Product Description
In the summer of 1944, at a dedication ceremony at Harvard's Cruft Laboratory, one of the world's first automatic digital calculating machines was unveiled to the public. The machine was the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, more commonly known as the Harvard Mark I. The staff of the Harvard Computation Laboratory was unprepared for the interest which news of the machine's dedication touched off, and in response to many inquiries they arranged for the publication of this Manual of Operation.

If the Mark I itself was a milestone in digital computing, so was this Manual: it was one of the first publications to address the fundamental question of how to get a computer to solve problems. Scattered throughout the book are listings of operation codes that represent sequences of operations the Mark I would carry out: these are among the first examples anywhere of what are now called computer programs. Both this Manual of Operation and the computer it describes reveal the profound transition from an age when computing was something human beings did, with varying degrees of mechanical aids, to one where machines themselves do most of the work.

A Manual of Operation for the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator was originally published in 1946 by Harvard University Press. It is Volume VII in the Charles babbage Institute reprint series. ... Read more

Product Description
Volume 9 in the Babbage Reprint Series makes the Moore School Lectures (1946) available for the first time. Delivered by such notable engineers and scientists as J.P. Eckert, J. Mauchly, H. Goldstine, A.W. Burks, and J. von Neumann at the University of Pennsylvania as a direct response to crucial new developments in the design and construction of the early stored program computer, the ENIAC, the lectures provide a comprehensive overview of the history of computing devices and digital and analog computing mechanisms; machine elements, including arithmetic circuits and the Selectron; numerical mathematical methods; and a detailed presentation of the ENIAC, the parallel type EDVAC, and the serial acoustic binary EDVAC. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

John Mauchly Architecture
If you like acoustic mercury delay lines, you'll love this.Check out Turing's 1947 address to the London Mathematical Society for a high-level overview. ... Read more

Product Description
In the days before the sophisticated mechanical esk calculator and the later electronic devices, d'Ocagne's nomograms were highly regarded methods for performing calculations. This first translation of d'Ocagne's Le Calcul Simplifié makes a classic work on the early art of computation available to historians of computer science.Le Calcul Simplifié, first published in the early 1890s, is volume 11 in the Charles Babbage Institute Reprint Series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The first computer programming book.
Originally published by Addison-Wesley in 1951. This book establishes the field of computer programming. The chapters are titled "The Design of Programs For Electronic Computing Machines", "Input of Orders", "Subroutines and Parameters", "Library Subroutines and Their Use in Constructing Programs", "Pitfalls", "Use of the EDSAC and Its Associated Equipment", "Examples", and "Specifications of Library Subroutines". The first automatic computer (Harvard Mark I) with mechanical parts and the first automatic electronic computer (ENIAC) were finished in 1944 and 1946 respectively. In 1945 the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania proposed storing instruction codes in memory. This design, called the "von Neumann architecture", is used by all modern computers. Maurice V. Wilkes, one of the authors, finished building the first stored-program electronic digital computer (EDSAC) in 1949.

The EDSAC programmer's (Wilkes, Wheeler, and Gill) were the first to have practical programming experience using the stored-program architecture. The authors establish the subroutine as the fundamental component of source code. They developed the first subroutine library, linker (a mechanical device to copy subroutines to the master program tape), and loader (the initial orders program). In addition, they are the first to design an assembly language, develop formal subroutine specifications, and to use debugging core dumps, single-step debugging facilities, trace statements, desk checking, and syntax checking (a mechanical device to compare tapes). Published the first set of example programs that execute on an actual stored program computer. First use of literate programming and white space for improving program comprehension. [The authors use named boxes to indicate code insertions from the subroutine library. These boxes can also represent other code fragments that are not part of the subroutine library. The programs presented in chapter 7 use the "literate style".] ... Read more

Product Description
In January 1947, the Navy Department Bureau of Ordnance and Harvard University jointly sponsored a symposium at the Harvard Computation Laboratory on large-scale digital calculating machinery. It provided one of the first and most important early forums for discussion of the problems and approaches in the design, construction, operation, and application of computers. Coming before the establishment of professional journals, societies, or regular meetings in computer science, the proceedings of the symposium offer the best picture of computing technology in the early years that we have available. Included are papers by Howard Aiken, Samuel Caldwell, Jay Forrester, Herman Goldstine, John Mauchly, George Stibitz, and over twenty others.

Proceedings of a Symposium on Large-Scale Digital Calculating Machinery was published in 1948 by Harvard University Press. It is Volume VIII in the Charles Babbage Institute Reprint Series. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the definitive modern sourcebook on the technologies from which the computer industry sprang. Widely read, it gave impetus to technical developments both in the United States and abroad. It presents a clear, organized picture of computing concepts, techniques, machinery, and components in use as of 1950, with emphasis on electronic high-speed computing. The material is elaborately referenced and contains a multitude of diagrams and tables. One particularly significant table lists all the computers of the era-including the famous EDVAC, UNIVAC, BINAC, and Mark III-with their specifications. This first compendium of United States computer technology was created by a research team that grew out of the U.S. Navy's wartime cryptologic establishment. High-Speed Computing Devices is Volume IV in the Charles Babbage Institute Reprint Series and was originally published in 1950 by McGraw-Hill. ... Read more

