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  Your search for Books by Keywords = Computing has returned 28 results:
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
Aiken,  Howard.  Synthesis of electronic computing and control circuits..  Harvard University,  1951.  Harvard University Computation Laboratory  [10], 278pp.  Nice crisp copy wityh a few exlib markings; nice dj!  Original dark blue cloth, blue printed dust-jacket. Text illustrations and diagrams. 267 x 197 mm. First edition. Volume XXVII of the Annals of the Computation Laboratory of Harvard University. Based on Howard Aiken's 1947-48 course of lectures on "Organization of digital calculating machinery," and on research arising out of the Computation Laboratory's 1948 contract with the Air Force "in connection with electronic components for use in computing machinery" (p. [vii]).   (Book ID 22901) $225.00
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
Bartky,  Walter.  Paths of Charged Particles in Electric and Magnetic Fields.  APS,  1929.  The Physical Review, 33/6, June 1929.  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  It should be remembered that the man Fermi was reporting to in Chicago during the War was Dean Walter Bartky. The following abstract is from the APS PROLA website URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PR/v33/p1019: "A combination of electric and magnetic fields is described which is suitable for positive-ray analysis experiments, or precise determinations of the ratio of charge to mass. The orbits of charged particles in the radial electric field and transverse magnetic field of the system are computed, and it is shown that a beam of rays of various velocities diverging from a point are brought to a focus provided the variations are not too large. Formulas are given for computing the errors introduced by variations in direction and velocity. Š1929 The American Physical Society   (Book ID 23051) $100.00
Berkeley,  Edmund.  Computers & Automation.  NYC:  Berkeley,  1953-1954.  1st edition.  Cloth.  Harvard’s Edmund Berkeley’s (’30) Computers and Automation volume 2+3, 1953 and 1954. A Very Early, Semi-theoretical, Practical, and Computer Applications Journal. Published by Edmund Berkeley & Associates, NYC. 1953-1954. 10 ž x 8 ½”. 189 issues. Bound in blue buckram. Ex-library (but hardly so) from the U.S. Air Force. Volume 2 has all of the original outer wrappers bound in; volume 3 (with the exception of the first issue) does not have the outer wrappers. FINE condition. Contributors include: Grace Hopper, Margaret Harper, Alston Householder, A.D. Booth, Bar-Hillel, Elliot Gruenberg, Isaac Asimov, and others. Subjects include: The ERA 1103 computer, NIMWIT, Applications of the Computer, what the computer *is*, Hopper’s compiler, mechanical translation, Harper’s subroutines, the cost of coding, computer “self-repair”, automation at Ford, and so on. Also includes perhaps the earliest announcement of the first all-transistor computer (October 1954, IBM’s “new experimental transistorized computer” , the earliest (?) printing of Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics in a scientific journal, and more. This journal started out in volume 1 as “The Computing Machinery Field”, and was issued 6 times in the initial year. Volume 2/2 finds the journal with a new name,. “Computers and Automation”. Beginning with volume three there were ten issues per year. The name changes again in September 1953 to “Computers and Automation, Cybernetics, Robots, Automatic Control”. All issues have some fair space devoted to advertising, even though the issues generally ran between 32 and 40pp. The founding editor, Edmund C. Berkeley, was a real-enough mathematician, engineer and computer pioneer, but he also had a pretty large taste for making these interests pay. He was not averse to being somewhat outr3e with his journal—in addition to having contributors like Grace Hopper and Alton Householder, he also had Fletcher Pratt and Isaac Asimov writing some pretty arresting pieces from the SciFi/Futurama point of view. According to the first issue, approximately 1200 people were on the mailing list for the journal, with around 2000 issues being printed each number. All told, this is not a large print run, and thus not many of the early issues have survived. A Note on the Advertisements: in short, they’re wonderful. For example, on the back cover of vol2/1 is Edmund Berkeley & Associates “SMALL