At dawn on Saturday 5 March, National Geographic Channel and a team of scientists, engineers and two world class balloon pilots successfully launched a house measuring 16 feet by 16 feet and 18 feet high, using 300 eight-foot coloured weather balloons from a private airfield east of Los Angeles. The launch – inspired by the Disney/Pixar film “Up” – set a new world record for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted.

A study of the history of computers will reveal there is no single inventor. Because it’s made of different components, no single date can be given for its invention either. Instead a chronology will make things clearer.