental in keeping our species from becoming extinct. Ultimately, the technologies and knowledge that was gained throughout the first 2.5 million years of existence helped humans evolve from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, where increasingly sophisticated tools and knowledge were harnessed. Some of the technologies that were developed during the Stone Age include the use of stones for killing prey and creating axes. The ability to harness fire (about 1.5 million years ago), clothing (about 100,000 years ago), the ability to domesticate animals (occurring about 15,000 years ago and other inventions such as the bow and arrow (9,000 BC), Agriculture (8,000 BC) and the wheel (4,000 BC).

The Bronze Age

The Bronze Age, which roughly lasted from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, was a time when civilization started to coalesce around the Fertile Crescent and spread outward to Europe, Asia and African. The Bronze Age gets its name from a time when metals such as copper and tin were being used to create weapons and tools. The technology to smelt metal ores into tools was a definite advancement from previous stone tools being used. Some of the technologies that were advanced during this time included the further domestication of animals and agricultural innovations, the chariot (about 2,000 BC), the use of salt and the construction of permanent settlements- many of which still stand today.

The Iron Age

The Iron Age usually dates from 1200 BC to 500 BC, which is the start of the Roman Empire. During this time period, the usage of iron began to become prominent as the metal for tools and weapons, being that it is much stronger than copper, tin and bronze. During this time period many people migrated to the farther reaches of continents including Europe and permanent settlements were developed. In addition, during this time period several religions and philosophies were developed including Buddhism and Confuciusism. Some other technological advancements included the sundial (800 BC), glass (500 BC) and a wide range of advances in trade, ships, architecture, education, etc.

The Age of Ancient Civilizations

From around 500 BC with the start of the Roman Empire to about 500 AD when it eventually fell and Medieval Europe took hold, there was plenty of technological innovation occurring. For many scholars, this period in human history is considered to be the Golden Age as civilizations gelled and technology in all facets of human life expanded. It should be noted that civilizations all around the globe began to grow (such as in China, India, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Central & South America, etc). Some of the many innovations that occurred during this time include: city planning, sanitation, education, architecture, matches, paper, math, religion, bridges, the magnetic compass, law and government, aqueducts, road building, reservoirs, stirrups for horses, concrete, art, philosophy and more.

The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages, which took place from 500 AD to about 1500 was a period in Europe, where for the most part technology either stagnated or even went backwards. However, it should be noted with the Crusades and the development of more trade and travel to the Middle East, Europe once again began to grow and this growth in all areas of society ushered in the Renaissance period. While for the most part Europe stagnated, there were several innovations in technology including the mechanical clock, the windmill, spectacles and innovations in agriculture, architecture and the military.

Muslim Agricultural Revolution

During the 8^th century, the Islamic world located predominantly in the Middle East revolutionized and ultimately globalized a wide range of agriculture techniques and crops. In addition, during this revolution, hydropower was utilized in order to mill a variety of different crops along with a wide range of other uses was innovated. Other technological advances included coffee the fountain pen, quartz glass, innovations in math, hard soap, shampoo, nitric acid, the celestial globe and incendiary devices.

The Renaissance Period

As trade between Europe and the Middle East exploded during the crusades and as the Europeans thirst for knowledge grew, the Renaissance period began- usually marked from the period of the 14^th century to the 16^th century. During this time period, Europe flourished both artistically and scientifically. Some of the major innovations during this time period occurred in education. A major invention-the printing press helped spread books throughout Europe and the world communicating a wide range of ideas and ultimately furthering education. Many schools and universities were developed. architecture, philosophy and other disciplines expanded and grew and medicine also enjoyed a whole host of innovation.

Age of Exploration

With trade becoming a great means of wealth for countries in Europe, the Age of Exploration came to dominate the sphere of technology and innovation, mainly in shipping, navigation and cartography. During this time period which lasted from the 1400′s to 1600′s, many ships sailed across the globe and around the world. During this period, the New World was discovered and settlements and colonization occurred- along with the conquest of local, indigenous peoples.

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a time of great innovation due to the harnessing of cheap energy (through coal) and the steam engine. These two innovations which occurred mostly in Britain during the late 18^th and 19^th centuries was a milestone in human technology. With the ability to no longer rely on water power, animal power or human power for farming and other uses, coal can now be burned to drive steam engines for a wide range of uses including factories, transportation (steam locomotives and steam ships) and the ability to mass produce metals such as wrought iron and other metals to build bridges and other items. With the Industrial Revolution came the transportation revolution that made it much easier to transport people, livestock and goods all around Europe and now the United States. With the Industrial Revolution came also huge innovations in the economy and society as more and more people left agricultural communities and migrated to the cities to live and work. This helped pave the way for a society based on specialization.

19^th and 20^th Centuries

During the last two centuries, enormous innovations in technology have occurred- too many innovations to list. However, it is important to note that many of these innovations have occurred due to previous discoveries and the cumulative amount of knowledge and technology that has been developed over the course of time. Just some of the huge innovations in technology that have occurred over the last 200 years include: huge changes in government, society, practically every institution, electrification, math and science, inventions such as the radio, television, telephone, computer, internet, automobile, airplane, medicine, economy, military weaponry, refrigeration, household appliances, sanitation, nuclear power, photography, spacecraft, mechanized agriculture and more.

