GIANT CALCULATOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 101, 26 October 1944, Page 4

GIANT CALCULATOR

SOLVES ANY PROBLEM

DEVELOPED AT HARVARD

An automatic sequence-controlled calculator a super-brain developed by a Harvard University professor in collaboration with engineers- of the International Business Machines Corporation, has been presented to the university by the corporation. The machine, the theoretical basis for which was worked out by Commander Howard H. Aiken, U.S.NR Associate Professor of Applied MathervS! s + on c le, av? from the Harvard Graduate School of Engineering perS fVer^ mathematical operation called for in every known type of «M^f^r atl? al rn-Problem' stateS the n? a Ycii k Tl + m? s- At the dictation 01 a^ mathematician, it will solve in a matter of hours problems never before solved because of their intricacy and the enormous time and personnel ouVnn W°H U- ld be r^ uired to w PorktheS out on ordinary office calculators For the present the calculator, which consists of an interlocking panel of small gears, counters, switches and r^l Ol u CIU^ ts only a few inches in depth, held m a steel frame 51 feet long and 8 feet high, win be used by the Navy for war service After fields'^ WSoth USe? t0 «Plore^S nems m mathematics previously built the machine will solve virtuallyany known problem in applied math? integrals, solution of drdfaa"y d °fler-

FOR SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY Tli 6 I? iachine is the first sten In wards the establishment of a comnu" tation bureau after the war Th£h Commander Aiken conceives L S? the University of WiscoS ?"*£ °f working out the theory of fh'* I in 1935, when he joined th^Hatvard staff as instructor in physics:anK munication engineering sfx%_?S_ design construction, and testiS _ c ? formed at the International B&iSSs Machines Corporation's engirSS laboratory at Endicott, N.Y, we?f re? quired to transform Commander Aiken's conceptions into asking ma Kh:? e Vr £ c was assisted by Mr *°h<? rtJ- now an ensign vJSf N/ Val R + eservG' during the later' years of construction. Mr. Clair D «,?£?'n of the corporation, collaborated with Commander Aiken in directing the construction, and Mr. Frank E *aj?«t?£ and Mr> Benjamin M. Durfee' desig^ assisted in the detailed In the completed machine are 500 miles of wire, 3,000,000 wire connections, 3500 relays with 35,000 contacts, 2225 counters, 1464 ten-pole switches and tiers of seventy-two adding machines, each with twenty-three significant numbers. B HOW IT IS WORKED. . To carry out solutions, the machine is equipped to consult logarithmic and other functional tables lying in it or codea on tapes. The operation of the machme > is controlled by a coded tape • To use it, a mathematician must prepare the problem for the machine converting figures, signs, and symbols into code holes, according to a code book written by Commander Aiken with the assistance of Ensign CampThe operatoi-, who need not be a trained mathematician, then punches code holes, using a specially developed punch, into the control tape to feed the problem to . the machine. Each item of information punched amounts to a single statement of direction, such as "Take the number out of counter Adeliver to counter B; start grouping operation." |

The tape passes over a drum advanced by means of a rotating clutch connected to the main power drive. The holes in the tape are recognised by mechanical feelers, which close relays. These1 relays set up the electrical circuits necessary to the routing of numbers through the plant and the initiation of the various procedures. Addition and subtraction are performed with the use of adding counters, multiplication with a unique mechanical multiplication table, division with the table, and a sensing circuit, and computation of elementary, trigonometric, and hyperbolic functions, by. mechanical tables. Encoded functions can be catalogued in the library for use in future problems. Thus a typical problem, which formerly took four expert girls three weeks using ordinary calculators, is solved by this machine in nineteen hours.