section_path: History/Computers/Electromechanical relay
section_name: Electromechanical relay
paragraph_text: Electromechanical relay
  
  Bell and Newell (1971) write that the Jacquard loom, a precursor to Hollerith cards (punch cards), and "telephone switching technologies" led to the development of the first computers. By the mid-19th century, the telegraph, the precursor of the telephone, was in use throughout the world. By the late 19th century, the ticker tape (c. 1870s) was in use, as were Hollerith cards (c. 1890). Then came the teleprinter (c. 1910) with its punched-paper use of Baudot code on tape.
  
  Telephone-switching networks of electromechanical relays were invented in 1835. These led to the invention of the digital adding device by George Stibitz in 1937. While working in Bell Laboratories, he observed the "burdensome" use of mechanical calculators with gears. "He went home one evening in 1937 intending to test his idea... When the tinkering was over, Stibitz had constructed a binary adding device".