Use of Punched Cards by Hollerith

A step in the direction of automated computing was the development of punched cards, which were first successfully used with computers in year 1890 by Herman Hollerith (left) and James Powers, who worked for  US. Census Bureau. They have developed devices that could read the information that had been drilled in the cards automatically, without the human help. Because of this, reading errors were reduced significantly, work flow increased and most importantly stacks of punched cards could be used as easily/with no trouble accessible memory of almost unlimited size. Moreover, different problems could be stored on different stacks of the cards and accessed when needed.

These great advantages were seen by the commercial companies and soon led to the development of improved punch-card using computers developed by International Business Machines (IBM), Remington (the same people that make shavers), Burroughs, and other the corporations. These computers used electro-mechanical devices in which electrical power offered mechanical motion like turning the wheels of an adding machine. Such systems included characteristics to:

•   feed in a specific number of cards automatically
•  add, multiply, and kind
•  feed out cards with punched results

As to compared to today’s machines, these computers were slow, usually processing 50-220 cards per minute, each card holding about 80 decimal characters (numbers). At the time, however, punched cards were a massive step forward. They offered a means of I/O, and memory storage on a vast scale.

For more than 50 years after their first make use of, punched card machines did most of the world’s first business computing, and considerable amount of the computing work in science.

THE FATHER OF COMPUTER: CHARLES BABBAGE

Charles Babbage was in born in Walworth on 26 December, 1791. He attended Cambridge University in 1810 to study mathematics and graduated without honors from Peterhouse in 1814, after it, he received MA degree in 1817. After getting graduation he got marry with Georgiana Whitmore with whom he had eight children, three of whom lived to adulthood, the couple from them made their home in London off Portland Place in the year 1815. His Wife, father and two of his children died in year 1827. In 1828 Babbage decided to move Marylebon, which remained his home till his death on 18^th October 1871. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in year 1816 and he was also the Lucasian chair of mathematics at the Cambridge University, England from 1828 to 1839. He was also a mathematician, philosopher and mechanical engineer, Babbage is best remembering for originating the concept of a programmable computer.

In 1812, Babbage realized that many lengthy calculations, especially those who needed to make mathematical tables, were really a chain of predictable actions that were constantly repeated. From this he supposed that it should be possible to do these automatically. He started to design an automatic mechanical calculating machine, which he named a difference engine. By 1822, he had working model to demonstrate with. With the financial help from the British government, Babbage started fabrication of a difference machine in year 1823. It was intended to be steam powered and fully automatic, including the printing of the resulting tables, and commanded by a fixed instruction program.

The difference machine, although adaptability and limited applicability, was in reality great progress. Babbage continued to work on it for the next 10 years, but in 1833 he lost interest because he thought he had a better idea the structure of what today would be a general objective, fully controlled by program, automatic mechanical digital computer. Babbage named this idea an analytical Engine. The ideas of this design showed a lot of foresight, although this could not be appreciated until a full century later.

The plans for this great engine required an identical decimal computer operating on numbers of 50 decimal digits (or words) and having a storage capability (memory) of 1,000 such digits. The built-in operations were supposed to include everything that a modern general purpose computer would need, even the all important Conditional Control Transfer Capability that would allow commands to be executed in any order, not just the order in which they were programmed.The analytical engine was soon to use punched cards (similar to those used in a Jacquard loom), which would be read into the machine from several different Reading Stations. The machine was supposed to operate automatically, by steam power, and require only one person there.

The computer of Babbage was never finished. A lot of reasons are used for his failure. Most used is the lack of accuracy machining techniques at the time. Another assumption is that Babbage was working to find a solution of a problem that few people in year 1840 really needed to solve. After Babbage, there was a little bit loss of interest in automatic digital computers.

Between 1850 and 1900 most great advances were made in mathematical physics, and it came to be known as most observable dynamic phenomena can be recognized by differential equations (which meant that the most events occurring in nature can be measured or explained in one equation or another), so that easy it means for their calculation would be helpful.

Furthermore, from a practical view, the availability of steam power caused manufacturing (boilers), transportation (steam engines and boats), and commerce to prosper and led to a period of lots of engineering achievements. The designing of railroads and making of steamships, textile mills, and bridges required differential calculus to find out such things as:

·         center of gravity

·         center of buoyancy

·         moment of inertia

·         stress distributions

Even the assessment of the power output of a steam engine needed mathematical integration. A strong need thus developed for a machine that could rapidly perform many repetitive calculations.

