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<div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-western"> Consistent with David's
Esso correspondent is this sentence by Garret Birkhoff in his
article "Computer Developments 1935-1955, as Seen from Cambridge,
U.S.A." (<i>A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century</i>,
edited by Metropolis et al., Academic Press, 1980, p. 29):<br>
<br>
"I just want to make it clear that, by 1955, with the first
commercial machines out, American industries, especially the
nuclear industry but also the petroleum industry---which had been
egged on by von Neumann: incidentally, he was an early consultant
for the Standard Oil Development Company--- were using computers
and American industry has relied on them ever since."<br>
<br>
<br>
On 9/14/2010 5:18 AM, David Alan Grier wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:0DB855E1-ACD3-434A-9A84-3BFBB092EF87@gwu.edu"
type="cite"> I received emails from an Esso engineer, who noted
that they took delivery of the first Univac 1103 in '56 and had
von Neumann as a consultant.</blockquote>
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