A mechanical computer is a computer built from mechanical components such as levers and gears, rather than electronic components.

[edit] Examples

• The Antikythera mechanism, ca. 150 BC
• Jacquard Loom, 1801 — Not strictly a computer, but played an important role in the development of punched cards as input media.
• Difference Engine, 1822 — Charles Babbage's mechanical device to calculate polynomials.
• Analytical Engine, 1837 — A later Charles Babbage device that could be said to encapsulate most of the elements of modern computers.
• Moniac, 1949 — An analog computer used to model or simulate the UK economy.

[edit] Semi-mechanical computers

Some early electrical computers could be considered semi-mechanical as they were constructed from switches and relays rather than the vacuum tubes (thermionic valves) or transistors from which later electronic computers were constructed. Examples include:

• Z3, 1941 — Designed by Konrad Zuse.
• Harvard Mark I, 1944 — Built by IBM.

[edit] See also

• Domino computer
• Billiard-ball computer

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