The Birth of Computer: In The Beginning

The history of computers starts out about 2000 years ago, at that time the birth of the abacus; this is a wooden rack holding two horizontal wires with beads strung on them. When these beads are moved around, According to programming rules memorized by the user, all regular arithmetic problems can be done. Another important invention around at the same time was the Astrolabe, it used for navigation.

Blaise Pascal is credited for building the first digital computer in 1642. He added numbers entered with dials and it was made to help his father, a tax collector. During 1671, Gottfried Wilhelm vonLeibniz created a computer that was built in 1694. It could add, and, after make changing some things around, multiply. Leibniz a special stepped gear mechanism for introducing the addend digits, and the great thing is that this is still being used.

The prototypes made by both Pascal and Leibniz were not used in many places, and considered weird until a little more than a century later, when Thomas of Colmar (A.K.A. Charles Xavier Thomas) invented the first successful mechanical calculator that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. A large number of improved desktop calculators by many inventors followed, so that by about 1890, the variety of improvements included:

• Accumulation of one-sided results 

• Storage and automatic re-entry of previous results (A memory function) 

• Printing of the results

Each of these required manual installation. All of these improvements were mainly made for commercial users, and not for just the needs of science.

A Little Accurate Definition of Education

There are several different definitions and meanings of education as in MEANING, AIMS AND PROCESS OF EDUCATION, guide us to the conclusion that education should have a complete definition. therefore, education may be defined as a psychological, conscious or unconscious, purposive, sociological, scientific and philosophical process, which brings about the development of the individual to the fullest extent and as well the maximum development of society in such a way that both enjoy maximum happiness and prosperity.

To cut a long story short,

Education is the development of individuality according to his needs and demands of society, of which he is an essential part.

In the First article MEANING, AIMS AND PROCESS OF EDUCATION, observations of different educators highlight the following special features of education:

• Education is both, independent as well as bi-polar in nature.

• It is a unbroken process.

• It is knowledge with experience.

• It is progress of particular aspects of human personality or a harmonious integrated growth.

• It is conducive for the good of the human being or the welfare of the society.

• It is a broad-minded discipline or a vocational course.

• It is stabilizer of social order, an instrument of change, conservator of culture and social reconstruction.

GOODNESS, HOW IS IT PRODUCED?

Goodness of character does not come by nature, but is produced by habituation.

Goodness, then, being of two kinds, goodness of intellect and goodness of character, intellectual goodness is both produced and increased mainly by teaching, and therefore experience and time are required for it. Goodness of character, on the other hand, is the outcome of habit, and accordingly the word "ethos," character, is derived from "Ithos," habit, by a slight modification in the quantity of the vowel.

From this it is evident that no form of goodness of character is produced in us by nature; nothing which is by nature can be habituated to be other than it it For example, a stone, which naturally tends to fall downwards, cannot be habituated to rise upwards, not even if we try to train it by throwing it up an indefinite number of times, nor can anything else that acts in one way by nature be habituated to act in another way. Goodness, then, is not produced in us either by nature or in opposition to nature; we are naturally capable of receiving it, and we attain our full development by habituation.

Secondly, in the case of everything that comes to us by nature, we first acquire the capacities and then produce the activities. This is clear if we test it by the senses. It is not by seeing often or hearing often that we got the senses of sight and hearing. On the contrary, we had the senses first and then used them; we did not get them by using them. There various forms of goodness. The things which we are to do when we have learnt them, we learn by doing them; we become, for instance, good builders by building and good lyre players by playing the lyre. In the same way it is by doing just acts that we become just, by doing temperate acts that we become temperate, and by doing brave deeds that we become brave. What actually happens in states is evidence of this. It is by habituation that lawgivers make citizens good and this is the aim of every lawgiver. Those who do not it well, fail in their aim, and this is just the difference between a good constitution and a bad one.

