Long before wholesale computers dominated our consciousness, some person had to think up this ensconced marvel of the current era. Who thought up and built the first computer and set up the possibilities for phenomena like computer wholesalers? The background is not necessarily completely agreed upon. Pundits say Charles Babbage; others make the claim for Konrad Zuse. Let's investigate the known facts in favor of each. (Or if you prefer, you can run to the laptop that you ordered on the Web from a computer wholesale supplier and click on Bing, but even then, you may not know for sure the answer!)

Let's start with Babbage who was alive from 1791 to 1871. A mechanical engineer, Mr. Babbage designed many machines that were intended to perform calculations automatically. He designed what came to be known as "the difference engine" and what was called the "analytical engine". The analytical engine was to be programmable using cards; at least, that was the design. Babbage, however, did not construct either of these two inventions. In the early 1990s, the London Science Museum constructed the "difference engine" to the original design and using 19th century specifications. It operated! Thus, although he did not actually construct a working machine, many credit him with its invention. So is this who you should thank for wholesale computers? Maybe, maybe not!

After Babbage came Zuse who lived from 1910 to 1995. He was a German engineer who was an employee of a German aircraft company. During World War II, he concluded he wished to invent a sort of automatic calculator with memory. During six years till 1941, he made the Z1, Z2 and Z3 computers. The latter is credited with being the first programmable computer, in certain quarters. It weighed 1000 kilograms - a far cry from the little notebook that you can have sent from a computer wholesaler for just a few dollars because it weighs in at almost nothing in comparison to the Z3. Zuse's Z3 invention was destroyed when Berlin was bombed in 1943. But a functional replica was reconstructed in the early 1960s. So was this the first electronic computer?

Many say that since Konrad Zuse actually constructed a working machine, he is the "father of the modern computer", while others support Charles Babbage does, since his predecessor plan did in fact function when finally put together. The question will likely not be resolved, because some suggest a much, much earlier date of invention. The forerunner to the modern wholesale computer, they suggest, is an abacus dating back centuries.

So all really depends upon exactly the question you are asking. In fact, the development of knowledge that led to electronic computers and to the computer wholesale choices you have now is a product of the entire past. So hats off to the abacus, Zuse, Charles Babbage and everything that came after!