Today, we live in a society that has vastly been changed due to innovations and enhancements from technology. This cumulative knowledge is growing at an increasing speed and level. While it took usually centuries or millennia in the past for society to be changed from technology, today, technology can have a huge impact on our society in a matter of decades or even years. While it is not known what the future holds for technical innovations, with the thirst for knowledge and discovery innate in humans, you can be sure that more technological advances will be seen on the horizon.

It is hard to believe the fundamental change a single invention brought to the world, yet that is precisely what the telephone did, suddenly talking to a loved one or business colleague at almost any distance with effortless ease from the comfort of their own home. In today’s world of mobile phones and Internet telephone we take for granted the fundamental shift to society that occurred with the invention of the telephone.

Children learn to tie two tin cans together using twine and hold them tightly apart from each other thus allowing sound to carry from one to the other, and if this is attached to a bell as well the entire system can become a rudimentary telephone as we might see in the Flintstones cartoons, but real telephones require electricity and components that can only be made with the right tools and materials. The sound carried by the twine is due to sound vibrations along the twine which echo in the tin can.

This is a completely different system from that used on ships where long hollow pipes in the ships bridge could be carried down to the engine room or galley simply from confining the sound vibrations into a pipe. In the early 1800s the electric telegraph had been invented and was reliably carrying messages of all sorts wherever a telegraph office could be sited. It was his desire to improve the telegraph, and knowledge of sound waves thru teaching elocution to deaf students that gave Alexander Graham Bell the idea for inventing the telephone.

History has been kind to Bell, crediting him with being a gentleman as well as the inventor of the telephone, although he very nearly lost that honor. On the same day that Bell applied for his patent for the telephone, the 14^th of February 1876, so too did Elisha Gray, another prominent inventor whose caveat to the US Patent Office described a water transmitter to be used in his own telephone. Sadly, Bell’s lawyer and the clerk of the patent office, an habitual drunk, had served together in the Civil War and conspired to have Bell’s patent registered first, initially by adding additional notes to Bell’s application, and then delaying Gray’s caveat until Bell’s application could be presented.

When the patent examiner realized that both applications were similar he called a halt to processing both until they could be demonstrated. Bell demonstrated the technique devised by Gray and was granted the patent, which was subsequently upheld in a court of law. Historians since those times now recognize that Gray would have been considered the inventor of the telephone were it not for Bell demonstrating the technology first. The very first words ever uttered thru a telephone occurred in Bell’s lab with his assistant Thomas Watson who was reported to have heard Bell saying “Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you”.

The techniques developed by Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson directly led to the first commercial telephone services only a year after Bell’s patent was registered, however other worthy scientists prior to Bell, men like Antonio Meucci of Italy, of Johann Reis of Germany had also demonstrated telephone prototypes, though their techniques weren’t quite as advanced Thomas Edison adopted some of Reis’s ideas in the creation of the carbon microphone.

Boston was the first city whose citizens benefited in 1877 with the first telephones being installed. Initially subscribers were paired and could only speak to one another. Telephone switchboards were quickly invented that allowed subscribers to talk to any phone connected to the same set of telephone lines, the first entering service in 1878 in New Haven. Within the first three years of commercial telephone service being available the United Stats boasted nearly 50,000 telephones.

The invention of the telephone switchboard resulted in subscribers needing a way to effectively connect with each other without having to speak to an operator, which at the time was the only way of allowing different telephone lines to be connected and used a series of short cables that would be plugged into a board to which the subscriber’s line was attached. Each of these original telephones would also have it’s own power source, typically a battery in the case of the telephone that needed periodic replacement.

Early telephone exchanges were locally based, a subscriber could only talk to another subscriber on their own exchange by asking an operator to place the call, and if calls to other local exchanges were required the operator would liaise with the next operator in a sequence to connect the call. Long distance calls could not be placed from home, subscribers were required to make an appointment with the central telephone office to use a specially built booth that contained a shielded telephone with greater electrical capacity that could transmit over longer wire distances.

Electromechanical exchanges were invented by the major telephone companies in the early 1900s along with the rotary dial telephone that would send a series of pulses to the exchange, and then with no human intervention, allow a call to be placed. The US adopted this technology quickly, after all in 1904 over three million subscribers were connected using manual exchanges, and requiring the employment of tens of thousands of operators.

The actual telephone device used in the home underwent significant development i the 1920s when Western Electric developed a phone that incorporated a handset that included both the earpiece and microphone, and for the first time allowing subscribers to move, sit down, or stand up during a call rather than remain fixed in a single position with their ear pressed against the earpiece which itself was part of the base unit. The Bell Model 102 was the very first development of this type of telephone, a style that remains popular today with many telephone handset manufacturers constructing modern replicas of the Model 102.

After the 1930s telephones didn’t change much until the introduction of digital telephones and exchanges in the 1960s, an improvement that is still being rolled out globally, but which didn’t really impact many subscribers other than their telephone using tones instead of pulses to initiate a call. Digital telephony did however usher in the era of mobile telephones that used radio waves to transmit wirelessly, and first demonstrated by an engineer working for Motorola in 1973. Large scale consumer uptake of mobile phones didn’t start until the late 1980s and early 1990s, although by 2005 mobile phone connections in most developed nations had outstripped the number of fixed line connections.