Again, the material from which and the means by which any form of goodness is produced and those by which it is destroyed are the same. This is so too with any form of art; for it is by playing the lyre that both good and bad lyre-players are produced, and it is the same with builders and the rest. It is by building well that they will become good builders and by building badly that they will become bad builders. If it were otherwise, we should have no need of anyone to teach us; all would become good or bad as the case might be. So too in the case of goodness. It is by acting in business transactions between man and man that we become just or unjust as the case may be, and it is by acting in the moment of danger and habituating ourselves to fear and not to fear that we become cowards or brave men. So too it is with our desires and feelings of anger. Some people become moral and good-tempered, while others become immoral and bad-tempered, according as they behave themselves in one may or another in these matters. In one word, conditions of soul arise from activities of like character to the conditions. What we have to do, then, is to qualify out activities, since the differences between the conditions of soul correspond to the differences of the activities which give rise to them. It is of no little importance, then, that we should be habituated this way or that from the earliest youth; it is of great importance, or rather all important.

Now our present study is not, like others, a theoretic  one. The object of our inquiry is not to know what goodness is, but to become good ourselves. Otherwise it would be of no use whatever. We must therefore consider actions, and how they ought to be performed; for, as we have said, it depends entirely upon our actions what the character of our conditions of soul will be. That we should act according to the right rule is common ground and we may assume it. But we must come to an understanding at the outset that every description of how we should act must be a mere sketch; it cannot be exact. At the very start we laid down that the kind of discussion required in any case must be such as the subject-matter admits of, and that our statements about action and what is good for us can have no fixity, any more than statements about health. And, if this is true of the subject generally, it will be still more true that the discussion of particular points admits of no exactitude. They do not fall under any art or professional tradition, but the agents themselves must in every case consider what the occasion demands, just as in the case of navigation and medicine. Still, though this is the nature of the present subject, we must do what we can to come to the rescue.

“Analogy shows that the sort of activities which will produce goodness are activities in a mean. The mean is in feelings and actions, mainly in pleasure and pain, which are the true materials of goodness.”

The first point to be observed, then, is that in things of this character excess and defect are both destructive. We must use as evidence of what is obscure such things as are clear, and we see that this is to in the case of health and strength. Both excess and defect of gymnastic exercises destroy strength, and in the same way excess and defect of food and drink destroy health, while the right proportion produces, increases, and preserves it. It is the same with temperance, courage, and the other forms of goodness. The man that shuns and fears everything and faces nothing becomes a coward; the man that fears nothing and goes to meet every danger becomes rash. In the same way, the man who indulges in every pleasure and never refrains from any becomes intemperate, and the man who shuns all pleasures, like the boors, becomes insensible. So temperance and courage are destroyed both by excess and defect, and preserved by the mean.

Not only, however, do we find that the material and the means of the production, development and destruction of these conditions are the same, but also that the activities which arise from the conditions when formed have the same objects. This is in the less obscure cases, for instance in the case of strength. Strength is produced by taking a great deal of nourishment and undergoing a great deal of exertion, and it is just the strong man that can do these things best. So it is in the case of goodness. It is by abstaining from pleasures that we become temperate, and it is when we have become temperate that we are best able to abstain from them. So again with courage; it is by habituating ourselves to despise objects of fear and by facing them that we become courageous, and it is when we have become courageous that we shall best be able to face them.

A Little History About The Great Scientist

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was born at Stagira in Thrace. His father, a physician at the Macedonian court, died while Aristotle was young. At the age of 17 Aristotle went to Athens to become a student at Plato's Academy and remained for twenty years as a student and colleague. After Plato's death, Aristotle taught for three years in Asia Minor and spent another three years at Mytilene. Then he became tutor for about eight years to the young Macedonian pence mi who was to become Alexander the Great.

Upon Alexander's accession to the throne in 336 B.C. Aristotle returned to Athens. There he founded a school known as the Lyceum which soon outshone Plato's Academy, Indeed the Lyceum had many more of the characteristics of a modem university. It promoted research and intellectual exchange as well as teaching. It included a "Temple of the Muses," several lecture rooms, and a library and map room. These were set in a large garden where masters and students walked while discussing their subjects. (Members of the school came to be known as Peripatetics, from the Greek word meaning "to walk about.") It is said that Aristotle lectured to his students in the morning and in the afternoon offered lectures to which the general public was invited.

Many of Aristotle's earlier works and notes were lost. Only a small part remains of what must have been a more complete work on education. The works that have come down to us were preserved by his successor as head of the Lyceum and later compiled in Rhodes. His works were rediscovered in the 13th Century from Arabic versions.

