Harvard Secret Computer Lab- Grace Hopper, Howard Aiken, Harvard Mark 1, 2 , 3 rare IBM Calculators
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- Опубликовано: 1 янв 2025
- Computer History: IBM, Harvard University Mark 1, 3, 4, 5: Grace Hopper, Howard Aiken, at Harvard Computation Laboratory, worked on Secret Computing Machines in the early 1940's. Harvard Mark I, Harvard Mark II, III and IV computers are explored through vintage film and photos. Historical Harvard Computation Laboratory, Cambridge, Mass. was home to many computer pioneers, mathematicians, scientists and engineers. Aiken's machines were mechanical, electromechanical or combination, and finally electronic (Mark IV). His machines were the largest of their kind at the time, and produced fast numbers of calculations for the Navy and Air Force. The technology of the machines was made obsolete by the early 1950's as more advanced technologies were produced by others.
Of particular mention here are some of the achievements made by Lt. Grace Hopper (Dec. 9, 1906 - January 1, 1992), who worked with Howard Aiken on the Mark I, II and III computers. Hopper went on to work on more advanced systems after her time at Harvard.
This presentation explores some of the background of the four Aiken machines and the people who were instrumental in their construction. Locations include Harvard University, Cruft Laboratory, Cambridge, Mass., Endicott, New York, Dahlgren, Virginia. (The old Aiken Computation Laboratory of 1948 was demolished in 1997, and replaced with the modern Maxwell-Dworking Laboratory in 1999, which was funded by Bill Gates and Steven A. Ballmer.)
Runs 12 mins. Provided for educational purposes and historical comment only. - Computer History Archives Project (CHAP) (Not affiliated with Harvard Univ.)
Original films and material, courtesy of
IBM Archives
National Archives & Records Administration
Harvard University Archives
Computer History Museum
American Natural History Museum/Smithsonian
Naval History and Heritage Command
See Also Video: Harvard moves the Mark 1 Computer (Aiken's Calculator, IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), in 2021:
news.harvard.e...
Additional References:
A Survey Of Automatic Digital Computers 1953,
Office of Naval Research, Washington D.C.
Digital Computer Newsletter, Office of Naval Research, Physical Sciences Division, 1949
"Makin’ Numbers: Howard Aiken and the Computer,” edited by I. Bernard Cohen and Gregory W. Welch, with Robert V.D. Campbell, MIT Press, 1999
"Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age," MIT Press, 2009, Kurt W. Beyer
Fair Harvard, Samuel Chamberlain, Donald Moffat, Harvard Univ. Press, 1949
Oral History Collection, Grace Hopper, Smithsonian
Oral History Transcript of Grace Hopper, Computer History Museum
Oral History Robert D. Campbell, Charles Babbage Institute
Oral History Richard Milton Bloch, Computer History Museum
The Annals of the Computation Laboratory of Harvard University, Vol XXVI, Proceedings of a Second Symposium on Large-Scale Digital Calculating Machinery, Cambridge, Mass. 1951
New York Times article, August 8, 1944
Popular Mechanics Magazine, March, 1949, “Brains that Click,”
“The American Weekly” magazine, October 15, 1944, “Harvard’s Robot Super Brain”
TIME Magazine, January 20, 1947, pg. 48, “A Robot’s Job”
A fellow badger Aiken was a very brilliant man. Grace Hopper was gracious and seriously a byte ahead of her time.
Thank you very much. I knew about the Harvard Mark I, but had never heard about the next 3.
Interesting, yes, probably most people don't know much about the other machines. They were not well publicized after early 1950's. UNIVAC and IBM got most of the news stories. Aiken's machines were all surpassed by the vacuum tube electronics and later transistor systems. I never knew the Mark 2 was so much bigger than the Mark I. (!) That was enlightening. Thanks very much for your feedback! ~ VK, CHAP
Of course, and as most would know, Grace Hopper's FLOW-MATIC was the basis for another language - COBOL
I'm partially through the book, "Machines that think" and I'm reading it on my phone that is a billion times faster than any computer Aiken would have dreamed about.
Kids (and adults) can learn more about this amazing woman in the book GRACE HOPPER: QUEEN OF COMPUTER CODE.
11:15 Ten people working for almost an hour for what the 'Calculator' can do in less than one second. They never said how long it took to program the machine to get the calculation in there. LOL. (Just my bit of fun.)
The later machines were contemporaries of the work done by Bletchley Park alumni that led to Ace and Leo 1. They provided cover for developments whose real source has to be obscured to preserve the secrecy of Ultra.
Hi @parrotraiser6541, very fascinating re: Ultra. Can you expand on your statement any further?
Among the recruits at BP were men who had worked for Lyon's Teashops, a national chain (and institution) that had pioneered advanced management methods.
They saw the potential of electronic computers, but couldn't explain how they had learnt of them without risking Ultra. Visiting the US and "discovering" the machines there provided the cover.
