Behind the history of the computer stands one man in particular – Konrad Zuse. The Berliner developed the world’s first personal computer back in 1941.
25-year-old Konrad Zuse loves his job as a structural engineer at Henschel Flugzeugwerke in Berlin. However, the graduate mechanical and civil engineer hates the same calculations that are inevitably part of his job. In 1935, Konrad Zuse decided to develop a calculating machine. In the future, it should automatically calculate everything for the structural engineer. His Z3 calculating machine will make history as the world’s first computer.
Konrad Zuse has been tinkering since he was a child. At the age of 14 he built a tangerine vending machine. If you insert a coin, the machine spits out fruit. The machine even gives out change.
Born in 1910, Konrad Zuse spent countless hours with Stabil’s metal construction kit, which was very popular with young people at the time. The 18-year-old Zuse uses the individual parts to model a loading crane for coal. As a special award, he received a certificate of honor from the Stabil company for his model.
Konrad Zuse builds on the binary system
Konrad Zuse brought the necessary inventor gene with him when the structural engineer set about developing a calculating machine in his parents’ apartment in an old building in Berlin. In 1938 the Z1 computer was created. The part weighs a ton and is powered by a vacuum cleaner motor. In the late 1930s, arithmetic was a very mechanical and noisy business.
The Z1 is considered to be the first freely programmable computer. However, Konrad Zuse quickly noticed the weaknesses of his Z1. The computer is stuck in the truest sense of the word. Because all shifts are purely mechanical. The thin sheet metal strips used for this regularly get caught.
Even with the Z1, the Berliner was pursuing the idea of creating a “mechanical brain”. Konrad Zuse relies on the binary number system. His Z1 only knows two states: “true” or “false”. Computers still use this system today, only the states have been replaced by the numbers “1” and “0”. The binary system forms the basis for today’s digital age.
Konrad Zuse reworked his Z1 and used electromagnetic relays instead of thin sheet metal. A relay usually only knows two positions, “power on” or “power off”.
Also read: Google – a story about a garage and a 1 with many zeros
Z3 – the world’s first computer
In 1939 the Z2 computer was completed. Because the financial resources are not enough, the Z2 remains only a prototype. The calculating machine weighs only 300 kilograms and has a 16-bit memory.
Alfred Teichmann, head of department at the Institute for Strength at the German Research Institute for Aviation (DVL), found out about the Z2. Teichmann sees a lot of potential for aviation in Konrad Zuse’s calculating machine.
The aviation expert deals with the phenomenon of rhythmic twisting of wings and tail at certain speeds, the so-called flutter. In the worst case, this can cause planes to crash. To minimize flutter, aircraft engineers have developed a specific process. However, this requires a lot of calculations. Alfred Teichmann would like to automate this in the future with Konrad Zuse’s calculating machine.
For this reason, Teichmann gave Konrad Zuse 25,000 Reichsmarks, the equivalent of almost 160,000 euros. The goal: to make the Z2 more stable and better so that the calculating machine can take over the complex calculations in aeronautical engineering.
Konrad Zuse got to work and presented the Z3 to a group of scientists on May 12, 1941. This calculating machine is considered the first universal calculator and thus the first computer in the world.
The first computer is the size of a closet and weighs about a ton. The Z3 has more than 2000 relays for the arithmetic work. The clock frequency is 5 Hertz. To get an idea of the computing power: adding numbers takes about 0.8 seconds with the Z3, multiplying numbers just under 3 seconds.
Why doesn’t Konrad Zuse become a great developer?
Unfortunately, the original Z3 was destroyed in an air raid in 1943. Only drawings exist. In the 1960s, Konrad Zuse had the Z3 built. Zuse KG, the company founded by Konrad Zuse in 1949, is responsible for the replica.
Because after the end of the Second World War, Konrad Zuse tinkered with other calculating machines. However, the big hit is missing. In the mid-1940s, technicians in the USA and Japan also worked on new types of calculators. Development in these countries is progressing much faster.
Konrad Zuse later said that although he had a great deal of inventive talent, he lacked commercial talent and luck. The inventor of the first computer openly admits that the Americans and Japanese were simply smarter.
In 1969, Siemens took over Zuse KG. Konrad Zuse left his own company two years earlier. The computer pioneer then devoted himself to his second passion – painting. On December 18, 1995, the man who invented the computer died.