HST 701 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: William Thomson, 1St Baron Kelvin, John Von Neumann, Punched Tape
14 Nov 2016
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Hst 701 - scientific technology and modern society. > vannevar bush: first all-purpose analog computer 1920s. > 2 computers became basis of all modern computers. William thompson (lord kelvin): idea for a general analog computer. Technology not advanced enough: he built the harmonic tide analyser. Single-purpose analog computers all that was possible. Invented at mit by bush (dean of engineering) 1928-1931. Small electric motors overcame problem of torque. Solved partial differential equations for electrical engineers. Bush and his differential analyzer programmed with a wrench. Before 1930, ibm hollerith machines for business only use in science: Calculating brown"s tables of the moon took a year to calculate for one future year. Leslie john comrie - scientific computer service founded in 1937. Ibm hollerith machines plus 24 "calculating girls" used half a million punched cards. Position of moon for 20 years done in 7 months. Atanasoff-barry computer (incomplete, destroyed when its university creators joined war effort)
