[SIGCIS-Members] Older computers (1940-1950)

[Pierre Mounier]

That's true, Paul. Yet as we cannot keep people in the cybersphere  
from establishing such lists, better have a little control on them –  
including warning about the limits of their historical value.

Speaking about human / non- human computers, i can't resist offering a  
little glimpse of the Turing exhibition that we opened last night in  
Paris.
In the 1940s (perhaps earlier), Alan Turing, like many others, used a  
Brunsviga desk calculator. He even compared its "memory size" to that  
of other calculators :
Brunsviga : 60 bits. Manchester Baby : 1 024 bits. Project ACE : 60  
000 bits.
(from the excellent biography by Andrew Hodges)
What few people seem to have noticed is the commercial logo & motto of  
the Brunsviga manufacturer:

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Without extrapolating to far, one may imagine Alan Turing winking at  
this image (or vice-versa?)
Best,
Pierre

Le 15 nov. 12 à 14:46, Ceruzzi, Paul a écrit :

> As one who is guilty of having constructed lists of machines, their  
> operational date, and whether they were "first" or not, I now feel  
> we ought to back away from such listings. One of the reasons the  
> Colossus machines are often left off of these lists is that, by the  
> time details of their existence became known, historians were not so  
> interested in such chronologies any more.
>
> Not to be flippant, but where do we list all the women (and a few  
> men) who were computers during the 1940s? That was their job title.
>
> Paul E. Ceruzzi
> Chair, Division of Space History
> National Air & Space Museum
> MRC 311; PO Box 37012
> Washington, DC 20013-7012
> 202-633-2414
> <http://www.nasm.si.edu/staffDetail.cfm?staffID=24>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org]  
> On Behalf Of Evan Koblentz
> Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 8:29 AM
> To: members at sigcis.org
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Older computers (1940-1950)
>
>>> If we include the ABC, we may as well add Couffignal's computer,  
>>> an electronic, parallel calculator programmed from an external disk.
>
> I agree about ABC being of a different, lesser class than the others  
> on the list. Hadn't heard of Couffignal, very interesting!
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