-
Period: to
Inventions throughout the 40's
-
Z3 Computer
Inventor: Konrad Zuse
The Z3 computer was the world's first digital programmable computer. It used 2300 relays and was capable of floating point binary arithmetic. This is one of the early computers designed in the early 1900s and brought us one step closer to the modern day computers that we rely on today. -
Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC)
Inventor: John Vincent Antanasoff With the assistance of graduate student, Clifford Berry, professor Antanasoff finished constructing the ABC at Iowa State College. Antanasoff designed the ABC to facilitate complex calculations for his work in physics. Arguably one of the greatest results of this invention was the landmark patent dispute between Antanasoff and Mauchly that ruled that the concept of the computer was un-patentable and open to all. -
Curta Calculator
Inventor: Curt Herzstark The Curta was a small cylindrical mechanical calculator capable of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square roots. It's compact design earned it the nicknames the "peppermill" and the "math grenade". The Curta was popular among engineers and pilots due to it's precision. Eventually, electrical calculators would replace the Curta but even today the Curta is regarded as a special collectible and highly sought after by collectors. -
Colossus Computer
Inventor: Tommy Flowers Developed by British code breakers and designed by electrical engineer Tommy Flowers. The Colossus was built to decipher the Nazis Lorenz code during WWII. The computer was able to decode highly sensitive German military information and 10 of these machines would be used by the end of the war. The Colossus has been credited for potentially shortening the war. Flowers and his team would not receive recognition as information on the computer was kept secret until the 70s. -
Williams-Kilburn Tube
Inventor: Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn The first random access memory electronic storage device. The first tubes were able to hold 256 bits of data, or 32 bytes. This invention paved the way for digital storage and would be used in the IBM701 and Whirlwind computers. Newer computers would go on to use magnetic-core memory in place of the tube. However, the Williams-Kilburn Tube was an important step in showing the capabilities of computer electrical storage.