A Quantum Leap in Computing Etymology

Computational devices have been employed by humans for thousands of years to aid in a variety of activities. The invention of the abacus likely occurred in Sumeria around 2700 to 2300 B.C.E., which used a base 60 system, but the oldest known example of an abacus is the Salamis Tablet from Greece (300 B.C.E.) [Samoly, K., History of the Abacus, Ohio Journal of School Mathematics, N. 65, Spring, 2012, p. 58]. We have evidence of geared computational devices such as the Antikythera Mechanism dating to about 87 B.C.E. [Price, Derek de Solla, Gears from the Greeks. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society N.S. 64, no. 7. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1974]. 

However, a review of the Third Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) [Oxford English Dictionary, August 2024, [www.oed.com/dictionary/computer-n?tab=meaning_and_use#861811 1] states that the word ‘computer’ was first recorded as used in the year 1613 by Richard Braithwaite with the meaning “One who computes; a calculator, reckoner; spec. a person employed to make calculations in an observatory, in surveying, etc.” [Bold Italics added for emphasis]. 

According to the same OED entry [ibid.] the first use of the word ‘computer’ to refer to a device to perform computations, as opposed to a person, was in 1869 in a novel by M. Harland, in Pemie's Temptation. In this work, Harland refers to a "patent computer". The use of the word 'patent' as an adjective in this context, clearly, has the meaning “easily recognizable; obvious” and was not referring to a mechanical device. This is similar to the use of the term “patently false” with the meaning of “obviously false”. Therefore, the term ‘patent computer’ was being used with the meaning of “a person exhibiting the characteristics of a professional computer” (i.e., a person). Hence, this use of the word “computer” in 1869 was not referring to a machine at all! 

Furthermore, there is no evidence whatsoever that anyone else picked up on this sense of the word as a ‘mechanical computational device’ until William Cox did in the 1890s, more than twenty years later. Of course, the OED [ibid.] also references an appearance of the word ‘computer’ on 22 January 1897, in Engineering [Note: A London, UK Publicaton] 104/2, quoting, “This was a computer made by Mr. W. Cox. He described it as of the nature of a circular slide rule.” Thus, according to the OED, William Cox was the neologist who used the term ‘computer’ when referring to a device that performed computation on that date. 

However, the evidence is now clear that the OED was also incorrect by at least five years here.  As far as we now know, William Cox named his circular computing devices ‘computers’ in 1892 for his “Electric Wire Computer” [in The Electrical Engineer, Aug. 10, 1892, p. 139], and we also know that he registered his company “Cox Computer Company” in New Jersey, US in 1893, specifically for manufacturing and selling devices that perform computations of various types in a similar manner. 

Of note, in 1891 he describes these devices as “calculators,” so, it is safe to assume that the first year of use of the term 'computer' by Cox was in 1892. Hence, we conclude that William Cox is the pioneer of the term ‘computer’ in referring to a device that performs computations, and that he did so as early as 1892.

We additionally note that in 1895, “The Cox Computer Company has recently been organized for the purpose of manufacturing and introducing the various forms of mechanical computers designed by Mr. William Cox of Stapleton, N.Y., where the company will have its headquarters until removal to New York City. [Note: This refers to the registration of the company in New York State as a foreign entity two years after his registration in New Jersey.] The scale upon which operations will be conducted and the number of new applications that will be made, such as power transmissions of belting, gears, etc. is said by the parties to warrant a material reduction in price and choice of style and material. A circular has been issued announcing these innovations.” [Progressive Age, Vol. 13, no. 23, Dec. 2, 1895, p. 583, Progressive Publishing, New York. google.com/books/edition/Gas_Age/dPI9AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 &dq=%22progressive+age%22+computer+1895&pg=PA583&printsec =frontcover]. 

Cox’s groundbreaking innovations have had a profound and lasting impact on technology. While Cox was not the first to make a device that computed mathematical functions, nor the first to try to come up with a term to describe a device that does mathematical computation, his terminology is the one that has endured to this day. 

Other examples of attempted naming of such devices during the 19th Century were: 

•  In 1822 and again in 1837 Charles Babbage devised, first, the Difference Engine, and then the Analytical Engine. 
•  In 1857 Orlando L. Castle and Thomas Hill developed devices they called an Arithmometer. 
•  From the 1850s to the 1870s there were many inventions called Computing or Calculating Machines by Parmalee, Smith, Alexander, Rowland, Davies, Mendenhall, Groesbeck, Grant, Robjack, Spaulding, and Baldwin, to mention a few. 
•  In 1880 Herman Hollerith devised the Tabulator which was eventually used to perform the 1890 census and evolved after the turn of the century into the IBM Corp. 
•  In 1884 the French engineer Philbert Maurice d'Ocagne (1862–1928) devised a graphical calculating device that was called either a nomograph, alignment chart, or abac. These devices were two-dimensional diagrams designed to allow the approximate graphical computation of a mathematical function. 
•  In 1887 Dorr Felt, filed a patent for the Comptometer, the first commercially successful key-driven mechanical calculator. The success of the Comptometer caused others to call their computational devices “comptometers”, much like the term "Xerox" is used for a copier. 
•  In 1892, Walter Hart published a book "The Equationor or the Universal Calculator" within which he describes a circular slide rule to perform computations. 

Yet, the term to describe automated devices that perform computations is ‘computer’, the term coined by Cox. This fact, in no way, detracts from the contributions of other early computer pioneers, including Turing and von Neumann. 

It is curious to note that in the mammoth undertaking by Herman Goldstine in his book “The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann” [Goldstine, Herman, The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann, Princeton University Press, 1972, 378pp.] there is only a passing, one-line reference to William Oughtred for inventing the slide rule on page 4, and no mention, whatsoever, of William Cox, who coined the term ‘computer’ itself! So, to all those interested in the history of computers, while you might have thought that it had been 127 years since the computer was invented, you can be rest assured that, as of today, the computer is really five years older -- 132 years! A quantum leap, indeed!