Information Technology Office history

One of the earliest, the Arithmometer, was created by Charles Xavier Thomas, who received French patents in 1820.

However, American Joseph Henry demonstrated this principle resoundingly in 1831 by sending an electrical current nearly a mile on wire that managed to ring a bell at the other end—the world’s first electrical doorbell.

Morse code was created by Samuel Morse in 1835.

Morse patented this invention in 1837.

One key player was an Italian, Innocenzo Manzetti, who developed an idea to get a voice to carry in 1843.

After several false starts, one of the earliest successes was a system created by Royal Earl House in 1846 which used a piano keyboard of twenty-eight keys representing letters in the alphabet with a shift key for alternative characters like punctuation.

While the latter brother is more famous because of his work in thermodynamics and more specifically for the absolute temperature scale he proposed in 1847 that bears his name (the Kelvin Scale), both brothers made significant contributions to the field of computer development.

Building upon his ideas, they created their own difference machine making it commercially available in 1853.

In 1854, his book An Investigation of the Laws of Thought he presented the idea that logic could be broken down into algebraic equations, and used algebraic equations to illustrate his point.

Another Italian, Antonio Meucci, in 1856 actually developed a device that sent sound from one floor to another in his house.

In 1862, Giovanna Caselli transferred the first image over wire via a tool he called a Pantelgraph.

He would go on to build a device to do this in 1864, calling it a “speaking telegraph.” Sadly, he did not pursue a patent.

One of the first wireless communications actually occurred in 1865 on a mountain in West Virginia.

In 1867, Edward A. Calahan, an employee of the American Telegraph Company, invented ticker tape to be used to help transmit investment and stock market information faster than ever before.

In 1871, he was investigating how to transport multiple messages at the same time, called harmonic telegraphy.

The telephone (one of the most popular forms of communication ever) was created by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.

Other important inventions during this time included Thomas Edison’s light bulb first demonstrated in 1879.

He then created the Edison Illuminating Company in 1880 to not only produce electricity using water-powered generators and turbines, he also developed a distribution system as well.

By 1882, New York City would become one of the first electrified cities in the world.

It was a very popular design until 1884 when Dorr Felt developed a new kind of calculator that worked by pressing keys, which was called a key-driven calculator.

In 1886, he developed a detector for high frequency oscillations, called a resonator.

Because of the massive growth in population, government officials feared that it might take even longer for the 1890 Census.

The first radio developed by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894.

His first transmission was in Italy in 1895.

He would continue his experiments and receive a patent in 1899.

In 1900, he managed to develop a method that made it possible to attach low-frequency sound to high frequency wireless signals that could be recovered by a receiver that upon receipt of the those signals would separate them.

The first big step in that direction came in 1906.

They partnered with the Morton Salt Company, calling themselves the Mortkrum Company, which took the new printing system to market in 1910.

1919 – James Smathers develops the first electric typewriter

The age of radio had begun, but it would not become commercially available until the 1920s.

Philo Farnsworth would file for a patent in 1927 for his complete television system he called the Image Dissector.

He received a patent for color television in 1929.

In a lecture presented at Cambridge University in 1936, he created the foundational concept of what modern computing could be.

In 1937, he presented his proposal to create something he would call the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, also known as the Mark 1, that in his mind would be “Babbage’s Dream Come True.” (McCartney, 27)

In 1939, he managed to develop an experimental digital data processing system.

The first large-scale automatic digital computer in the United States was the Mark 1 created by Harvard University around 1940.

Starting in 1941, he, along with his student assistant Clifford Berry, built a special purpose all-digital electronic machine powered by vacuum tubes that could solve linear algebraic equations.

It was originally built to calculate missile trajectories starting in 1943.

It’s importance to the history of computing was not so much its calculation ability as its use in demonstrating the potential for computers to the general public such as its big unveiling that occurred in 1944 and the fact that several key innovators would get their start working on this computer.

June 30, 1945: John Von Neumann published the First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, the first documented discussion of the stored program concept and the blueprint for computer architecture to this day.

While ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator), would not be used during the war, being unveiled in 1946, its development would have long-lasting implications for the advancement of modern computers and information technology.

What they created in their lab in 1947 was what would become known as a transistor.

In 1948, Frederick Williams, Geoff Toothill, and Thom Kilburn, who worked at the University of Manchester, created the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, nicknamed “Baby” to test a theory about high-speed, electronic computer storage using a cathode ray tube.

