Colossus Computer, 1943 Early computers were developed to help crack German signals intelligence during World War II. The prototype shown here, known as Colossus, was used at Bletchley Park ('Station X'), Buckinghamshire. More than 100 years earlier, Charles Babbage had invented an 'analytical engine' which was the ancestor of the modern computer. It used punched cards and fifty cogwheels to do calculations. Computer technology has advanced unrecognisably since then. Today's models are strikingly cheaper, faster, smaller and more powerful than their early predecessors. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide make use of computers daily for business and pleasure. The power of modern machines has removed much drudgery from routine office and administrative tasks and made it possible for images to cross the world instantly at the touch of a button.