In 1946, two Soviet engineers, G. Shapiro and I. Zaharchenko, successfully tested a mobile phone installed in a car. It could connect to a local telephone network up to a range of 20 kilometers. A year later, two Bell Labs engineers, Douglas H. Ring and W. Rae Young, proposed hexagonal cells in mobile phones in cars and using a three-directional antenna for transmitting and receiving signals. However, cellular technology was not developed until the 1960s when Richard Frenkiel and Joel Engel of Bell Labs developed the electronics.

Science Fiction turned to Reality

Developed by Ericsson and sold in Sweden in 1956, the Mobile Telephone System A, or MTA, was the first fully automatic mobile phone system that required any kind of manual control. It was too heavy, however, with a total weight of 40 kilograms. In 1965, the model was upgraded to MTB with transistors and DTMF signaling. It only weighed 9 kilograms.

Following the heels of Ericsson, a young Soviet radio engineer named Leonid Kupriyanovich created in 1957 the portable mobile phone. He named it after himself as LK-1 or “radiophone.” This was a true mobile phone because it was a relatively small handset equipped with an antenna and rotary dial, and can connect with a base station that could connect to a local telephone network. Not only that, his phone weighed only 3 kilograms, could operate up to 30 kilometers, and had up to 30 hours of battery life. In 1958, Kupriyanovich resized his “radiophone” to a “pocket” version, which had an improved “light” weight of about 500 grams.

Continuity of Service

In 1958, Russia continued to develop mobile phone systems, which connected with base stations that could serve up to six customers. However, the problem with these systems was the continuity of calls kept being disrupted when the phone went through several base stations. The caller had to stay in an area nearest to one base so the call’s signal would not be disrupted.

This problem was solved when, in 1970, Amos E. Joel, Jr., another Bell Labs engineer, invented an automatic “call handoff” system to allow mobile phones to move through several cell areas during a single conversation without loss of conversation.

Generations

Successfully launched in 1971, the ARP network in Finland could be considered as a zero generation cellular network. First generation networks started with the release of the Motorola DynaTAC on April 1973. Soon, the second-generation (2G) phones followed suit with GSM, CDMA and iDEN in the 1990s. Later, 3G networks ramped up their services with faster EDGE and GPRS features. The 2G phones have been gradually phased out of the market. Third-generation phones are now widespread in their use. Live streaming of radio and television is the future of the technology.

Early Influences

Before Feynman he talked about it, the concept of nanotechnology has already been proposed by James Clerk Maxwell in 1867 when he proposed as a thought experiment a tiny entity known as Maxwell’s Demon that was able to handle individual molecules.

Meanwhile, in 1914, Richard Adolf Zsigmondy was the first who used nanometer for characterizing particle size. He determined it as 1/1,000,000 of millimeter. From that, he developed the first system classification based on particle size in the nanometer range.

Moore’s Law

The influences that brought together this concept were best codified in Moore’s Law. It was a prediction made by Gordon Moore of Intel in 1965 on how modern circuitry would pack more features as more devices were produced for the market. It basically ensures that the exponential growth of computing power would inversely match the size and features of the machines that would be produced. So far, the law has held strong for nearly 50 years in spite of Moore’s only 6 years of experience with microchips.

Molecular Manufacturing

Norio Taniguchi of the Tokyo Science University first defined “nanotechnology” in a 1974 paper as “the processing of, separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or one molecule.” Nanotechnology, or the direct manipulation of individual atoms, is mostly applied in molecular manufacturing.

Eric Drexler was the first to apply the concept of nanotechnology to engineering through the concept of molecular manufacturing. Drexler presented that if atoms were viewed like marbles, then moclecules would be tight collections of these marbles. When snapped together the right way, these molecules could become normal-scaled tools like motors and gears. Despite their nanoscale size, these tools could operate the same way as their large counterparts could. The moving parts of the nano machines would be formed by an army of atoms held together by the strength of their own atomic bonds.

Ultimately, Drexler envisioned that these nano bots would be used as “assemblers” that could put together atoms into any desired shape. If Drexler were to be believed, nanotechnology, through the concept of molecular manufacturing, would revolutionize everything from biological science to space travel.

Applying this simplistic vision of molecular manufacturing to other industries, Drexler claimed that coal can be turned into diamond and that computer chips can be created from sand. The processes would be drastically shortened, and their valuable products could be produced faster through reorganization of atoms that make up these materials. Thus, Drexler presented nanotechnology as a scientific field that solely revolved around molecular manufacturing.

Potash

Before the 18th century, people used potassium in the form of potash, a cleaning agent. Potash is a postassium compound made from wood ashes washed with water. Potash would dissolve in the water and it would be collected in large iron pots and evaporated. The white substance that remained was called potash.

The name potash came from the pots used in the process and the ash-like residue that is scraped from their bottom. It was also known as vegetable alkali (lye) because of the plants that gave the wood used for burning and producing the ash, and because of the property of the metal, which is alkali. This vegetable alkali was harsh type of chemical used for cleaning.

Potash is also rich in essential plant nutrients, which makes it a very effective plant fertilizer. After a long history of mining and manufacturing, potash was also used to make soap, glass, and dyes.

Potash was often misidentified with a similar cleaning agent called mineral alkali. It was obtained from rocks and was known as soda ash. They had the same qualities and they were used the same way. They only differed in their sources.

Discovery of Potassium

By the end of the 18th century, chemists realized that both the vegetable alkali and the mineral alkali have the same elements, which they had not identified before. They tried different methods of isolating these elements from the compounds.

