1940-1959

1940 - 1959
1944 - Harvard Mark I Invented



**Konrad Zuse** was born in Berlin on June 22, 1910 and died on December 18, 1995. He was an engineer and a computer forerunner. His major contributions were making the Z3 which was the world’s first program controlled computer. He also made the first high level programming language called Plankalkül. Zuse also started the first computer business in 1941 called Zuse Ingenieurbüro und Apparatebau. His company then came up with the Z4 computer, the first commercial computer. Zuse also influenced America’s IBM Company. He also came up the concept of Calculating Space.





====Z3 was built in Berlin, 1941. The Z3 was designed by Konrad Zuse, but he did not completely built the Z3 himself. The Z3 was designed to perform statistic analyses of wing flutter for the German Aircraft Research Institution, and to make extensive calculations automatic. The Z3 was built with 2000 relay switches, and the codes were stored on punch films. Zuse asked for the relay switches to be replaced with the electronic switches but his request was denied by the German Government.==== ====In the image above is the fully working copy of the Z3 built by Konrad Zuse's company. The original Z3 was turned down and destroyed because the German soldiers thought it that it was not needed or important at the time.====

**Bibliography**

"Z3 (computer)." //Wikipedia //. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2015. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_%28computer%29>

"KONRAD ZUSE - Inventor of the First Working Computer." //KONRAD ZUSE - Inventor of the First Working Computer //. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2015.

**The Curta Calculator** was a small handheld invention that was very small and compact. It was a small cylinder that had to be hand cranked. It would do addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square roots. Curt Herzstark (1902- 1988) came up with the invention. The calculator was thought about in the 1930s. Herzstark was then taken into custody and put into a concentration camp during world war two, for being the son of a Jewish father. Though he was in a concentration camp he was encouraged to do his research still. Finally he was told that if his designs proved to be a good enough idea that the invention would be given to the Fϋhrer as a gift. The invention was designed to do exactly what it did, to calculate certain operations. The device works by putting in numbered slides into one side. There is a revolution counter and a result counter on the top. A single turn of the crank would add the numbers put in to the result counter. Lifting the lever slightly before a crank would do subtraction. Other operations were more complicated.