ROBOTS”, advertising “Simon, the Mechanical Brains”, “Squee, the Robot Suirrel”, and other gadgets. To give you an example the other ads in this issue alone are for “The Circle Computer”, “General Ceramics Ferramic Cores”, “Magnetic Metals Co. Amplifier Cores”, Ross Ashby’s “Design for a Brain”, Consolidated Engineering’s SADIC System, Monroe Calculator’s Monrobot Electronic Calculator, George Philbrick’s “Computor (sic) products”, and a lovely two-page spread for Remington Rand.. Further into the year are ads for Burroughs, IBM (604 ands 607), Electronic Associates Inc, Prokar capacitors, Each section generally has three of the following categories (per issue) : computer glossary, roster of member organizations, who’s who, an annotated books and journals section, Includes: Volume 2/1, January 1953. 45pp. Householder, A.S. Brains, Electronic and Otherwise Williams, S.B. (President, ACM) What Computers Do. Murphy, E.F. and E.C. Berkeley. Automatic Computers on Election Night. Volume 2/2 , March 1953. 37pp. Boehm, George A.W. Gypsy, Model VI, Claude Shannon, Nimwit and the Mouse Paynter, Henry. Water and Computers, Berkeley. The Concept of Automation. Berkeley (with Neil Macdonald, Berkeley’s other name). The ERA 1003 Automatic Computer. Volume 2/3, April 1953. 40pp. Pratt, Fletcher. The Art of Solving Secret Ciphers and the Digital Computer. Berkeley, Ed. Avenues for Future Development in Computing Machinery. Hegedus, Gene J. Hungarian Prelude to Automation.. **Volume 2/4. May 1953. 33pp. Grace Murray Hopper. Compiling Routines. Booth, A.D. Mechanical Translation. Stone, Marshall. Medical Diagnosis. And, an Automatic Computer List. --one of the very earliest accessible reports on the compiler. Volume 2/5. July 1953. Yehosuha Bar-Hillel. Machine Translation. Boehm, George A.W. Robot Traffic Policemen. Flesch, Rudolf. How to Talk to Computers. Volume 2/6. September 1953. Fortuna, Tommaso. The Soviet Union: Automatic Digital Computer Research. Wainwright, Lawrence,. Digital Computer Questionnaire. DISCUSSION: “How to Talk About Computers”, with GG Hawley, Samuel Scharff, C.B. Crumb, and EC Berkeley. ALSO: Roster of Organizations Making Components And a supplement to the Roster of Organizations in the field of computers and automation. Volume 2/7. October 1953. 36pp. Brown, David W. Computers in the Factory Macdonald, Neil (Berkeley). The Flood of Automatic Computers. Berkeley. The Meeting of the ACM, September 1953. Volume 2/8. November 1953. 40pp. Carr, John W. III. Who Will Man the New Digital Computers? Cooley, E.F. Electronic Equipment Applied to Periodic Billing. Hagen, Glenn. Air-Floating: a New Principle in Magnetic Recording of Information. Volume 2/9 December 1953. 36pp. Clippinger, Richard. How a Central Computing Laboratory can Help Industry. Wiseman, R.T. “Combined” Operations in a Life Insurance Company instead of “fractured operations”. Rogers, J.L. and Householder. Can Machines Think? Also, a computing terms glossary. Volume 3/1. January 1954. 28pp. Householder, A.S. The End of an Epoch: the Joint Computer Conference, Washington DC, December 1953. Perry, Joseph E. Report of the Committee on Electronics for the Savings and Mortgage Division, American Bankers Association. Pratt, Fletcher. Automation in the Kitchen. Volume 3/2. February 1954. 32pp. Macdonald, Neil. Language Translation by Machine—a Report on the First Successful Trial. Gruenberg, Ernst L. Reflective Thinking in Machines Householder & Berkeley. Glossary of Terms un Computers and Automation. **Volume 3/3. March 1954. 32pp. Rock, Sibyl M. Towards More Automation in Petroleum Industries. Ashe, Geoffrey. Introducing Computers to Beginners. Harper, Margaret M. Subroutines: prefabricated Blocks for Building. Hopper, Grace Murray. Glossaries of Terns, Discussion. --Great paper here by Harper (see below). --Wonderful work by Hopper on replacing the word “program” with “routine”, and also for excising “memory” (“one of the last remaining word from the ‘Magic Brain’ class”) with storage. This is almost worth the price of admission! Volume 3/4. April 1954. 