Abstract
The previous chapter described Babbage’s unsuccessful attempts to design and build mechanical calculating engines. The development of automatic computing proceeded in a rather gradual and ad hoc manner during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and this chapter describes some of the major features of this development. To begin with, this development was driven by the increasing volumes of data processing work required by government bureaucracies and large commercial organizations, and the chapter describes Herman Hollerith’s use of punched cards and tabulating machines, starting with the 1890 census in the United States. Later uses of this technology for scientific computing, particular by Leslie Comrie, are also described.
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Notes
- 1.
These developments have been well described by Jon Agar (2003), and in unpublished lectures by Martin Campbell-Kelly.
- 2.
The following account draws on the details presented by Truesdell (1965).
- 3.
Austrian (1982), pp. 5–9.
- 4.
Kistermann (1991).
- 5.
Kistermann (2005).
- 6.
Heide (2009), p. 122.
- 7.
Comrie (1925).
- 8.
For more details on Comrie’s career, see Croarken (1990).
- 9.
Comrie (1932b), p. 523.
- 10.
- 11.
This table is from Comrie (1932b), p. 534. The operation row is not in the original, but appears in later tables given by Comrie. It has been added here to clarify the working of the procedure.
- 12.
Comrie (1932b), p. 529.
- 13.
Comrie (1932a), pp. 694–695.
- 14.
Comrie (1932a), p. 694.
- 15.
Comrie (1937).
- 16.
Eckert (1940).
- 17.
Truesdell (1965).
- 18.
Croarken (1990), p. 25.
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Priestley, M. (2011). Semi-Automatic Computing. In: A Science of Operations. History of Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-555-0_3
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