On this day in 1936 German civil engineer, inventor and computer pioneer Konrad Zuse filed for a patent for the automatic execution of calculations, a process he invented while working on the Z1, Germany’s first computer. In the patent application Zuse used the term “combination memory” to refer to breaking programs down into bit combinations for storage. This became the first device to calculate in binary with translation to decimal.
Zuse went on to establish one of the earliest computer businesses in 1941 and produced the Z3, the world’s first programmable computer and the Z4, the world’s first commercial computer. Because of his achievements he is often referred to as the inventor of the modern computer.
Konrad Zuse
Zuse was also noted for the S2 computing machine, considered the first process control computer.
Nowadays, things are really different and the need for security on the internet is more and more under the lights…
Taking nothing away from Konrad Zuse’s achievements, I think it’s now more widely recognized that the first programmable computer was ‘Colossus’ used at Bletchley Park and built by Tommy Flowers, a GPO Engineer. Of course it’s very easy to get in to the semantics of “Programmable Computer” vs “Electronic Programmable Computer” vs “Electronic Computer” vs “Computer”