LEO's development is quite well documented in the UK and online.
I recently learned, from a web site I found when searching for information about the SSEC, that when the SSEC was removed from IBM's worldwide headquarters to make room for the 701, it went to Harvard. A photo of people at Harvard inspecting it was included in a children's encyclopedia, The New Book of Wonder, from 1954. Did that end up here?
Hi @johnsavard7583, that is a fascinating question. I am now looking for that book you mention, haven't found it yet. Is it a stand alone book, or an encyclopedia? I'd like to find a copy. Thanks! Victor, CHAP
I have to wonder what became of these machines as time went on, and newer and better
technology came along. these huge behemoths served their purpose for the time, and
sadly I presume most of them were disassembled and relegated to scrapheaps somewhere. 😢
Hi @GothGuy885, yes, great question! I know the Mark 1 resides at Harvard still, pieces of the others are in Smithsonian and other computer history museums, but much of the massive system components were probably re-cycled in various ways. Wish I was around in those days to pick up some pieces to preserve, study and display. Harvard Archives has records of what happened to much of it. I actually contacted Harvard Archives for this documentary. They have numerous requests for data of all kinds, and their response time can be weeks or months. Still, it is worth a try. ~ Thanks! VK, CHAP
Cool. It's always enjoyable to look back at the history of computers. Six year lifespan 😮. That's an expensive upgrade.😂
Yes, quite expensive. All four of the machines were expensive to build, run, relocate, and dismantle. According to the research done, it seems that Harvard did not pay anything other than provide the buildings and some staff. IBM paid for all of the first machine, Navy paid for machines 2 and 3, and the Air Force paid for machine #4. Navy paid much of the salaries of the computer operators as well. Apparently, Harvard still has the Mark 1.
I imagine it cranked out the work though
The IBM ASCC, a.k.a. the Harvard Mark I was very much a collaboration between IBM and Harvard. Howard Aiken was the machine's architect, specifying its operation and general plan. The detailed work of designing the hardware and logic was carried out by Clair Lake, Frank Hamilton, and Benjamin Durfee of IBM. Lake was IBM's premier hardware designer, responsible for designing much of IBM's commercial product line. Hamilton was a talented electronic designer who would later play a pivotal role in IBM's post-war transition from mechanical to electronic data processing. Lake, Aiken, Hamilton, and Durfee are listed as co-inventors of the ASCC by US patent #2616626 "Calculator". Lake, Hamilton, and Durfee deserve credit where credit is due for their vital work on the ASCC.
Yes, very true. They certainly deserve credit. Aiken was absent for much of 1942 and 1943 while the machine was being built physically. IBM engineers did a great deal of the work. Lots of other engineers and technicians were involved in the daily build as well. IBM probably has lots more data in its archives about this history. Watson was unhappy with Aiken and so he kind of left the ASCC history alone, and went off to build the faster SSEC as IBM's showcase. Thanks very much for your feedback!
9:00
The original desktop is now my desktop background.
"Ordnance problems" would include modeling "explosive compression" for the team at Los Alamos. Too bad John Atanasoff didn't have Aiken's connections. Atanasoff went to work for Bu Ord during the War but not building computers, doing acoustics research. A math prof at school was a coder for the Mark I when he was a grad student. Made it sound like he had the time of his life.
In 1961, when I was 10, a mentor MIT professor Dr. Jordan Baruch asked my parents to bring me to an MIT lecture hall 8PM on a school night to listen to then Lt. Grace Hopper in uniform give her "Nanosecond" lecture.
If you look on WIKI, he was the person that made ARPANET (the internet) happen, the story was and still told it was to connect university computers, but it was really for defense satellite and NORAD radar and missile communications. He was still an MIT/Harvard EE/Business professor, but also the chief technical officer at BB&N. I frequently visited the lab.
In 1978 Grace came to visit our company who developed a revolutionary efficient multi-user system programmed in a new COBOL with extensions for interactive computer terminals.
I was the software development manager, after her lecture we had an intense discussion about how the then ARPANET would be in everyone's home replacing dial-up modems for computer terminals.
At age 16 I worked on a covert space program, I briefed her, then expected some answers... Do you really think I believe you did the math for Navy artillery shells? She would not use words, used Left/Right eye winks for No & Yes. So without a single word told me she did the Plutonium implosion calculations. Trinity would not have happened without her.
Grace Hopper retired as a rear admiral. She did lectures in uniform.
She also had an excellent way to demonstrate what a nanosecond was. She handed out pieces of wire a foot long and said that's how far light would travel in a nanosecond.
@@James_Knott I saw that, 11.8 inches.
Looks like an electronics skunkworks incubator :-))) It is where the tech from the ALIENS was grown! 😁
Don't believe any self- respecting alien would be messing with electro-mechanical technology. Maybe to sidetrack those worrisome homo sapiens.