RAPID RECKONING

Hokitika Guardian, 30 March 1935, Page 2

RAPID RECKONING

M ECU A NIC A L C A LCULATI f>N A machine which en|n beat the combined efforts of England’s 50 fihest mathematicians is rapidly approaching completion at the Victoria University, Manchester. ,lt;i the space 'of ten minutes it will be able to dispose of problems which would keep even the most quickwforking human mnthernatieialns busy for two days. It will never gel tired, never suffer from headaches, and Xiever misread its own figures. It "ill 'each a. standard of accuracy which could l.e attained otherwise only by a vombiimtikm of a Mellmselah mad a Senior Wrangler.

Sheer lack of time may compel flip most conscientious mathematician lo make “second-best” approximate dns. This robot mathematician lias 'm'o need to “cut corners” With it incredibly rapid rate of output it can take its time.

Professor D. R. Hart rep. Beyer professor of applied mathematics in the university, has itio ambition to be a Methuselah. Oh the Contrary, he is impatient to probe many liithpl'to unsolved mysteries of the atom, of Hie travel of radio waves, and of aciViplaUe Right. Each of those tasks involves enough •calculation to keep any army 'id mathematic,ians (occupied day and 'night for the rest 01. their li'es. No Professor Hart.ee is going to let the machine do the work.

The machine which is going lo do all these tidings is the first of its kind ' n Europe and the seed'd in the world. Its prototype, designed fOr problems ol electrical uigineering. is im the 'Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Boston. But Professor Hartree's machine is to be slightly more versatile. Alter having l., e en 15 month's under construct inn. it lias just •emerged with triumph Bom its first tests.

In appearance the machine presents a oombinati'n of heavy engineer iing and precision workmanship. Foui'teei.i feet long, later to be extended to 27ft.. It is mounted on steel girders and these again on a concrete Hour. At. an earlier stage of its coins!ruction it was justifiably mistaken for a budding railway engine.

Yet the long screws which drive its slowly-moving mcehabism are aveurnte to within one part in ten thonsnl’d. ’I he eyes of the machine are two tables D ; ’ui which it is presented with raw material J i the shape of graphs drawn 'on pape-t. Next come four calculating units, in-

dicated by the presence of turntables. Kadi 'of these units carries the piolddn a stage further. Finally, a seventh unit draws out the result ol the "huh elaborate calculation, neatly, on a sheet of paper.