In 1807, Humphry Davy, a British chemist, began working on separating the chemical elements. After making water solutions of potash and soda ash, he passed electric current through it. However, no result could be easily seen because the elements instantly reacted with the water.

Shortly after, Davy realized he had to exclude the water from his experiments. When he passed electric current through the solution of potash, tiny droplets of the metal emerged. He named this new metal potassium after potash.

This process made potassium the first metal isolated by electrolysis. Then a few days later, Davy was able to isolate sodium using the same method. This feat revealed that the wood ash was potassium carbonate and soda ash was sodium carbonate.

Producing Potassium

People used to cut down trees and burn them to produce wood ash for making potash. Now, potassium is produced only through electrolysis or through thermal methods that use potassium chloride. The source materials used for the process come from the abundant deposits of the metal found in ancient lakes and seabeds.

Potash, on the other hand, is mined from Saskatchewan in Canada, Germany and the three states in U.S. namely, California, New Mexico and Utah. Although the metal is non-toxic, it can be dangerous to anyone exposed to it. In its pure form, potassium is highly reactive.

Today, potassium is commonly used in making soaps, glass, fertilizers, medicines, explosives, and fireworks. It is also an essential nutrient for the human body.

Today, one of the most popular devices to listen to music is the ubiquitous iPod. Apple’s iPod not only revolutionized the way many listen to their music, but also how they buy their music and other types of media. While there are plenty of other personal music players, none has had such an impact on culture, the music business and technology. Here is the history of the iPod.

Tony Fadell and his Digital Music Player

In the late 1990′s and early part of the century, digital music players were slowly being created. The industry was new and the technology wasn’t exactly perfected. For instance, while millions of people each year were now discovering the joy of mp3′s on their computers, many realized that carrying around a hard drive of music wasn’t exactly technically feasible. The first mp3 players that were created by company’s such as Rio and Creative were just starting to realize the true potential of a personal digital music player, however storage was an issue. The first mp3 players had storage space of 32 MB and 64 MB, only enough some times to play a handful of songs. In addition, the user interface made the device more like a Sony Walkman and not a next generation digital music player. However, one man did see the true potential of personal digital music players and his name was Tony Fadell.

Tony Fadell in 2000 realized that the personal digital music player had incredible potential just waiting to be tapped. While pretty much all the existing mp3 players of the time relied on costly compact flash style storage, Tony Fadell realized that new quarter-sized hard drives which offered 5 GB of storage space could be utilized to offer the consumer an entire library’s worth of music.

Tony Fadell - Apple

In addition, with the advent of Napster and its legal woes affecting the entire music industry, Tony Fadell envisioned that his new player could easily link on the internet with a media service where consumers can easily purchase new music that was legally downloaded directly to the player. With this idea in hand he started to meet with electronics and media companies in 2000 to sell it. His first stop was at RealNetworks. At the time, RealNetworks was one of the leaders of online media. They had millions of visitors and a wide range of media products being sold on their site- one of their more notable products was their premium radio and television channels. Unfortunately, at the time, RealNetworks balked at the idea finding it difficult to justify the creation of a separate personal music device when the media they were selling was successful as it is. Tony Fadell also pitched his new idea to other company including Phillips, but ultimately was turned down.

Tony Fadell Approaches Apple

In his quest to get his idea realized, Tony Fadell went to Apple. At the time, Apple was focused on their iMac line of computers. While they did make consumer electronics in the past (remember Newton), success was not guaranteed. However, Apple was very excited about Tony Fadell’s idea regarding a personal digital music player, especially since only a few months ago, Apple invested and bought a company called Soundjam MP which could deliver digital tunes directly to a computer or music player.

Apple gave Tony Fadell the green light to start on his project in early 2001. Apple also gave him a development team of about 30 people and a deadline of one year to create the player.

It should be noted that while Apple gave Tony Fadell a green light on the project, he still didn’t have confidence in Apple that they would want to create and develop a player from scratch, so instead he decided to look around for companies that already developed a player and work off their creation. He found a company called PortalPlayer. This company had already developed a player, but it was not yet released to the market. In fact, PortalPlayer had developed over the years several players, but all of them lacked Fadell’s vision- they had poor features and the battery life was horrendous, lasting at most 3 hours.

Steve Jobs and the Development of the iPod

Steve Jobs

It should be noted that Steve Jobs did take an interest to the iPod from the very beginning and he was present at many of the meetings throughout the year during development. He also tested the product and would express his likes and dislikes about the interface, etc.

In about 8 month’s time, Fadell and PortalPlayer put together the working hardware of the new iPod. On the other end, Apple developed the interface and the scroll wheel that would become infamous. The product was ready to be launched in October of 2001.

The First Generation iPod

The original iPod was release for sale on October 23, 2001. The First generation iPod included a 5 GB Toshiba hard drive, ARM processors, an operating system from Pixo, a lithium polymer battery for added battery life, a high resolution display and of course the scroll wheel- however the first generation scroll wheel was mechanical. While many in the industry didn’t at first notice the importance of this player, the scroll wheel, large storage and extremely intuitive interface made it very easy to hold a library of music and find songs that you would like to play.

