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: 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@sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Evan Koblentz Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 8:29 AM To: members@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! _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
