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There are 347 books in our Technology category. You may refine your search by selecting a sub-category under "Technology" in the listing on the left.

Reports of the Technical Industrial Disarmament Committees. Washington: Foreign Economic Administration, 1945. 1st edition. 2 volumes 4to. Cloth. Very good ex-library copy "Defense Mobilization Library" and "Office of Emergency Planning" Library These two volumes (complete) contain 32 reports (marked "RESTRICTED")on many aspects of German industry at the end of the war, with most of them published in June and July 1945. It was an inter-departmental undertaking (including the Foreign economic administration, Army, Navy and others)and includes a list of 0ver 200 contributors. All have their original printed wrappers bound in with the separately paginated reports. Includes reports on industriy "involved in the production of armament...", aircraft, scientific research, engineering in the "secret weapon field" (32pp), light metals, petroleum, rubber, electronic equipment, machine tools, chemical, electric power, foreign trade, optical glass, "participation in international cartels"(!!), and others. (Book ID 20749) $1,500.00

Aeronautical Society of Great Britain. London: Aeronautical Society, 1866. 1 Small 8vo. Very good condition. �One of the most important dates in flying history is the year 1866, when there was founded in London the Aeronautical Society (now Royal) of Great Britain. Although not the earliest society devoted to flying it was by far the most important and. influential . It soon attracted men who realized that mechanical flight was ultimately possible, and who were determined to study and solve its problems.. From then on the main development of aviation was to lie in the hands of scientifically or technologically trained men. The subject if fkying�now took on a new seriousness�it now become a proper subject of investigation�� From Gibbs-Smith�s �Aviation, an Historical Survey�� p. 41. . Very scarce and nice copy of this fragile and extremely important declaration of aviation independence. (Book ID 21300) $250.00

Synthesis of Electronic Computing and Computing Controls. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952. 1st edition. 4to. Synthesis of Electronic Computing and Computing Controls, by �the Staff of the Computation Laboratory�, Harvard University Press, Harvard Annals of Computation #27, 1951, (first edition, revised, 1952). Fine copy in a good (only) dustjacket. In this work the staff of the Computation Laboratory sought to address the problem of �adequate mathematical methods for the investigation of the functional behavior of electronic control circuits� which � represented the largest single obstacle to the rapid development of the subject�� (quotes from the preface by Howard Aiken). �The IBM ASCC or the Harvard Mark I was the first of a series of four computers associated with Howard Aiken. Mark I and Mark II were electromagnetic, using relays but Mark III and Mark IV had a variety of electronic components including vacuum tubes and solid-state transistors. Of the four, Mark I was the most memorable because it produced such reliable results and could run continuously for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The Mark III was the first computer to appear on the cover of Time magazine�. (http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/50th/MarkIII.Time.jpg) John A.N. Lee, from IEEE Annals of the History of Computing The lines of computing machines that had their origin in the days immediately preceding World War II include a series of calculators Howard Aiken, a professor of applied mathematics at Harvard University, designed. Starting with the Mark I in 1944, Aiken spearheaded an effort that provided not only the physical means of computation but also the tools to direct them and the people to operate them. The third in this sequence of machines was an innovation in design and implementation, while at the same time being conservative in the selection of components. The Harvard Mark III Calculator had the potential to be a significant entry into the field of computing, but events slowed its completion until competitors finished other markedly superior systems. The Mark III was not a machine that would be emulated or replicated beyond its lifetime, but the people who planned it, built it, programmed it, and operated it went on to make significant contributions to the science and practice of computing. (Book ID 22760) $200.00

