Alan Turing

Alan Turing was a very influential part in the history of early computers. He went to Cambridge to study mathematics and it is from here he strived to make a machine that would be able to solve mathematical problems. He created a machine which he called the Turning Machine and would have looked similar to this modern day model.

The machine could compute just about any problem given to it by using binary symbols written on an infinite roll of paper. Turing claimed that any mathematical problem could be solved by the Turing machine. For the mathematical method to be effective it just needed to have a list of instructions that could be mindlessly followed by a clerk. 

Turing went on to create machines that were able to decode messages. These machines helped greatly during WWII. He was a key member of a team that built decoding machines based off of earlier blueprints. After the war Turing went on to create a concrete model of his Turing machine. He came up with a design for a digital computer that would have had the same memory capacity as the early Macintosh computers. He called his invention the ACE. However, it was never actually produced; instead a smaller version was created. He went on to help design one of the first commercially available computing machine. 

Unfortunately for Turing, it became known that he was gay. During his life it was illegal to be homosexual in Britain. When it was found that he was gay he was horribly persecuted. He was forced to go through hormone therapy and committed suicide not long after. He was a great mind that contributed greatly to the world of computers and technology. In fact many of the computers that were to be built after his death were based off of his Turing machines. He was persecuted by his own country he strived to save for an act that was then considered taboo.