1940's Computer History

By MalinaB

  • Harvard Mark I

    Harvard Mark I
    Invented by Howard Aiken, the Harvard Mark I was a fifty-foot calculating machine. With an estimated 750,000 components, it was large enough to fill a room. This calculator was used to make mathematic tables that were used for ballistic calculations during WWII.
    IBM Archives. (1943). Harvard Mark I, 1943 [Image]. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/technology/Harvard-Mark-I#/media/1/44895/19205

  • ENIAC

    ENIAC
    Created by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert during WWII, the ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, was also used for calculating values for artillery range tables. The difference between the ENIAC and its predecessors, however, was that it was the first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer, meaning that it could fulfill greater needs of varying problems.
    (c. 1946). ENIAC [Image]. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/technology/ENIAC

  • Curta Calculator

    Curta Calculator
    Designed by Curt Herzstark, the Curta calculator was the smallest one made of its kind at the time, leaving its mark in history. Not electronic, it was all mechanical, and it had four possible functions.
    NMAH-86-206 Curta Type II Calculating Machine [Image]. National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_1365978

  • Manchester Mark I Williams-Kilburn Tube

    Manchester Mark I Williams-Kilburn Tube
    Brainstormed by Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn, the tube they made was actually for memory. And significantly, it was the first 'high-speed' all-electronic type of memory to be created.
    NMAH-AHB2017q017839 Mainframe Computer Component, Williams Tube from the Ferranti Mark I Computer, Open [Image]. National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_1368485

  • MIT Magnetic Core Memory

    MIT Magnetic Core Memory
    Pioneered by Jay Forrester, the MIT Magnetic Core Memory was the first reliable 'high-speed' random access memory made at the time. The method of using magnetic core memory for the main memory for computers was used for more than two more decades.
    [Picture of Whirlwind Magnetic Core Memory Plane] [Image]. National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_334413