Compared to other players at the time that included large storage, the Apple iPod was much easier to navigate giving it an edge. At the time, no one realized just how important the iPod would be to Apple, the music industry and consumers around the world. In fact, when it was first released, many commented on the negatives of the device. It was expensive at $400, the scroll wheel seemed foreign and iPod was not compatible with Microsoft PC’s. However, in a few months time, sales were very brisk and the iPod was rolled out to an excited market in Europe. Later on in the first generation, a more robust 10 GB Toshiba hard drive was available as well.

1st Generation iPod

The Second Generation iPod Arrives in July 2002

The second generation iPod saw a couple of major changes, but nothing revolutionary to the already successful first generation iPod. First off, the storage capacity doubled and was now available in both 10 GB and 20 GB models. In addition, Apple taking note of who was purchasing their players, were utilizing special software to make their iPod compatible with Windows. Apple now included PIM software making iPod’s compatible with Window’s through MusicMatch. Apple had a business agreement with Music Match to offer legal downloads of music for iPod owners. The second generation iPod definitely was a solid product and was extremely successful for the time period, however with newer iPods on the horizon, Apple and the music industry would realize just how iconic the iPod would become.

The Third Generation Apple iPod

The third generation iPod was a complete redesign of the product. It helped propel sales of the iPod into the stratosphere. Earlier iPods utilized mechanical parts, however the 3G iPod was completely solid state. All the controls and the scroll wheel were now solid state. In addition the casing was slimmer. The original iPods were bulkier. With Apple realizing the many PC users buying iPods, it added a new dock connector that was compatible with USB 2.0 and Firewire. Other additions included beefed up storage including: 10 GB, 15 GB, 20 GB and 40 GB. And with the redesign came also a new battery, Sony’s lithium-ion battery.

iTunes Goes Online

While Apple did have an agreement with MusicMatch to offer downloadable digital music to iPod owners during the first formative years, Apple and Tony Fadell always envisioned creating and running their own store to make available legal downloads of music to iPod consumers. This became a reality in June 2003. While originally it started only for those running the OSX platform, a few months later, iTunes was compatible with Windows users as well.

iTunes was a cosmic shift for iPod owners. Now they can easily shop and directly download legal digital music onto their iPod music player. With millions of songs available, purchasing a wide range of music from major labels was now a reality and its success grabbed the attention of the music industry, computer industry and media industries all over the world.

Fourth Generation iPod

With the success of the iPod in full swing, the fourth generation iPod was released in July 2004. It added additional features and revamped the styling with a slimmer case. Some of the new features available on the fourth generation iPod included a new color screen, the ability to view photos and additional storage capacity including 60 GB and 80 GB models. There were also some minor changes to the hold switch. It should also be noted that new iPod products were released most importantly the iPod Mini.

iPod 5^th and 6th Generations

Later Classic iPods including the 5^th generation and 6^th generation mainly stayed the same with some minor changes in hardware and firmware. While the casing was much slimmer than previous models the Classic iPod did increase storage capacity to 120 GB and 160 GB, however 160 GB has been discontinued. Also, features such as the ability to play video were added. It should also be noted that the Classic white iPod which at times was available in black as well was now silver.

The iPod Mini

The iPod Mini was released in 2004 to wide acclaim. The Mini was a smaller version of the Classic iPod and it took advantage of a smaller size hard drive that was developed by Hitachi. The hard drive was about half the size of the Classic’s hard drive. However, the storage capacity was significantly smaller. The first iPod Mini had a storage size of 4 GB, which was perfect for the many that used iPods for working out and other activities where a lighter weight and form was necessary. It included a click wheel and a smaller size screen with pretty much the same interface. It also came in five attractive colors including blue, green, pink, silver and gold. It originally listed for $249. There was a second generation iPod mini which bumped up the storage size to 6 GB, on the 2G iPod mini, the gold color was discontinued. The 2G model also had an extended battery life, going from 8 hours of audio to 18.

The iPod Nano

The iPod Mini was the beginning of the smaller size iPods. Storage was getting not only smaller, but offering higher capacities. This meant that the forms of new digital music players could be much smaller than ever before. Apple seized the opportunity to create a fully functional iPod in an extremely small form. The result was the iPod Nano.

The iPod Nano was released in September of 2005 to rave reviews. The iPod Nano was the mid level digital music player that while touted a smaller version form of the Classic iPod had a different kind of memory- flash memory. While Classic iPods had hard drives with all moving parts, the Nano was all solid state. This means that there are no moving parts which make it more reliable, especially if you shake it or drop it. The first generation iPod Nano came in either black or white, had a two inch color screen and had a storage capacity of 1 GB, 2GB and 4 GB. It should be noted that it also had the ability to view photos. The Nano was considerably smaller than the Classic, the weight of the Nano was only 1.5 oz and the measurements of the case were: 3.5 inches, by 1.6 inches by .27 inches thick. Currently there have been 4 generations of the iPod Nano.

The 2G iPod Nano

Released a year later in September of 2006, the 2G Nano came in several colors including silver, blue, green, pink, red and black. It also had larger storage capacities going all the way up to 8 GB.

The 3G iPod Nano

The third generation Nano was redesigned to give it a more bulky look. While still quite small, many found the form lacking. However, additional features were added including the ability to play video and a new interface. Storage topped out at 8 GB.

The 4G iPod Nano

The fourth generation Nano saw a return to it’s original form more or less with some slight changes and some added colors. It also includes some nifty features such as an accelerometer which allows you to shake to shuffle and added storage space going all the way up to 16 GB.

