Hi Mark: I’ve scanned and will separately email you the German original of the 11.4.1936 patent application contained in Origins. The other patent-related documents I have are: 1. Rechenmaschine - patent application Z23 624 IX b/42 m - 24.12.1936 2a. General remarks to the Zuse Patent Application Z391 (from IBM, dated Oct. 14, 1975)) “This application was filed with the German Patent Office June 16, 1941 . . . the application was finally rejected on July 14, 1967. The rejection was based on obviousness and lack of novelty. The patent application refers to a program controlled binary relay computer including a memory for storing values in predetermined storage cells, further an arithmetic unit which works in floating point mode, and a programming unit for automatically controlling the operation process following a predetermined computing plan represented by a punch tape carrying coded program instructions . . .” To this is attached a typed document: BUNDESPATENTGERICHT Aktenzeichen 17w 296/62/ Beschluss [Resolution?] In Sachen der Patentanmeldung Z391 IXc/42m (11 pages) 2b. General remarks to the Zuse Patent Application Z394 “This application was filed with the German Patent Office Oct 11, 1944 . . . the Federal Patent Court finally rejected the application on July 14, 1967. The rejection was based on obviousness and lack of novelty. The application is related to a program controlled computer for carrying out logic operations with binary operands . . ." To this is attached a typed document: BUNDESPATENTGERICHT Aktenzeichen 17w 6/61 Beschluss [Resolution?] In Sachen der Patentanmeldung Z394 IX/42w (12 pages) 3. German Patent “Mechanisches Schaltglied” Nr 907948 (9 May 1936) - document dated 1 April 1954 - 5 pages 4. German Patent “Aus mechanischen Schaltglerden aufgebautes Speichewerk” Nr 924 107 (3 July 1937) - document dated 24 Feb 1955 -13 pages 5. “Zahlen Beispiels” Akt. Z. p50 746 IXb/42m "Ubersetzen einer Decimalzahl in der Duallogarithm”. Typewritten document, on Dipl.-Ing. K. Zuse letterhead, no date, but handwritten annotation PA 489163* 8.7.50, and stamped Ausgelegt 9 Apr 1953) - 35 pages, plus 6 of figures 6. K. Zuse: Rechengeräte für Flügelvermessung - 4 typewritten pages, plus 9 pages of figures from Patentschrift 872 645 Apologies for any transcription language, especially in the German text. Cheers Brian On 26 Jan 2017, at 12:27, Mark Priestley <m.priestley@gmail.com<mailto:m.priestley@gmail.com>> wrote: PS Here's a reference to the patent application number Z23624: http://kalliope.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en/ead?ead.id=DE-210A_NL_207_0991 It appears to be a distinct application, dating from December 1936. Mark On 26 January 2017 at 11:48, Mark Priestley <m.priestley@gmail.com<mailto:m.priestley@gmail.com>> wrote: Thanks everybody for the fascinating and helpful replies, both on and off list. Just to summarize wrt to this specific document, in case anyone's interested: * A typescript of a patent application, dated 9 April 1936 on the headed notepaper of patent attorney Dr-Ing. Bruno Wolf, is in the Deutsches Museum archives, and there's a photo of the first page on Ulf's book page at http://www.deutsches-museum.de/forschung/forschungsbereiche/bereich-wtug/sch... There's a handwritten note that says "angemeldet [registered?] 11.4.1936" and gives an application number (?) Z 23 139 IX/42 m. * A transcription of the German text (no diagrams) is at http://zuse.zib.de/album/Uc4YiqKixaG2NAnK/item/EYgALUJiKnCyc9MH * Brian Randell's "Origins" collection contains a partial English translation (omitting the claims). The bibliographic reference at the end of the book (the 3rd edition) gives a different patent application number, Z23624. I don't know if the application ever resulted in an actual patent being awarded. The DEPATISnet website doesn't list a Zuse patent with an application date in April 1936 (on a quick "beginners search", anyway :-) The 9 May 1936 application that Con referred to is different - the issued patent was for a "Mechanisches Schaltglied" ("Mechanical Switching Element"?) Cheers, Mark On 24 January 2017 at 10:58, Mark Priestley <m.priestley@gmail.com<mailto:m.priestley@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 _______________________________________________ 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 -- School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk<mailto:Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk> PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 FAX = +44 191 208 8232 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html