1895 – Steiger Gets “Millionaire” Patent
Otto Steiger was issued a patent for his millionaire calculating machine. For the next 40 years, Switzerland’s Hans Egli manufactured 4,700 machines, which weighed 120 pounds each. The Millionaire was notable in its ability to perform direct multiplication, which meant a user could multiply a number by a single digit with a single rotation of the handle.
1954 – IBM 704 Introduced
IBM announces the IBM 704 Data Processing System, the world’s first mass produced computer to feature floating point arithmetic hardware. Besides this ultra-geeky distinction, the IBM 704 will leave its mark in computer history before it is discontinued on April 7, 1960. Both the FORTRAN and LISP programming language were first developed for the IBM 704, as well as the first music application, MUSIC. Physicist John Larry Kelly Jr. of Bell Labs will synthesize speech for the first time in history o an IBM 704. Not bad for a mainframe.
1967 – Ralph Bear Plays First Two-Player Game: Fox and Hounds
Video game developer Ralph Baer plays the first two-player video game. Fox and Hounds was a game where the fox (a red dot) was chased by the hounds (white dots). The controllers were two knobs-horizontal and vertical. You would see how long you could avoid the hounds.
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