The iPod Shuffle

iPod Shuffle

Besides the iPod Nano, another product that Apple introduced to compliment its line of personal digital music players was the Shuffle. The Shuffle was released in early 2005. While it is known as the budget model of the Apple line up, it does offer a product for those consumers that are looking for a basic music player in a very small form. The Shuffle utilized flash memory just like the Nano, but it didn’t have all the bells and whistles like the Nano. The first generation Shuffle had no screen and a simple click wheel. It also had a form like many USB drives which allowed it to be directly inserted into a USB port to download music. Storage was small for the Shuffle. The first generation came with either 512 MB or 1 GB of storage capacity.

The second generation of the Shuffle was known as the clip. It was released in September of 2006 and it came in a multitude of colors. The clip was even smaller than the original shuffle at half the size. It literally clipped onto your clothing or hid in a pocket, perfect for people with active lifestyles. It also didn’t have a screen, but the interface was easy to use. However, it now required an included dock to connect to a computer.

The third generation of the Shuffle which was announced in March of 2009 is the smallest Shuffle to date. This Shuffle utilizes text to speech to alert the wearer which song is playing- since there is no display. The unit is so small that the controls are located on the right ear bud cable. The storage capacity of this device is 4 GB.

The iPod Touch

iPod Touch

While not an iPod, the iPhone which has become widely popular included a fully featured player with a large screen, flash memory and a wide variety of bells and whistles. The form of the iPhone was so popular that Apple decided it could also sell an iPod based upon the iPhone. The iPod Touch is this creation. The Touch offers those that like the touch screen of the iPhone as the user interface for this music player. In fact, the Touch looks pretty much identical to the iPhone and while it doesn’t have many of the iPhone features it is less costly and does not require a phone contract. The Touch also offers video playback and wifi including the Safari browser which makes it easy to connect to iTunes and download music directly wirelessly to your Touch. Storage for the Touch comes in either 8 GB, 16 GB or 32 GB flash memory making it solid state.

There is a second generation of the iPod Touch, however the styling for the most part has stayed the same (a slight tapering of the back). The 2G Touch offers additional features such as Nike+ functionality, a built in speaker and buttons to control volume.

Obviously one of the great inventions of our time has been the computer. Today, billions use computers in their daily life. While the first computers were extremely large and took up entire rooms, today, computers are extremely small and can not only fit on your desktop, but in your phone and on chips the size of grains of rice. Throughout the years, the computer has evolved from an extremely expensive, cumbersome and slow device to today’s extremely smart and quick machines with incredible processing power.

Here is the history of computers.

The First Computer

While there was no single person that is widely credited with inventing the computer, many view Konrad Zuse and his Z1 machine as the first in a long line of innovations that have given us the computer of today. Konrad Zuse was a German whose claim to fame is the creation of the first freely programmable mechanical computing device in 1936. Many would see Zuse’s Z1 as the first of a long line of calculators. Zuse found that one of the most difficult aspects of completing large calculations on the calculation devices of the day (a slide rule or mechanical adding machine) was the ability to keep track of the many results that would then have to be recomputed to give a final answer. Zuse’s Z1 was created with a focus on 3 basic elements that are still necessary in today’s calculators- it is necessary to have a control, it is necessary to have a memory to store results of each step and it is necessary to perform calculations.

Zuse Z1

In later additions of his Zuse computer, Konrad Zuse created the Z2 and Z3. The innovations to his computers were quite important. The Z2 was the first fully functioning electro- magnetic computer and the Z3 was the first fully electronic and digital computer that included the ability to be programmed. The Z3 was programmed with a binary floating point number and switching system. It even included storage which used tape in the form of old movie reels. In those days most business machines used punched paper, however in Germany at the time, paper was extremely expensive.

The Harvard Mark I Computer

With World War II blazing on, the US government realized that it needed to be more innovative than ever in order to gain the upper hand. At major universities across America, many scientists and mathematicians worked hard on innovating new ways to keep up with the technology that was quickly advancing. Much of the focus was on making rockets and ballistics more precise- which required complex calculations. At Harvard, the first of the MARK series computers were being built. The MARK I began in 1944. This computer was absolutely huge and filled a room that was 55 feet long by 8 feet high. It contained an amazing array of components. In fact, in all it had over 760,000 parts. It was loud and clicked and clanged like a huge factory. However, the MARK 1 turned out to be a success. It was utilized by the US Navy for calculations of ballistics. It performed well for the next 15 years, being in service till 1959.

The MARK I used pre punched paper tape, it could perform a wide variety of calculations including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and it was able to hold and reference a previous result used in its calculations. It even had the capability to compute numbers with up to 23 decimal places. As for the vastness of this machine, it was not only loud and had hundreds of thousands of parts, but included 500 miles of wire. While the computer itself was high tech for its time, the output was not digital, the MARK 1 used a simple electric typewriter to display results. Speed was also lacking with a typical multiplication computation taking from 3 to 5 seconds.

The ENIAC Computer

The ENIAC computer is known as being one of the most important achievements in computing. The computer was commissioned during WWII and it was originally commissioned and used by the US military for ballistics research for computing tables. The ENIAC stands for Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator. It was developed by John Mauchly and J Presper Eckert. While John Mauchly created several previous calculating machines, this machine would be different. The ENIAC would use vacuum tubes instead of electric motors and levers to speed up calculations. ENIAC was originally designed starting in 1943, however it wasn’t built and ready for operation until 1946. The total cost of the ENIAC was $500,000. While it was originally built for ballistics it was used for a whole host of issues including weather, random number studies and even wind tunnel design. The ENIAC had an enormous amount of vacuum tubes- over 14,000 and included 70,000 resistors and over 5 million soldered joints. It covered a space of 187 square meters and weighed over 30 tons. This computer was enormous.