Allied Bombing and a Report on Damage to German Industry--: Fliegerangriff in der Nachct vom 17./18.8.40 auf die Hydrier. 1940. Fine condition. With 27 original photographs displaying bombing damage Title: : Fliegerangriff in der Nachct vom 17./18.8.40 auf die Hydrierwerk Scholven A.G. **NOTE: Hdydrierwerk Scholven A.G. was a synthetic petroleum plant and was one of the earliest targets of the British in the Ruhr Valley. It was owned by the Hibernia Mining Company, as a hydrogenation plant in 1935. Gelsenkirchen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the Ruhr area. Publication Data: no indication of author/printer or which agency/department was responsible, but this looks like (to me) to be the beginning of a standard protocol on reporting damage from British bombing raids. It seems as though the typing under the captions is first generation. This may be a unique copy or perhaps (at worst) one of several. I would say it was of extremely highly limited distribution. Size: 11.5 x 8.5 inches. 20 leaves with 27 original photographic images of damage caused by the bombing. Each leave is quite thick�much more stiff and heavy than a 110-lb cover stock sheet. The photos are all 3 x 4.5 inches, and are clear and bright. Condition: fine condition. Provenance: ex-library, U.S. Library of Congress. This book was part of a very large collection of 90,000 pamphlets that we bought of the U.S. Library of Congress. Known simply as the �Pamphlet Collection� it is identified by a distinctive and tiny 3mm perforated stamp, plus a bookplate at the front pastedown. Binding: bound in thick cloth boards. Gelsenkirchen in the time of the Third Reich In the time when the Nazis held sway in Germany, Gelsenkirchen, owing to its location in the heart of the Ruhr area, was a centre of wartime industry. In no other time has Gelsenkirchen's industry been so highly productive. This brought about, on the one hand, after the massive job cuts in the 1920s, a short-term boost in mining and heavy-industry jobs. On the other hand, the city naturally became the target of many heavy Allied bombing raids during the Second World War, which destroyed three fourths of Gelsenkirchen. Even today, many old above-ground air-raid shelters can be found in the city, and some of the city's official buildings such as Hans-Sachs-Haus downtown and the town hall in Buer have air-raid shelters still kept more or less in their original form. Two synagogues in Gelsenkirchen were destroyed in the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht in November 1938. The one in Buer was burnt down. The one in downtown Gelsenkirchen was likewise destroyed. Exactly 66 years later, the cornerstone was laid there for a new synagogue. The Institute for City History set up a documentation site: "Gelsenkirchen in National Socialist times". Throughout the time when Hitler was in power, from 1933 to 1945, the city's mayor was Carl Engelbert B�hmer, an NSDAP (Book ID 22974) $500.00

Hagelin, . The Hagelin Cryptographers, an Analysis, CONFIDENTIAL. New York: Ericsson Telephone, 1942. 28pp Very good condition. Mimeographed sheets, stapled. Confidential. 11x8, 19pp. Offset, typed document. Stamped "Accessions Division, Nov 11, 1942, Library of Congress". With an accompanying cover letter with the rubberstamp of Ericsson Telephone, Sales Corp, NYC., and dated July 3, 1942. This is a general report on the origin, development and status of the Hagelin "cryptographers"-a word used here to describe the physical machines (rather than the people working on codes). Sections in the document include "Models Built at Express Demand of the French Authorities", "Evolution of Hand Cryptographer Type C-362", "Hagelin Cryptographer Models" (BC-38 and C-362), "Methods of Operation", "Superiority of Hagelin Cryptographers over Competing Makes", and others, including a final section "How to Sell Cryptographers". There is a mention of the "Enigma" machine on page 14, which is limited to mentioning that it is not sold outside of Germany. Although the Swiss firm founded by Boris Hagelin has manufactured, and continues to manufacture, many kinds of cipher machines, the words "Hagelin machine" will normally inspire thoughts of their unique lug and pin based machines. The basic principle of a Hagelin lug and pin machine is easy enough to describe. In the C-38, used by the U.S. Army as the M-209, six pinwheels, with 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, and 26 positions on them, can be set by the user with an arbitrary series of pins that are active. For every letter enciphered, all the pinwheels rotate one space. The combination of active and inactive pins is presented to a cage with 27 sliding bars. Each bar has two sliding lugs on it, which can be placed either in a position where it is inactive, or in a position corresponding to any of the pinwheels, so that it will slide the bar to the left, if the pin currently presented by that pinwheel is active. The number of lugs sticking out rotates the cipher alphabet against the plaintext alphabet. The two alphabets used are just the regular alphabet, and the alphabet in reverse order, from Z back to A. This meant that encipherment was reciprocal, although the machine still had a switch to select encipherment or decipherment: this determined if the machine printed its output in five letter groups, or if it translated one letter, chosen by the user, to a space. The C-52, a postwar version of the Hagelin lug and pin machine, added an extra five sliding bars to the cage that, instead of moving the cipher alphabet, caused the stepping of the pinwheels to be irregular. The first pinwheel always moved, but the remaining five pinwheels only moved when their corresponding bars were slid to the left. The six pinwheels were labelled A, B, C, D, E, and F from left to right; bar 1 controlled pinwheel B, bar 2 pinwheel C, and so on. Also, on the C-52 the lugs could be moved from bar to bar, and the six pinwheels were chosen from a set with lengths 25, 26, 29, 31, 34, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 46, and 47. Using the pinwheels with lengths 34, 38, 42, 46, 25, and 26 allowed one to achieve compatibility with the C-36: provided one also turned off the irregular pinwheel stepping feature. The alphabet always started from its normal position, instead of the position last used, before being rotated by the projecting slide bars. This was perhaps the machine's main weakness, as it made attacks based on frequency counts of displacements possible, but it was perhaps unavoidable, since there was always a slight possibility of occasional mechanical errors. Particularly as the machines were often used on battlefields. (Book ID 20195) $1,750.00

