Title
Computing Developments 1935-1955, as Seen from Cambridge, USA by Garrett BirkhoffCatalog Number
102639695Type
Moving imageDescription
The First International Research Conference on the History of Computing was a milestone in the history of computing, drawing a global elite of computer pioneers from the first generation of electronic digital computing. Most talks are approximately 45 minutes in duration and feature a lecture with a brief question and answer period afterwards.Garrett Birkhoff was an American mathematician. Hs talk begins by discussing the Differential Analyzer of MT’s professor Vannevar Bush and the state of computing in America in the 1930s. He then discusses the Harvard Computation Laboratory where he worked with Professor Howard Aiken on the Harvard Mark I computer as well as the Ballistic Research Labs at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. The talk has many insights into the problems and personalities involved in performing useful work on these early machines.
This lecture’s transcript was included in the edited volume from the conference, viz. Birkhoff, G., “Computing Developments 1935-1955, as Seen from Cambridge, USA,” in Metropolis, N., and Howlett, J., Rota, Gian-Carlo, A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, New York: Academic Press, 1980, pp. 21 – 30.
Date
1976-06-10; 2002Credits
Birkhoff, GarrettParticipants
| Birkhoff, Garrett, Speaker |
Place of Publication
Los Alamos, NM, USIdentifying Numbers
| Deprecated CHM identification number | VT39.82 | |
| Other number | Reel 4 | Original tape numbering |