From Analytical Engine to Electronic Digital Computer: The Contributions of Ludgate, Torres, and Bush
@article{Randell1982FromAE,
title={From Analytical Engine to Electronic Digital Computer: The Contributions of Ludgate, Torres, and Bush},
author={Brian Randell},
journal={Annals of the History of Computing},
year={1982},
volume={4},
pages={327-341}
}This paper, based on an invited lecture given at MIT in March 1980, discusses the little-known work of Percy E. Ludgate (1883- 1922), Leonardo Torres y Quevedo (1852- 1936), and Vannevar Bush (1890- 1974). These three inventors, who apparently were unaware of one another's existence, were all directly influenced by know/edge of Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, and each played a significant role in the history of the development of program-controlled computers.
Figures from this paper
38 Citations
Leonardo Torres Quevedo: Pioneer of Computing, Automatics, and Artificial Intelligence
- ArtIEEE Annals of the History of Computing
- 2021
The history of computing is a fascinating story. The search for little known pioneers of automation, missed fathers of the computer, unfamiliar founders of computer science, or unrecognized creators…
W. Stanley Jevons, Allan Marquand, and the origins of digital computing
- ArtIEEE Ann. Hist. Comput.
- 1999
The most promising offshoot was the work of Allan Marquand, who conceived of an electromechanical digital machine as early as 1885.
Mathematics and Mechanical Computation
- Computer Science
- 2018
Ideas prompted by the intersection of mathematics and machine are discussed: the physicalisation of memory and the implications for coding, algorithmic programming, machine solution of equations, heuristics, computation as systematic method, halting, and numerical analysis.
Telling the Long and Beautiful (Hi)Story of Automation!
- Computer ScienceHC
- 2013
A new detailed classification of programs is suggested and a “phylogenesis” of automation from the 12th to 19th centuries in Europe is sketched out, to set the history of computing in the much broader context of automation, while also addressing the evolution of ideas.
On the Role of Mathematics and Mathematical Knowledge in the Invention of Vannevar Bush's Early Analog Computers
- BusinessIEEE Ann. Hist. Comput.
- 1996
Bush's perception of promoting engineering by easing the applied mathematics in this field as it appeared in his contribution to the development of operational circuit analysis as an appropriate engineering mathematics as well as in creating analog machinery that was inspired by the formulation of transmission line problems in terms of that very operational methods after Oliver Heaviside.
A personal account of Turing's imprint on the development of computer science
- Computer ScienceComput. Sci. Rev.
- 2012
The Wiener Memorandum on the Mechanical Solution of Partial Differential Equations
- ArtAnnals of the History of Computing
- 1987
In 1940, with war raging in Europe, Vannevar Bush sought from his colleagues at MIT research proposals that might contribute to national defense. The Wiener letter and memorandum that follow were…
Pre-electronic Computing
- Computer ScienceDependable and Historic Computing
- 2011
A shift is made from a technocentric view to a user-centred approach that identifies four main threads which underpin traditional accounts and a map of how these combine to inform the accepted canon is offered.
Remarks on History and Presence of Game Tree Search and Research
- Computer ScienceInformation Theory, Combinatorics, and Search Theory
- 2013
The origins of game tree search in the early 20th century are described and some of the waves of progress are discussed, about the twilight role of science and scientific research for progress in game programming.
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 47 REFERENCES
History of Computing in the Twentieth Century
- History
- 1980
This book is both the reuslt of that conference and the subsequent collection of supplementary articles by the editors, and attempts to fill in some of the gaps that remained and that either could not be filled by the attendees or were left as open questions for lack of time.
A Computer Perspective
- Art
- 1973
A Computer Perspective is an illustrated essay on the origins and first lines of development of the computer that displays more true history than many more conventional presentations of the development of science and technology.
A New Analytical Engine
- Computer ScienceNature
- 1909
The analytical engine proposed by Babbage was intended to have powers of calculation so extensive as to seem a long way outside the capacity of mere mechanism, but this was to be brought about by the use of operation cards supplied by the director or user, which should direct the successive operations of the machine, much as the timing cam of an automatic lathe directs the successive movements of the different tools and feeding and chucking devices.
A Trilogy on Errors in the History of Computing
- MedicineAnnals of the History of Computing
- 1980
This article identifies published errors and misunderstandings in three areas of the history of computing and provides the results of research intended to correct these errors. The three areas…
The Origins of Digital Computers
- HistorySpringer Berlin Heidelberg
- 1973
OF THE DISCUSSION Mr E. William Phillips in submitting his paper said that he had brought to the meeting that evening only so much of the binary calculator as seemed to him to be novel. He had not…
Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
- Art
- 1968
The mathematician and engineer Charles Babbage (1791–1871) is best remembered for his 'calculating machines', which are considered the forerunner of modern computers. Over the course of his life he…
Automatic Calculating Machines
- Computer ScienceThe Mathematical Gazette
- 1950
The purpose is to give an account of some aspects of such machines, both of the machines themselves and of the way in which they are used.
On a Proposed Analytical Machine
- Engineering
- 1982
The result of about six years work, undertaken by me with the object of designing machinery capable of performing calculations, however intricate or laborious, without the immediate guidance of the human intellect.
Pieces of action.
- EducationNature
- 1977
This site is one of the on-line library in which you can find your chosen one to read and this book tends to be the book that will give you new inspirations.