Hooper, W. Eden. The Motor Car in the First Decade of theTwenieth Century. London: Butterworth & Co., 1908. Stout 4to. Buckram. Very good condition. Slightly ex-library. "A Souvenir and a Historical Survey of Mechanical Road Locomotion in England from Early Times to the Present Day", limited to 600 copies for sale in England and 200 copies for sale in the USA. Only listing 103 pp but massively illustrated with fine photogravures, making the entire production 2-inches/50mm thick. The caveats: rebound in library in not-ugly but utilitarian cloth; each plate has a small circular rubberstamp in the bottom left corner. This becomes then a nice copy of an expensive book at a not-too-terribly high price. (Book ID 20207) $600.00

Nonotuck, . How to Use Florence Knitting SIlk. Boston: Nonotuck SIlk Company, 1881. 1st edition. 32 8vo. Good or better condition. Charming pamphlet published by the Nonotuck Company, including numerous text illustrations. * Between 1876 and 1912, the industry grew in size and sophistication. Working closely with suppliers of raw silk in Japan, the Nonotuck Silk Company (later renamed the Corticelli Company) became world famous. Gradually, the industry lost its local character: local industry opened branches elsewhere, and a branch of the Connecticut-based Belding Company was opened here. The history of our silk industry became part of a larger picture, the New England textile industry. (Book ID 20137) $95.00

(Bell) Munro, J.. Telephones and other Applications of Electricity. London: Nature, 1876. 1st edition. Nature, an Illustrated Weekly..., 24 August 1876 Royal 8vo. Original printed wrappers. We offer the entire weekly issue complete with its scarce outer wrappers, cleanly removed from a larger bound volume. Munro (who would go on to write an early and authoritative work on the history of the telephone ("Heroes of the Telegraph") reviews the advancements made in the invention--still, as earlier, not mentioning Bell at all, and still championing the priority of Elisha Gray. It was at about this very time in the autumn of 1876 that William Thomson first presents the telephone to European ears. Munro waxes a bit about the use of the telephone, still identifying it as a musical device, not discussing its possibilities as a speaking instrument--this is precisely what Thomson does, and forcibly so, after hearing it function in the Philadephia Centennial Exshibition, referring to the telephone as the perfect advancement of the telegraph (and also referring to it as a "speaking telegraph".) But Munro continues on with the telephone's musical virtuosity. "There is a possibility here, we must admit, of a curious use of electricity. When we are going to a dancing party there will be no need to provide a musician", as the dancers will be able to pay their electrician for the privelege of getting their piano via wire. +++ In the following passage from Munro's "Heroes of teh Telephone" we read: "Bell patented his speaking telephone in the United States at the beginning of 1876, and by a strange coincidence, Mr. Elisha Gray applied on the same day for another patent of a similar kind. Gray's transmitter is supposed to have been suggested by the very old device known as the 'lovers' telephone,' in which two diaphragms are joined by a taut string, and in speaking against one the voice is conveyed through the string, solely by mechanical vibration, to the other. Gray employed electricity, and varied the strength of the current in conformity with the voice by causing the diaphragm in vibrating to dip a metal probe attached to its centre more or less deep into a well of conducting liquid in circuit with the line. As the current passed from the probe through the liquid to the line a greater or less thickness of liquid intervened as the probe vibrated up and down, and thus the strength of the current was regulated by the resistance offered to the passage of the current. His receiver was an electro-magnet having an iron plate as an armature capable of vibrating under the attractions of the varying current. But Gray allowed his idea to slumber, whereas Bell continued to perfect his apparatus. However, when Bell achieved an unmistakable success, Gray brought a suit against him, which resulted in a compromise, one public company acquiring both patents. "Bell's invention has been contested over and over again, and more than one claimant for the honour and reward of being the original inventor of the telephone have appeared. The most interesting case was that of Signor Antonio Meucci, an Italian emigrant, who produced a mass of evidence to show that in 1849, while in Havanna, Cuba, he experimented with the view of transmitting speech by the electric current. He continued his researches in 1852-3, and subsequently at Staten Island, U.S.; and in 1860 deputed a friend visiting Europe to interest people in his invention. In 1871 he filed a caveat in the United States Patent Office, and tried to get Mr. Grant, President of the New York District Telegraph Company, to give the apparatus a trial. Ill-health and poverty, consequent on an injury due to an explosion on board the Staten Island ferry boat Westfield, retarded his experiments, and prevented him from completing his patent. Meucci's experimental apparatus was exhibited at the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1884, and attracted much attention. But the evidence he adduces in support of His early claims is that of persons ignorant of electrical science, and the model shown was not complete. The caveat of 1871 is indeed a reliable document; but unfortunately for him it is not quite clear from it whether he employed a 'lovers' telephone,' with a wire instead of a string, and joined a battery to it in the hope of enhancing the effect. 'I employ,' he says, 'the well known conducting effect of continuous metallic conductors as a medium for sound, and increase the effect by electrically insulating both the conductor and the parties who are communicating. It forms a speaking telegraph without the necessity of any hollow tube.' In connection with the telephone he used an electric alarm. It is by no means evident from this description that Meucci had devised a practicable speaking telephone; but he may have been the first to employ electricity in connection with the transmission of speech. [Meucci is dead.]" (Book ID 22938) $750.00

