what can of technology was use back in the years before computers where invented?

Question

in today's society, everyone is pretty much depended on computers..but before they use another source of technology. im asking, "what else did they use before that?"

Answer 1

G'day Eli,

Thank you for your question.

Computers have a wide range of uses so various things were used before them. Slide rules or abacuses were used for calculation. Typewriters, pens or pencils or paper were used to create documents. Books and libraries were used as a reference source. People used to keep manual records.

Regards

Answer 2

There has always been a constant stream of new inventions at all times all around the world. However, once someone invented the first steel mills and the like, that's when everything changed. Now we were able to make larger buildings, cars, etc. Near the same point in history, we also got a grip on electricity. Now we could move power easily from one place to another over wires. This helped to make large mass production factories possible. Then came the computer. This allowed us to design things without actually having to build them to test them. Making the process of invention a whole lot easier and much faster. At least that's my personal take on the whole thing. Once we got the "industrial" and "computer" revolutions, invention has become an everyday practice.

Answer 3

can = kind
use = used -or- in use
depended = dependent

Dictionaries, for one thing ! If we weren't sure of the spelling of a word, we used to have time to go find a dictionary and look it up. And I do mean flipping paper pages in a book. Then we would pick up our pencil and continue writing. Because we knew we could never make it in a technological society unless we made ourselves understood when people saw our work.

Analog Electronics, chemistry, the telephone network, automobiles, flight, architecture, agriculture, and medicine were some major areas of research before computers were around.

Your question makes me wonder if computers will have been the last new technology mankind ever invents.

Answer 4

I would have to say that it was a mechanical kind of technology. The very best mechanical technologies were developed in clocks.Clockwork mechanisms then had many kinds of applications especially in manufacturing.
Even the earliest computers had a mechanical aspect...the data was entered into them on punchcards. Windows pretty much took most of the mechanics out of computers.

Answer 5

I can still find a phone number faster in a Rolodex than in my cellphone.

At the library they still have this thing call the 'Readers Guide to Periodical Literature' which is an index to magazine articles.

Accountants used ledger sheets to 'keep books'.

Manufacturing machines were controlled by punched paper tape.

Clocks had gears and springs.

Internet is kind of like telegraph and printing press was at that time in that it democratizes information and increases the speed at which we do business.

Answer 6

Computers originated from business and accounting machines. Every letter or digit is based on binary(0or1) systems. A zero would mean off and 1 would mean on. So its a system of on/off switches( in the thousand million range). They used adding machines,phones, and typewriters to do the same thing. Just like how you don't hear my voice, you read this. Same thing. By the way, I'm really old.

Answer 7

What kind of technology? the kind that came before computers. And what will be next? You are only in the current time not the future.

Answer 8

Easy. Pen and Paper. Math tables. Slide Rules. Mechanical Calculators. ( a type of mechanical computer ). Univac.

Answer 9

It would help to know what tasks you are referring to. Typewriters were used for word processing while calculators and adding machines were used for mathematical processes.
Telephones and telegraphs were used for communicating. As I said at the beginning of this, it would be much easier to respond to this if you specified the task.

Answer 10

Various devices have been used for computing. Sliderules and the abacus are examples of mechanical computing devices.