It was not until 1951 when electrical engineering company Ferranti International plc created the Ferranti Mark 1; that the world’s first general-purpose computer was commercially available.

In August 1955, they applied to the Rockefeller Foundation for funding.

In 1956, scientists at MIT would create the TX-0 (Transistorized Experimental Computer) which used a magnetic-core memory.

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first human-made satellite into space.

1959 – The first photocopier, the Xerox Machine enters the consumer market

This algorithm allowed computers to sort data faster than ever before. It would grow from there with more satellites providing greater accuracy.1960 Ken Olson and Harlan Anderson, founders of the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) created a system they called a Programmed Data Processor called the PDP-1.

In 1961, Leonard Kleinrock wrote a paper that offered the first glimpse into the future discussing a system that would become the Internet.

1962: IBM developed removable disc storage space, the 1311 Disk Storage drive.

1964: BASIC, a computer programming language, was first developed by two Dartmouth College scientists, John E. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz.

It was considered a precursor of the first “mini-computers,” which the company developed a few year later as the PDP-8 in 1965.

1967: Alan Shugart and David L. Nobel, working at IBM, created the first floppy disk drive (FDD). It used an eight-inch disk, sometimes called a diskette.

CompuServ Information Service, better known to most of us as CompuServe, became one of the first on-line service providers in the United States in 1969.

Others consider it to be 1971, when Ray Tomlinson sent the first-ever email.

In 1972, Ray Tomlinson’s introduced networked email and established the Internet Working Group (INWG) to begin establishing protocols to manage it.

1973: Larry Roberts built upon Tomlinson’s work and created an improved interface for e-mail for APRANET. He explored improving upon the concept of packet-switching which led to users being able to list, select, forward, and respond to e-mail messages.

1974 saw the advent of the first Internet Service Provider called Telenet, created in response to growing interest in a computerized communication network.

By 1976, 75% of all traffic on ARPANET would be using this e-mail format.

1978: The very first bulletin board system (BBS) was created in Chicago.

In 1981, IBM, introduced its first computer specifically designed for home use to the general public.

In 1982, Kunihiko Fukushima, an engineer, developed cognition and neo-cognition systems to better translate how an actual eye sees into a program for computers so they can “see” through the use of algorithms and back-propagation.

MILnet or military network is created in 1983 to separate civilian and military uses of the ARPANET.

In 1984, science fiction writer William Gibson introduced the term “Cyberspace” in his book Neuromancer.

A little behind Apple, a leader at this time, Microsoft introduces Windows in 1985 which also has a graphical user interface.

The Special Effects Computer Group at Lucas Films started to created computer-animated portions of movies. It would be sold to Steve Jobs in 1986 and renamed Pixar.

Cisco introduces its first Internet router in 1987.

Steve Dorner creates Eudora in 1988.

It was originally called PlayNET, but changed its name to AOL in 1989.

Dragon Systems in 1990 had made so much progress in computer language recognition that they created a system called “Dragon NaturallySpeaking” that could hear, understand, and transcribe the human voice.

Gopher Protocol was created in 1991 by Mark P. McCahill at the University of Minnesota.

1992 – Complete I.T. Founded

NCSA Mosaic became one of the very first Internet browsers, first released for public use in 1993.

But the question remained, “Can a machine think?”1994: Internet Explorer by Microsoft was introduced to the public.

First online dating site made its debut in 1995: Match.com.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page developed Google while at Stanford University in 1996.

The court also permitted PC makers to remove or hide Windows Explorer on their computers.1997: Netscape announced that its Internet browser would be free.In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov, a world champion chest player.

In 1998, Doctor Cynthia Breazeal created a robotic head named Kismet that could read and express emotion.

Also in 2000, the USB flash drive was introduced.

Again, the world learned that their new information toy was just as vulnerable to criminal activity as any other endeavor.In 2001, a federal judge shut down Napster.

It would profoundly change social networking.2004: Mozilla introduces Mozilla Firefox browser.

2006: AOL needed to change its business model so it became a free service and generated revenue through advertising.

In 2007, Apple released its first iPhone which provided computer functions such as web browsing, a music player, an application or app service, and cell phone all in one system.

Windows 7 was launched by Microsoft in 2009.

2010: New social media sites launched—Pinterest and Instagram.

The Nest Learning Thermostat was introduced in 2011.

2012 – Quad-core smartphones and tablets are releases, offering faster processing power

In 2013, the first carbon nanotube computer was developed by Stanford Researchers.

Microsoft Windows 10 was introduced in 2015.