Product Description
The publication of this book paved the way for computing in the 1940s. It applied the idea of machines which could read and record numbers to the field of scientific calculation previously dominated by logarithms and other tables of functions and hand operated machines for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers.Punched Card Methods in Scientific Computation was originally published in 1940 by the Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau. It is Volume V in the Charles Babbage Institute Reprint Series. ... Read more

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In 1815, there weren’t any computers. Electricity hadn’t yet been discovered as a way to make things run. Calculating sums of numbers had to be done by hand. One mistake would mean adding everything up all over again. But English scientist Charles Babbage was planning to change all that. He planned to use his knowledge of mathematics and engineering to build a machine that would be able to work out the most complicated sums instantly. But someone would have to give it the right program to follow. Women weren’t supposed to know mathematics in his day. But Ada, Countess of Lovelace, was one of the best mathematicians. She became the first computer programmer. And Charles Babbage could become the father of computing—if only he could overcome the biggest problem of all. It wasn’t the lack of electric power. It wasn’t the lack of modern equipment. Before he could succeed, Charles Babbage had to conquer the greatest problem of all—himself. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
The first attempts to mechanize the production of numerical tables were remarkable in conception coming at a time when a "computer" was in fact a person rather than a machine. This book is the first to provide a unified picture of the difference engines that were the mechanical predecessors of today's digital computer, to emphasize them as part of the history of numerical tables, and to give equal weight to the technical and social aspects of their creation.

Lindgren analyzes the difference engines of Müller and Babbage and the mathematical principles on which they are based, tells the story of how Georg and Edvard Scheutz learned about Babbage's engine, discusses the design and operation of the Scheutzs' machine, and tells why Babbage failed technically and the Scheutzes failed commercially. The often detailed technical descriptions bring to light the inventors' own ways of thinking as work on the engines progressed

Michael Lindgren is Curator at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

another failure, alongside Babbage and Lovelace
So it wasn't just Babbage. He is now belatedly well known. Considered to have built the first computer. Though it was never fully functional. But what Lindgren has uncovered is that around the same time, Muller and the Sheutzs in Sweden were trying roughly the same approach, independently of Babbage.

Both sides hit upon the idea of replacing a human with automated machinery, in a programmable fashion. The Swedes also seemed to have within themselves the equivalent talent of Ada Lovelace, in being able to devise software.

But both groups failed within their lifetimes. A bridge too far. At best, their efforts were seen as intellectual curiosities by their contemporaries. If anything, this research by Lindgren reinforces a common conclusion about Babbage's work. The Swedes' efforts can be seen roughly as a parallel experiment to Babbage. His failure is considered by us [20th-21st centuries] to be due to the primitive technology that he had to start with. The failure of the Swedes to commercialise their work suggests that it wasn't Babbage's fault that he failed. Or theirs that they failed.

It would be 90 years later, before economically viable machines could be made.

A glorius story about two almost unknown swedish inventors
The story of Georg and Edvard Scheutz is a well written and entertaining scientific book. A young schoolboy, Edvard Scheutz, succeeds in his kitchen to construct a difference engine that works better then that of the famous Charles Babbage. The story of how father and son struggle together to make their difference engine a profitable invention is incredibly interesteting both in a technical and economical aspect but also in a social aspect. Interesting is of course also why a genious invention like theirs becomes such a financial failure.
This is a book to read both for those who have a general interest in history of techology and for those who have a particular interest in swedish history and inventors. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Historic Tome, But VERY Overpriced
In the history of computing, Charles Babbage is commonly heralded as the first name. His Difference and Analytical Engines are regarded by historians of science as the first computers.

This book is a seminal description of his beliefs, inspired in part and intertwined with what he learned during the construction of his Engines. Anyone interested in the history of computers should find her way to this book.

In it, you can find explicitly the struggles of the early Industrial Revolution and on who owned a worker's labour. His success in building his Engine led him to the broader view that a tradesman's skill was fungible, if it could be decomposed into its simplest steps, and those optimised, presumably by machinery. This view would foreshadow the rest of the Industrial Revolution, to this day, as machinery (not necessarily computers, mind you) became more sophisticated. Plus, you can see elements in it of Frederick Taylor's time and motion studies of the early 20th century, that were then applied in American factories.

Indeed, if you abstract away the idea of algorithm from computing, you can see that the book describes our modern conception of it.

But there is one huge problem with this book. Its price. At ninety dollars, it is far too high. The contents are in the public domain since the author has been dead for over 100 years. So the publisher does not have to pay royalties. Plus, the publisher did not have to conduct any research to get the book. It has been in and out of print since it first came out in the 19th century. All the publisher needed to do was get an old copy, scan it into a computer, proofread it and then sent it out to a printing firm, with a new choice of fonts. In the worst case, instead of scanning it with an OCR program, the publisher would have had to hire someone at barely above minimum wage to read an old edition and type it into a computer.

Now the publisher might claim that this is a specialised book, with limited print runs. So what? If the book was cheaper, it would expand the potential audience. Especially because of Babbage's fame. Perhaps the publisher is aiming the book at university libraries and researchers who could buy this out of grant money.

Recently, I reviewed a book of Michael Faraday's letters that had many which were never published. That book was similarly priced. But in this case, the publisher presumably had to hire someone to do some research in amassing the letters. So greater costs were incurred.

But not here. For this book, per se, I would rank it 5 because of its historical significance. But because the publisher is asking far too much, I give it a rank of 2. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more