Who “discovered” the computer?
Spike Milligan, in his book The Little Pot Boiler, wrote a short piece called “Telephones”. In his usual madcap manner he talks about The Telephone as having been “discovered” in the same way that penicillin for example was accidentally discovered by Alexander Fleming.
I must share with you a quote from this piece, which I hope you will find as funny - and profound - as I did. “The first telephone proved to be useless until the arrival of the second.”
Unfortunately, Spike is no longer with us. If he were, I think I would ask him to write something in a similar vein about the discovery of the computer. I doubt if he would stick to the facts! However, it’s possible he may have modified the above quote by saying that the first computer proved to be useless because nobody knew how to use it. Which is more or less true. I’m referring to a contraption called the Difference Engine. Go on. Do a quick image search on “difference engine” and you’ll get some idea of why no one could use it. Amazing beast, though, isn’t it!
The “discovery” of this beast is attributed to a gentleman by the name of Charles Babbage. I had to tell you all this in case you didn’t already know. Otherwise, you’d have no idea what this cartoon is all about!
Cartoon from The Domestic Scene in Microholics
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