Title
Computers in the University of London, 1945-1962 by Andrew D. BoothCatalog Number
102695480Type
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.British computing pioneer Andrew Booth discusses the origins of his technical training in x-ray crystallography at the University of London, and then Birkbeck College, where he began construction of an electrochemical calculator for analyzing these x-ray crystal structure results. He completed this simple calculator in 1946. Booth then explains that he received small funds to visit the United States to observe computing developments there. His visits included the computing centers of von Neumann and Goldstine at Princeton, Howard Aiken at Harvard, Jay Forrester at MIT, and others. On his return to the UK, Booth and colleague Kathleen Britten invented a new computer, called the ARC, for which they invented the magnetic drum as a new form of storage device. This foundational invention spurred the development of dozens of new computer systems over the next decade and nearly every major computer manufacturer offered a drum-based machine during this early (1950-1965) period.
This lecture’s transcript was included in the edited volume from the conference, viz. Booth, Andrew, D., “Computers in the University of London,” in Metropolis, N., and Howlett, J., Rota, Gian-Carlo, A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, New York: Academic Press, 1980, pp. 551 – 561.
Date
1976-06-11Credits
Booth, Andrew DonaldParticipants
| Booth, Andrew Donald, Speaker |
Place of Publication
Los Alamos, NM, USIdentifying Numbers
| Other number | Reel 14 | Original tape numbering |