32pp. Macdonald, Neil. Processing Information Using a Common Machine Language Gruenberg, E.L. The Concept of Thinking. Clark, Lawrence M. . General Purpose Robots. **Volume 3/5. May 1954. Gelhard, Ephraim. Ferrite Memory Devices. Pfanstiehl, Alfred. Flight Simulators. Gruenber, Elliot L. Autonomy and Self-Repair for Computers: a Symposium. Hopper, Grace Murray. A Glossary of Computer Technology. Volume 3/6. July 1954.36pp. Bridgewater, John. Human Factors in the Design of an Electronic Computer. Mcdonald, Neil. What is a Computer? The Electronic Juggler of the Reeves Instrument Company (with full-page schematic). Volume 3/7. September 1954. Macdonald, Neil. Computer Failures—Automatic Control Diagnosis (AID). Gotlieb, C.C. The Cost of Programming and Coding. The Development and Use of Automation by Ford Motor Corp. Volume 3/8. October 1954. 32pp. Pfanstiehl, Alfred. Flight Simulators—a New Field. Asimov, Isaac. Robots I Have Known. --The Asimov piece is only two pages long but it does contain what is I think the earliest publication of the Three Laws of Robotics in a scientific periodical! **Volume 3/9. November 1954. Gill, Stanley. Computers in Great Britain. Nolan, John E. Analog Computers and their Applications to Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow, I. Patterson, George B. Assembly Line Control by Punch Cards. Macdonald, Neil. All-transistor Computer. --This seems to be the first publication containing an entry and photographic description of the new IBM experimental all-transistor computer. Volume 3/10. December 1954. Pratt, Fletcher. The Human Relations of Computers and Automation. Nolan, John E. Analog Computers and heir Application to Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow II. Dumey, Harold I. Economies in Design of Incomplete Selection Circuits with Diode Elements. ALSO a 15pp cumulative glossary of computer terms.   (Book ID 22900) $2,750.00
Berkeley,  Edmund C..  Simple Simon.  New York:  Scientific American,  1st edition.  Vol 183, No. 5, November 1950  Pp 40-44  Original printed wrappers.  Near fine condition.  This is the entire issue of SA for November 1950 and featuresColumbia University's "electrical brain" in great splendor (and in color) on the fron cover. Striking.   (Book ID 20150) $550.00
Burks,  Arthur.  An Analysis of a Logical Machine Using Parenthesis-Free Notation.  Washington DC:  National Research Council,  1954.  1st edition.  Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation, VIII/Number 46  8vo.  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  This article is by Burks with Don Warren and Jesse Wright--we offer the entire issue for April 1954 in the original, scarce, wrappers. The other contributions to this issue include: Arthur W. Burks and Don W. Warren and Jesse B. Wright An Analysis of a Logical Machine Using Parenthesis-Free Notation . . . 53--57 Oliver Gross Polynomial-Like Approximation . . .58--60 Daniel Shanks A Logarithm Algorithm . . . 60--64 George B. Dantzig and Wm. Orchard-Hays The Product Form for the Inverse in the Simplex Method . . . 64--67 Gertrude Blanch On Modified Divided Differences II . . . 67--75 Andrew D. Booth Technical Developments: The Development of A.P.E.(X).C. (in Automatic Computing Machinery) . . .   (Book ID 22904) $450.00
Bush,  Vannevar.  "As We May Think".  New York:  Atlantic Monthly,  1945.  1st edition.  Original printed wrappers.  Fine condition.  Extremely Rare. (We have never seen the offprint of this paper, nor is it contained in the major collections of Computer History, nor is it contained in the Library of Congress Collections, nor in the National Union Catalog, nor in the World/Cat Database, nor in the collections of the Charles Babbage Institute, nor in Bush’s archives at M.I.T.. We have also contacted the editors at the Atlantic Monthly Magazine who have stated that they receive requests for copies of this article "all the time" and that it is their "most requested article for reprint", and that they have no knowledge of offprints having been done.) FINE copy. Bush Background: Bush did his undergraduate work at Tufts College, where he later taught. His master's thesis (1913) included the invention of the Profile Tracer, used in surveying work to measure distances over uneven ground. In 1919, he joined MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering, where he stayed for twenty-five years. In 1932, he was appointed vice-president and dean. At this time, Bush worked on optical and photocomposition devices, as well as a machine for rapid selection from banks of microfilm. Further positions followed: president of the Carnegie Institute in Washington, DC (1939); chair of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1939); director of Office of Scientific Research and Development. This last role was a presidential appointment which made him responsible for the 6,000 scientists involved in the war effort. During World War II, Bush worked on radar antenna profiles and the calculation of artillery firing tables. The mathematics involved was complicated and repetitive. Bush proposed the development of an analogue computer; this became the Rockefeller Differential Analyser. Unfortunately, his research was rendered obsolete by 1950 with the invention of the digital computer. It is ironic that one of the heroes of today's computer researchers was defeated in his own work by the predecessor of those selfsame computers. Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) is the pivotal figure in hypertext research. His conception of the Memex introduced, for the first time, the idea of an easily accessible, individually configurable storehouse of knowledge. Douglas Engelbart and Ted Nelson were directly inspired by his work, and, in particular, his ground-breaking article, "As We May Think." Bush is famous for his Memex, publicized in the aforementioned article in Atlantic Monthly (1945) and most readily available in Nyce and Kahn. Yet this same article also contained descriptions of devices rarely cited. These include the Cyclops Camera: "worn on forehead, it would photograph anything you see and want to record. Film would be developed at once by dry photography;" advances in microfilm; a thinking machine (actually a mathematical calculator); and a vocoder, "a machine which could type when talked to" (87). As Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Dr. Vannevar Bush has coordinated the activities of some six thousand leading American scientists in the application of science to warfare. Some of the great internet developers who have recognized the importance of this paper by Bush include: Doug Englebart, would later write to Bush acknowledging the influence Bush's article had had on his own work. (Zachary, 267). J.C.R. Liklider "Computing's Johnny Appleseed," a well-deserved nickname for a man who planted the seeds of computing in the digital age, (Waldrop, 2000), Ted Nelson (Internet pioneer and coiner of the term “hypertext” and know as "one of the most influential contrarians in the history of the information age." (Edwards, 1997)) regards this effort by Bush as a foundation stone of the internet (Zachary, pg 399). References Bush, V. (1945) As We May Think. Atlantic Monthly.Available at: :http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm. Edwards, O. "Ted Nelson" . Forbes ASAP, August 25, 1997. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/asap/97/0825/134.ht Waldrop, M. "Computing's Johnny Appleseed." Technology Review, Jan/Feb 2000. Available at: http://www.techreview.com/articles/jan00/waldrop.htm .   (Book ID 22796) $17,500.00
Bush,  Vannevar.  Thomas-Fermi Equatioon Solution by the Diferential Analyzer.  American Physical Society,  1931.  1st edition.  The Physical Review, Vol 38 (10), 15 November 1931  Original printed wrappers.  Fine condition.  Written with Samuel Caldwell, another great computer pioneer, this paper is the first to publish solutions achieved by the just-finished 100-ton computing device. The MIT machine was first reported on by Bush in the months preceding this publication in the Journal of the Franklin Institute. We offer this weekly issue of the Physical Review in the scarce original wrappers, where the Bush/Caldwell article appears on pp 1989-1903 (pp 1797-1913 comprising the issue). Scarce.   (Book ID 23192) $850.00
Caldwell,  Samuel.  Analogue and Special Purpose Computing Machines..  1949.  1st edition.  8vo.  Very good condition.  Mimeograph sheets, stapled, "full text of Paper Given before the ACM, Oak Ridge, Tenn, April 18-20, 1949". Dated 15 July 1949. 8vo, 10pp. "There is no question that MIT faculty members Vannevar Bush and Samuel Caldwell had been the principal originators of analog computing in the 1920s and 1930s. Yet McCartney's assessment misses the fact that, soon after the end of the Second World War, the MIT administration made the decision to return a Rockefeller Foundation grant that was to have paid for the recommencement of its analog computing program. MIT went on instead to back the digital work then starting up in the Servomechanisms Laboratory and in the Research Laboratory for Electronics-from Wm Asprey's review of "The Two Unknowns…the ENIAC" (Caldwell is pictured with Bush, standing at left) In a letter to Weaver in the early of 1946, professor Samuel Caldwell of MIT's