(Wald), Abraham. Sequential Analysis in Inspection and Experimentation.. Columbia University, 1944. 4to. Very good condition. �Initial Issue�, published by Columbia University (Statistical research Group for the Applied Mathematics Panel of the National Defense Research Committee [NDRC]) 15 July 1944. AMP Report 30.2R, Sections 1-6. Restricted report, published in parts: sections 1-6 (and appendices 1+2), (See attached sheets for further detail plus table of contents). Pagination as follows: 16; 22; 20; 20; 18; 14pp plus appendix sections of 11pp and 20pp. Each section is printed separately and separated by a tabbed and colored sheet, then bound in its original three-ring binder. Rare. Unlocated in OCLC and RLIN. From the reverse of the front wrapper: �H.A. Freeman is the author of this report on applications of sequential analysis. The theory of sequential analysis is the work of H. Wald�. Includes a mimeographed sheet with the named distribution list for this report�this containing the names of the very heavy hitters, including Warren Weaver, Richard Courant, S.S. Wilks, T.W. Anderson, W.G. Cochran, Walter Bartky, Phil Morse, J.G. Kirkwood, Jerzy Neyman, William Feller, W.A. Wallis, Mina Rees, W. Shewhart, Haskell Curry, and of course John von Neumann. It looks as though the distribution of this work was an edition of about 350-400. Abraham Wald. Born in Cluj, Transylvania (now Romania, then part of Hungary) in 1902. In 1927, he enrolled in the mathematics department of the University of Vienna, receiving his PhD in 1931. He was one of Karl Menger's students and was quickly introduced to the Viennese banker and economist Karl Schlesinger who, in turn, introduced him to the problems of the sytem of Walras and Cassel being dealt with at the time by the Vienna Colloquium. Wald wrote three papers (1935, 1936a,b) on the Walras-Cassel system, employing the important "Duality Principle" and complementary slackness conditions which he (together with Schlesinger) developed for the Walras-Cassel G.E. system - which did away with the counting-equations- and-unknowns method, but allowed the return of Wieser's imputation theory back into economics and the employment of linear programming. Wald's third paper was particularly important and contributed several factors besides linear programming. Wald's paper was also the first proof of the existence of an equilibrium in a G.E. setting in economics. It also introduced several important concepts: the weak axiom of revealed preference (WARP) - later employed and developed by Paul Samuelson. He also addressed (briefly) the issue of whether it would hold in the aggregate (a question ignored and unanswered until the mid-1970s). He also defined a primitive form of the idea of "gross substitution" and provided a proof of the uniqueness of equilibrium. He also used these tools to tackle the existence of an equilibrium in a Cournot duopoly model. Wald was a mathematician and thus, naturally, had a tenuous understanding of the "economic" significance of his work. The impressive economic implications of his work were to be expanded later on by Samuelson, Arrow, Debreu and the Cowles Commission. Wald also gravitated towards statistics during this time (both theory and practice in business cycle research and economic indexes). In 1938, after the Nazis took over Austria and Anchluss proceeded, the Vienna Colloquium was dispersed. Wald was himself dismissed immediately by the Nazis, which led him to leave Austria and accept an invitation from the Cowles Commission. He eventually gravitated to Columbia University, where he continued his work on statistical theory, making several seminal contributions, such as the development of "sequential analysis" (1947) and the famous "Wald Test" (1939) so often employed in modern econometrics. (Book ID 22754) $3,500.00