Nicomachean Ethics was named for Aristotle's son, Nicomachus. The Politics is based on Aristotle's compilation and study of 158 Greek city-state constitutions as well as his own direct experience in politics. Like Plato, Aristotle is vitally concerned with the relationship between education and government. He sees the cornerstone of the ideal state as being in the training and guidance of the young. Being in the training and guidance of the young.

MEANING, AIMS AND PROCESS OF EDUCATION

In general speaking, ‘Education’ is utilized in three senses: Knowledge, Process and Subject.When a person achieves degree up to certain level we do not call it education. As example as if a person has obtained Master’s degree then use education as a very narrow sense and call the person has attained education up to Master level. In the second sense, education is utilized in a sense of discipline. As for example if a person had taken education as a paper or as a discipline during his study in any institution then we utilize education as a subject. In the third sense, education is used as a process. In actual fact when we talk of education, we talk in the third sense that is education as a process.

By going through the text you will be able

• To make out the meaning and concept of education

• To classify the narrower and wider meaning of education

• To describe the analytical meaning of education

• To know the aims and scope of education

Etymological Meaning of Education

In English the term “Education” has been derived from two Latin word Educare (Educere) and Educatum. “Educare” means to train. It again means to bring up or to lead out or to draw out, propulsion from inward to outward. The term “Educatum” denotes the act of teaching. It throws light on the principles and practice of teaching. The term Educare or Educere mainly indicates development of the latent faculties of the child. But child does not know these possibilities. It is the teacher or the educator who can know these and take appropriate methods to develop those powers.

If we mention certain definitions of education of great educators of the East and the West, we may have a clear picture of the nature and meaning of the term education.

According to Swami Vivekananda:

Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man. Like fire in a piece of flint, knowledge Exists in the mind. Suggestion is the friction; that brings out.

Mahatma Gandhi said:
By education, I mean an all-round drawing on the best in children and the body, the human mind and spirit

Rabindranath Tagore opinion about Education:

The highest education is that which does not only give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.

Rigveda opinion about Education:

Education is something, which makes it an autonomous man and self- less.

Upanishada opinion about Education:

Education is one whose end product is salvation.

Plato’s point of view:

Education develops in the body and soul of the student all the beauty and all the perfection of which he is capable.

Aristotle defines Education as:

Education is the creation of healthy mind in a healthy body. He develops the faculty of man especially his mind so that he can be able to enjoy the contemplation of the supreme truth, goodness and beauty.

Rousseau’s point:

Education is the development of the interior of the child.

Froebel shares his idea about Education as:

Education is enfoldment what is already wrapped in the germ. It is the process by which the child is the internal-external.

Pestalozzi’s thought about Education:

Education is the harmonious and progressive development of all the powers and faculties of physical mandate, intellectual and innate morality.

J.F.Herbert shares his thinking about Education:

Education is the development of good character.

John Dewey writes in his book to clarify the Education as:

Education is not a preparation for life, but rather life. Education is the process of life through continuous reconstitution experiments. It is the development of all the capabilities of the individual who will allow him to control his environment and fulfill its possibilities.

T.P.Nunn thought about Education:

Education is the complete development of the child's individuality so that it can make an original contribution to human life to the best of its ability.

From all above discussion it is now clear that since the times of Plato to the modern times of John Dewey and Gandhi, various educationists have cleared education in different ways. Speaking frankly, the field of education is so vast and varied that to give an exact definition of education about which all educationists agree is very difficult. We sew that some educationists have defined only one feature of education whereas the others emphasize its other phases. The reason of this difference of opinions is that different educationists, most of whom are philosophers, have different outlooks about the aim of life. According to Idealists, the aim of life is spiritual development. As such, they regard education as a spiritual process, which aims at bringing together the soul and the creator leading to self-realization. Pragmatists think about education as a process of social progress. Because of this difference in the philosophy of life, different educationists define education differently. The fact is that the real concept of education is not related solely to any of the above mentioned views. It is more than either of them. In a real logic, education is a kind of synthesis of all the above viewpoints. In this sense, education includes the individuals, the environment,  the society, the social fabric and the prevailing customs. Hence, the definition of education ought to be a very comprehensive and all-inclusive one.