Electrical Engineering department and head of MIT's Center of Analysis not only criticized von Neumann's lack of appreciation of the engineering problems in building digital computers but also indicated that MIT had the "key men required for the theoretical, developmental, and engineering aspects of the problem." [Samuel Caldwell, letter to W. Weaver, cited in Karl L. Wildes and Nilo A. Lindgren, A Century of Electrical Engineering and Compute Science at MIT, 1882-1982, Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1985, pp. 232-233.] In a letter to the staff of employees of Center of Analysis in early 1947, Caldwell wrote: "... in the field of electronic computation we entered the war among the leaders and emerged in a much less favorable position. ... resumption of our work in electronic computation development, at a greatly increased rate, stands as the largest and most important single item on our future development program."[Ibid., p.233.]   (Book ID 22701) $1,250.00
Comrie,  Leslie.  The Application of Commercial Calculating Machines to Scientific Computing.  Washington DC:  National Research Council,  1946.  1st edition.  Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation, II/16  Pp 149-196  8vo.  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  We offer this pamphlet in its original green wrappers for th emonth of )ct0ber 1946. Quite scarce thus. Comrie pioneered the use of commercial accounting machines in scientific applications, especially in the production of mathematical tables. The above article describes the first use of a punched-card tabulating system in a purely scientific application. The following on Comrie from Columbia University: Leslie J. Comrie, Ph.D, (1893-1950): astronomer and pioneer in mechanical computation, born in Pukekohe, New Zealand, and educated at Auckland University College, University College London, and Cambridge University, where he received a Ph.D. in astronomy [3]. Photo: 1932, from the Comrie obituary in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society of London. Like his American contemporary, Columbia University Astronomy Professor Wallace Eckert, Comrie was a pioneer in the application of punched-card machinery to astronomical calculations and the production of astronomical and mathematical tables: the first scientific use of these machines, which had been designed purely for business use.   (Book ID 22903) $650.00
Curry,  Haskel.  On Composition of Programs for Automatic Computing..  Internal doc, Naval Ordnance Lab,  1949.  Oblong 4to  Very good condition.  Curry, Haskell B. Early photostat of an unclassified, rare document for the Naval Ordnance Laboratory (Naval Ordnance Laboratory Memorandum 9805), 26 January 1949. ***This actually seems to be a collection of photographs of the document's pages rather than a photostatic copy*** “A Study…of the planning of computations with a view to shortening the process and to systematizing it so that more work can be done by less technically trained personnel or by machines [our highlighting]”. Stamped “File Copy, Navy Research Section, Scientific Division, Library of Congress, TO BE RETURNED”. Ex-library, Library of Congress. Rare. Haskell Curry was educated at Harvard and received a doctorate from Göttingen in 1930 for a thesis, supervised by Hilbert, entitled Grundlagen der kombinatorischen Logik. He taught at Harvard, Princeton, then for 35 years at Pennsylvania State University. During World War II Curry researched in applied physics at Johns Hopkins University. In 1966 he accepted the chair of mathematics at Amsterdam. Curry's main work was in mathematical logic with particular interest in the theory of formal systems and processes. He formulated a logical calculus using inferential rules. His works include Combinatory Logic (1958) (with Robert Feys) and Foundations of Mathematical Logic (1963). From the Penn State Site: “Penn State's first contribution to electronic computing was the work of Haskell Curry, an expert on symbolic logic. Curry worked on the first electronic computer, called ENIAC, while on leave from Penn State during World War II. Curry's research in the 1950s into the foundations of combinatory logic was applied in 1986 in the Mitre Corporation's Curry Chip, an innovative piece of computer hardware based on Curry's concept of "combinators."   (Book ID 22759) $2,750.00
