Computers Before Computers
Large-scale tabulating operation
This scene captures a typical hierarchy of calculation workers: seated low-skilled punch operators in the majority, their immediate supervisors standing behind them, a few sorting-machine operators nearer the windows, and their supervisors behind them.
Computers Before Computers
People didn’t have computers in the 1930s. Yet they needed them.
Scientists, engineers, businesses, and government agencies faced growing mountains of tedious, repetitive calculations. Nobody’s idea of fun. Calculators and punched cards were widespread, but slow and cumbersome. So inventors around the world—often unaware of each other, yet following parallel paths—tackled the challenge.
Their mechanical devices laid the groundwork for electronic computing.
Early Innovators: George Stibitz
Chapter Menu
1. Story of the Relay Calculator
2. How the Model K Works
Early Innovators: Howard Aiken
Chapter Menu
1. About the Harvard Mark 2
2. Harvard Mark 2 in Use