Floopy Disk

The first computers were not easy to work with. Each time they wanted the machine to do something different, programmers had to reconnect masses of wiring. This took a long time, and it was easy to make mistakes.

All digital computers have the same basic functions, input, storage, control, processing and output. In the first computers of the 1740s, data was stored on large drums of magnetic tape, and tape was still being used into the 1970s. punched cards were widely used to input data.

In 1955 there were only 250 computers in the world. If home computing was to catch on, a simple data-store was needed. The answer came in the shape of a plastic rectangle – the floppy disk.

The floppy disk was invented in 1950, but not at first for computers. It was a magnetized disk for storing information in the form of electrical signals. Its Japanese inventor, Yoshiro Nakamata, who claimed to have patented more than 2000 other inventions, sold his idea to the computer giant IBM, and in 1971 IBM engineers produced their first computer floppy. It held only 100 kilobytes of data (modern floppies hold 1.4 megabytes – about 3 million text characters) within a plastic case just 3.5 inch (90 millimeters) square.