ENIAC

Regarding speed, the ENIAC was blazing fast for the technology in those times. It one second, the ENIAC could perform 5,000 additions, 357 multiplications or 38 divisions. The speed of the ENIAC was about 1,000 times faster than any other calculating device during that era. The ENIAC stayed in operation until 1955.

The First Random Access Memory (RAM)

In 1946, RAM was first introduced and started to be utilized as an effective data storage device. While the ability to use a cathode ray tube were being studied for several years, the Williams tube was the first RAM to be utilized in computers. RAM or Random Access Memory is an easy way to store computer instructions that can be used over and over by the computer without unnecessary programming. The first RAM was actually a metal detector plate that was in position close to a vacuum tube which detected the difference in electrical charges. On a CRT screen, one can see the difference between these charges as either a dot or pixel of green or black- this in essence was binary code either 0 or 1. With the advent of RAM, rewiring each time a new program was installed was no longer necessary and programming itself became more convenient and quicker. This type of memory was used until core memory took over in 1955.

The Manchester Baby and Manchester MARK I

With plenty of innovations taking place in the 1940′s after the war, faster and more complex computers were being built on both sides of the Atlantic. England had its own successes with early computers specifically the Manchester Baby and the Manchester MARK I. The Manchester Baby was developed by Telecommunications Research Establishment and it decided to build a computer based on the Williams tube. One of the designers Tom Kilburn devised an even more impressive way to storing data than the current Williams tube was able to handle. Kilburn’s new innovation allowed the storage capacity to include 2048 bits of information. The Manchester Baby was the first computer to use a stored program, it went live in 1948.

The Manchester MARK I

Besides the Manchester Baby, the Manchester MARK I was commissioned to be built and in 1951 the Manchester went live. The Manchester built upon the successes of the day’s computers and while it showed tremendous progress against computers built just a few years ago, it also showed researchers that there was also enormous potential for the computer.

The UNIVAC

Besides the ENIAC, one of the most popular computers of the past is the UNIVAC. The UNIVAC stands for Universal Automatic Computer. It was built and developed by those that created the ENIAC computer. Instead of working for the US military, the UNIVAC was first sold to the US Census Bureau that required a computer for complex computations dealing with the explosion in the US population. In 1946, the US Census Bureau gave a $300,000 deposit for the development and creation of the UNIVAC. It was stated in the contract that it would pay no more than $400,000 for the computer, however falling into financial difficulties and cost over runs, the UNIVAC was delivered at the cost of 1,000,000 dollars. In fact, the UNIVAC was now owned by the Remington Rand Corporation which sold the first UNIVAC at a loss in the hopes that later sales of the computer would pay back their initial investment.

The UNIVAC computer was extremely cutting edge for its day. It was fast and able to handle many computations. In fact, it can add in 120 microseconds, multiply in 1,800 micro seconds and divide in 3,600 microseconds. It was also able to read characters that were fed via magnetic tap at a speed of 12,800 characters per second. All in all it was one of the fastest and most innovative computers of its day. In fact, the UNIVAC received public praise and notoriety when it was used to predict the next president of the United States.

IBM and the Computer

IBM today is known for bringing the first widely affordable and available personal computer (PC) to the masses, however earlier in the 20^th century they were widely known for their punch card business machines such as calculators. The first IBM general purpose computer was the IBM 701. In 1953, the 701 was developed in part due to the Korean War. The goal was that a computer was needed in helping to compute and keep track of the effort of policing Korea. The IBM 701 not only delivered one computer for the Korean War cause, but built 19. Some went to atomic research, others went to aircraft companies and research facilities including the US Weather Bureau. At the time, a company or large organization could rent the 701 for $15,000 per month. It was built with storage tubes for memory and used magnetic tape to store information. It also should be noted that the new computer language FORTRAN was utilized in the new 701.

IBM 701

Besides the IBM 701, there were other IBM computers to follow including the 704, the first super computer to utilize floating point hardware and a magnetic core memory that was much faster than magnetic drum stored memory. The IBM 7090 also was a big success being IBM’s first commercial transistorized computer. It was built in 1960 and was the fastest computer of its day. IBM capitalized on the 7090 and it dominated business computers for the next 20 years.

The Integrated Circuit – The Chip

One of the biggest innovations to the computer was the integrated circuit (IC) or the chip as it is now known. In fact, the chip has made the computer extremely powerful and affordable so that practically everyone in the world today can own a computer. The chip has had an enormous influence on reducing the cost of the computer, literally cutting it by a factor of a million to one.

The chip was actually invented by two different entities at about the same time without either entity knowing about the other. However, both companies were extremely smart and combined their licensing agreements to take advantage of the huge market for the technology. In the first few decades of computer creation, in order to make a computer more powerful or add innovation, it usually required more and more parts, however with a chip, everything can be placed on an extremely small piece of silicon.

