[SIGCIS-Members] Konrad Zuse's 1936 patent - German text?

Wed Jan 25 10:47:56 PST 2017

A few years ago I turned over most of my Zuse materials to the Babbage Institute. It looks like that patent was not included, sorry to say:

http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/cbi00219.xml

I moved on from research on Zuse after I published my dissertation, but I have noted some recent interest among younger scholars. That led me to search a remote corner of this museum, where I found a box with some material that I did not turn over (not sure why). These include patent # 907948 “Mechanisches Schaltglied” (1936) and patent # 924107 “Aus mechanischen Schaltgliegern aufgebautes Speicherwerk” (1937). I should probably ask the Babbage Institute first if they want them, but I could send them to you and you could forward a copy to CBI.

There is a lot of other material in the box, but unfortunately I don’t have the time to go through it now. I made these copies when the Zuse archive was at the Gesellschaft fuer Mathematik un Datenverarbeitung in Bonn; I assume that the archive was transferred intact to the Deutsches Museum.

As I said above, I recently was drawn into this topic, including Zuse’s use of logic vis a vis Claude Shannon’s master’s thesis. I wrote a paper about the former topic, which was never published. I was convinced at the time (ca. 1979) that Zuse was far ahead of his American contemporaries in applying symbolic logic, as evidenced by his construction of the Z3 and Z4 machines. I may have to revisit this conclusion based on recent research into Shannon’s work.

I also was drawn into a discussion of Zuse’s relationship to the Nazi party, after meeting with some younger scholars in Germany, but I will discuss that off-line.

Paul Ceruzzi
ceruzzip at si.edu<mailto:ceruzzip at si.edu>
202-633-2414

From: Members [mailto:members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Marc Weber
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2017 11:52 AM
To: Timo Leimbach <timo at timo-leimbach.de>
Cc: members at sigcis.org
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Konrad Zuse's 1936 patent - German text?

Hi Mark,

There are also a couple of Zuse museums who might have a copy or know exactly where to look; I met some of the folks from one of them at HNF. I can dig up their cards if you don’t get a response through the general contact info:

Zuse Computer Museum: http://zuse-computer-museum.com/

Konrad Zuse Museum: http://www.zuse-museum-huenfeld.de/

Best, Marc

Marc Weber<http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/>  |   marc at webhistory.org<mailto:marc at webhistory.org>  |   +1 415 282 6868
Internet History Program Curatorial Director, Computer History Museum
1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043 computerhistory.org/nethistory<http://computerhistory.org/nethistory>
Co-founder, Web History Center and Project, webhistory.org<http://webhistory.org>

On Jan 25, 2017, at 04:56, Timo Leimbach <timo at timo-leimbach.de<mailto:timo at timo-leimbach.de>> wrote:

Dear Mark,
another possibility is to contact the archives of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The archives hold the written remains of Zuse and it is very likely that this includes the patent application and related documents.
Best
Timo
Brian Randell <brian.randell at newcastle.ac.uk<mailto:brian.randell at newcastle.ac.uk>> hat am 25. Januar 2017 um 12:53 geschrieben:

Hi Mark:

I have a copy of the original 1936 Zuse patent application that I had translated into English for my Origins book. (It took some finding - some of my Zemanek documents had strayed into the middle of the Zuse documents, and so had obscured them! :-)

It is a type-written document, on the letterhead of Zuse’s patent attorney Dr.-Ing. Bruno Wolf, Berlin Charlottenberg 5, Kantstrasse 85, dated 9.4.36 (i.e. 9 April 1936). It is some twenty or so pages in length. However I should warn you that some of the pages are barely legible (though could probably be deciphered by someone who knows German - which I don’t).

I could scan this document for you if you wish.

(I have about two inches thick of documents about Zuse’s work, including a number of patents and patent applications, some pre-war, immediately some post-war, together with several typescripts from him. My plan is that this material will be added to the archive of my files held in the Special Collections section of Newcastle University Library. This already holds all the extensive correspondence that I was involved in while compiling Origins.)

Cheers

Brian

On 24 Jan 2017, at 10:58, Mark Priestley <m.priestley at gmail.com<mailto:m.priestley at gmail.com>> wrote:
Dear list,
Zuse's 1936 patent "Method for Automatic Execution of Calculations with the Aid of Computers" is reprinted in Brian Randell's "Origins of Digital Computers" collections. Does anyone know if/where I can get hold of the German original?
Thanks in advance.
Mark
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This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org

Marc Weber<http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/>  |   marc at webhistory.org<mailto:marc at webhistory.org>  |   +1 415 282 6868
Internet History Program Curatorial Director, Computer History Museum
1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043 computerhistory.org/nethistory<http://computerhistory.org/nethistory>
Co-founder, Web History Center and Project, webhistory.org<http://webhistory.org>

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