Allan, Marquand. A New Logical Machine. Boston: American Academy of Arts and Science, 1886. 1st edition. Proceedings of the AAAS, Vol XIII, PArt II 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Good or better condition. We offer a binding copy of second half of the journal, pp 247-571. The Marquand contribution occupies pp 303-307 with one photographic plate of the apparatus. Wikipedia: Allan Marquand (1853-1924) was an art historian at Princeton University and a curator of the Princeton University Art Museum. After graduating from Princeton in 1874, Allan obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1880, at the Johns Hopkins University. His thesis, supervised by Charles Peirce, was on the logic of Philodemus. He returned to Princeton in 1881 to teach Latin and logic. During the 1881-82 academic year, Marquand built a mechanical logical machine that is still extant (picture at the Firestone Library); he was inspired by related efforts of William S. Jevons in the UK. In 1887, following a suggestion of Peirce's, he outlined a machine to do logic using electric circuits. This necessitated his development of Marquand diagrams. According to Lavin (1983: 8), the President of Princeton, McCosh, deemed "unorthodox and unCalvinistic" Marquand's relatively mathematical approach to the teaching logic, an approach he had learned at Peirce's feet. Hence in 1883, Marquand was offered a position teaching art history, a position he held until his death... +++See: "W. Stanley Jevons, Allan Marquand, and the Origins of Digital Computing" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing archive, Volume 21 , Issue 4 (October 1999)Pages: 21 - 27. (Book ID 22908) $750.00

Alt, Franz. A Bell Telephone Laboratories Computing Machine--I+II. Washington DC: National Research Council, 1948. 1st edition. Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation, III/21 Original printed wrappers. Very good condition. We offer the two issues of MTAC, with the complete article by Dr. Alt occupying pp 1-13 and 69-84. SCARCE. "Between 1937 and 1946 engineers and scientists at Bell Telephone Laboratories built a number of digital relay computers, among the first working programmable machines anywhere. Their experience with the technology of switching-that second aspect of telephony-was the basis for Bell's entry into digital computing. But the first aspect-the transmission of analog voice signals-played a role too, as we shall see. The invention of the computer at Bell Laboratories, like its invention elsewhere, resulted from a convergence of technical skill, social need, and talent. Those preconditions were there by the mid-1930's. It remained for one of Bell's employees, Dr. George Stibitz, to serve as the catalyst to bring them together." Reckoners, Bell Labs, page 0074 http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/Reckoners-ch-4.html ....+++On Franz Alt: Dr. Franz L. Alt (born 1910 in Vienna, Austria) is an Austrian born American mathematician who made major contributions to computer science in its early days. Franz Alt grew up in Austria and received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Vienna in 1932, researching set-theoretic topology and logical foundations of geometry. He left Austria for the United States after the 1938 Anschluss. An avid skier, he served in the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division during World War II reaching the rank of Second Lieutenant. After the war, he worked on the ENIAC and other Army computing projects; later he worked in the Computing Laboratory of the National Bureau of Standards, and eventually at the American Institute of Physics. He is best known as one of the founders of the Association for Computing Machinery, having served as its president from 1950 to 1952; he also wrote one of the first books on digital computers, Electronic Digital Computers (Academic Press, 1958). (Book ID 22907) $750.00

Babbage, Charles. Letter to Sir Humphrey Davy on the Application of Machinery to Calculate and Print Mathematical Tables. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Review, 1834. The Edinburgh Review, July, 1834, No. CXX. 8vo. Letter to Sir Humphrey Davy.on the application of Machinery to Calculate and Print Mathematical Tables by Charles Babbage WITH On the Application of Machinery to the Calculation of Astronomical and Mathematical Tables by Charles Babbage WITH Address to the Astronomical Society by Henry Thomas Colebrooke on presenting the first gold Medal of the Society to Charles Babbage Esq. For the invention of the Calculating Machine WITH On the determination of the General Term of a new Class of Infinite Series by Charles Babbage WITH On Errors common to many Tables of Logarithms by FULL TITLE: "Charles Babbage, WITH On a Method of Expressing by Signs the Action of Machinery by Charles Babbage, WITH Report by the Committee appointed by the Council of the Royal Society to consider the subject referred to in a Communication received by them from the Treasury, respecting Mr. Babbage"s Calculating Engine and to report thereupon" In the Edinburgh Review, July 1834, Volume LIX, no. 120, pp 263-327, illustrated. We offer the entire volume of 545pp. Bromley, "Table making and calculating engines," in "General introduction" to The Works of Charles Babbage, ed. Michael Campbell-Kelly (London: William Pickering, 1982), pp. 22-27. Origins of Cyberspace 51. (Book ID 22843) $1,000.00

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