The first commercial integrated circuits or chips were sold in 1961. While first bought up by the military they later were used in the first mobile calculators. While the first chip had one transistor, three resisters and one capacitor which fit on a space less than a square inch, today’s chips are much smaller and can hold more than 125 million transistors.

The First Microprocessor- A Computer on a Chip by Intel Corp.

While the IC chip (integrated circuit) was already developed, Intel was the first to put a complete microprocessor or computer on a single chip. The first Intel chip to do so was the 4004.

Intel 4004

The 4004 was able to put a central processing unit, memory, input and output controls on one super small chip. This chip had huge implications to almost anything digital and as the years went on, Intel was able to create smaller, more powerful chips that actually cost less. The personal computer of today has the Intel 4004 chip to thank for its ability to be incredibly powerful and affordable for the consumer.

The First Consumer Computers

If you wanted to use a computer in the 1960′s or 1970′s, these huge devise were not only very rare- only available to students and researchers at major universities, but extremely costly to run. However, for those that were interested and fascinated by computers, most were looking for ways to own their very own affordable computer. One of the first consumer computers to hit the market was the MITS Altair 8800. It was developed in 1973 and 1974 and was first sold in 1975 as the “World’s First Minicomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models”. The computer included an 8080 CPU, 256 byte RAM card and a new bus that had 100 pins. It was a kit, so it needed to be put together by the customer and sold for $400.

The First Apple Computers

During the mid 1970′s, there were plenty of hobby computers for sale however many were difficult to put together, had plenty of indistinguishable switches and must be programmed using difficult languages. Steve Wozniak was a computer hobbyist and started Apple Computers with his friend Steve Jobs. At first they showed off the Apple I computer. The Apple I came equipped with a single circuit board, video interface, 8K of RAM, a keyboard and was made with affordable components including the 6502 processor that cost only $20.

Apple 1

While about 200 Apple I computers were sold in 1976, in 1977, at the first West Coast Computer Faire, the Apple II was released with many of the same components, an increase of RAM and a floppy disk drive. While the first Apple computer sold for $666.66, the second was a little more polished and more expensive selling for $1,298.

1977 Was a Banner Year for the Home Computer

During 1977, Apple II, Commodore Pet and the Radio Shack TRS80 all became available for the home. With both Apple II and TRS80 computers using floppy disk drives, it now made it easier for software developers to create and sell programs to the masses. One company that started to grow and even trademarked their name in 1977 was Microsoft.

The IBM PC

IBM has had an enormous influence on the computers that we use today. While many computers that IBM first created were for defense or for large government organizations and corporations, IBM started to notice that there was a tremendous amount of demand building up for home computers in the 1970′s. In the late 1970′s and into 1980 IBM developed a personal computer known as the PC. It went on to be released to the public in August of 1981. The IBM PC grabbed the attention of the public and many businesses that realized that since IBM was selling PC’s to the public, there must be real demand.

IBM PC

Out of the PC came numerous companies that innovated the PC. And since the IBM PC was based on off the shelf parts and had an open architecture, many businesses would be able to support and even start to build computers of their own. The first IBM PC had a 4.77 MHZ Intel 8088 microprocessors, 16 KB of RAM, two 160K floppy drives and even an optional color monitor. While the price was still on the expensive end- $1,565, many hailed this as the beginning of the home computing market.

The Apple Macintosh

While the IBM PC definitely took off, not only for consumers, but small and medium businesses, Apple computers still continued to be dominant in the market. In 1984, the Apple Macintosh was released. The Apple Macintosh while not an immediate success in sales as the company hoped for, did have one of the first GUI (graphical user interfaces) that made computing much more attractive and easy to use. In addition, the Apple Macintosh also had an 8 MHZ processor, 128K of RAM, a floppy disk drive and a monitor, it went into production from January of 1984 to October of 1985 and cost around $2,500. However, it lacked in memory and was difficult to use with its one single floppy disk drive.

Microsoft Windows- Software Sells Computers

With the personal computer market starting to build up steam in the early and mid 80′s many companies realized that a graphical user interface was the best way to operate and perform tasks on a computer easily. While several companies created operating systems for PC’s, none stuck, because there was no support. However, Microsoft had the backing of the computer makers specifically IBM which helped them legitimize their product and sell their OS Windows. It should be noted that Apple did not license out either its hardware or software to third parties reducing the growth of their computer market share. Windows was originally announced late in 1983, but didn’t come to market until two years later with Windows 1.0.

Bill Gates - Microsoft Windows 1.0

With the later editions of Windows, 2.0 and 3.0 Microsoft included desktop icons and many of the features that are now a staple of home computing today. During the late 80′s WISYWIG programs (what you see is what you get) were introduced including updates of word processing software and updated spreadsheet programs to make these computer programs for home and small businesses easier and more powerful to use.

The Computers of Today

A lot has changed since IBM introduced its first PC. Today, computers have infiltrated into practically every aspect of our lives. Today, computers are extremely powerful, extremely small and more affordable than ever. With the advent of the internet in the late 60′s and the growth of the world wide web decades later, the computer is used as a powerful tool to communicate and conduct commerce.

In fact, the computer has been a tremendous engine in world wide growth and has helped raise the quality of life for potentially billions of people. As the computer becomes more and more sophisticated and morphs with a wide variety of other aspects of our lives, where and how the computer will continue to evolve is still unimaginable.

Learn how to buy a computer.

As a final shot, let me leave you with a cool video of the First Google Server.