Eckert,  Wallace J..  The IBM Pluggable Sequence Relay Calculator.  Washington DC:  National Research Council,  1948.  1st edition.  Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation, III/23  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  The contents of this issue includes: W. J. E. The IBM Pluggable Sequence Relay Calculator . . . 149--161 Herbert F. Mitchell, Jr. Inversion of a Matrix of Order $38$ . . 161--166 Herbert E. Salzer Coefficients for Expressing the First Thirty Powers in Terms of the Hermite Polynomials . . . 167--169 Anonymous Technical Developments (in Automatic Computing Machinery) . . . 206--206 R. E. Clippinger Airflow Problem Planned for the ENIAC (in Automatic Computing Machinery; Discussions) . . .. 206--207 Bruce L. Hicks and H. G. Landau Nonlinear Parabolic Equations (in Automatic Computing Machinery; Discussions) . . . 207--208 John V. Holberton Laminar Boundary Layer Flow in a Compressible Fluid (in Automatic Computing Machinery; Discussions) . . . 208--208 Joseph H. Levin On the Approximate Solution of a Partial Differential Equation on the Differential Analyzer (in Automatic Computing Machinery; Discussions) . . . 208--209 M. Lotkin Computation of the Airflow about a Cone Cylinder (in Automatic Computing Machinery; Discussions) . . . 209--210 Anonymous A New Class of Computing Aids (in Other Aids to Computation) . . . 217--221 Anonymous Corrigenda . . . 227--227 A description of the special-purpose wartime punched-card calculators originally developed by IBM for the United States Army. The first two machines of this type, were built during the war for the Aberdeen proving ground, were delivered in December 1944, and were in operation during the last eight months of the war…For comparison with the I.B.M. Sequence Controlled Calculator at Harvard this machine is limited in internal storage capacity, number of significant figures, and flexibility of sequencing; on the other hand, multiplying speed is about twenty times as great.” Hook and Norman, 579.   (Book ID 22906) $750.00
Ford et al.,  L.K..  Flows in Networks.  Princeton University,  1962.  1st edition.  A Rand Corporation Research Study  8vo.  Cloth.  Fine condition.  Fine dust jacket.    (Book ID 13728) $75.00
Gray,  H.J..  Interactions of Computer Language and Machine Design.  Washington, DC:  US Dept of Commerce,  1965.  1st edition.  277pp  4to.  Printed, stapled wrappers.  Fine condition.  Unclassified document from the Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical Information.   (Book ID 14915) $100.00
Hartree,  Douglas.  Calculating Instruments and Machines.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press,  1949.  1st edition.  ix,138  Royal 8vo.  Cloth.  Very good condition.  First Edition of a pioneering work in computing, based on a series of lectures given at the University of Illinois in 1948. The first four chapters are devoted to analogue devices, particularly differential analyzers, including a device the author constructed in 1934 from toy parts. Chapter 5 is devoted to digital computers, which the author clearly prefers. Chapter 6 describes Babbages machines, with a discussion of Lady Lovelaces 1843 paper. Chapter 7 is on the Harvard Mark I & II calculators. Chapter 8 discusses various projects in development, including magnetic drums and tapes, Boolean algebra for circuit analysis and flowcharts for programming. There are brief accounts of the plans for several machines, including EDVAC, UNIVAC, and Mark III. The last chapter is a perspective survey of the prospects for numerical analysis. Goldstine p.99. Randell p.136: Includes fairly extensive discussion of Babbages work, the Harvard Mark I, ENIAC and the I.B.M. Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator.   (Book ID 22761) $500.00
La Jeunesse,  D.J..  SYSTRAN (Systems Analysis Translator) a Digital Computer Program.  Washington, DC:  US Dept of Commerce,  1965.  1st edition.  275pp  4to.  Printed, stapled wrappers.  Fine condition.  Unclassified document from the Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical Information.   (Book ID 14916) $125.00
Lardner,  Dionysius.  Babbage's Calculating Engine.  Edinburgh:  Edinburgh Review,  1834.  1st edition.  Edinburgh Review, volume 59, #120, July 1834.  Pp 263-327 (of 545pp).  8vo.  Half-calf.  Fair condition.  This is a binding copy--the text is fine, though the binding is really quite gone.  Dionysius Lardner ("the world's first science journalist [Hyman, "Charles Babbage--Pioneer of the Computer", p. 120 (1982)]) and reported here, for the first time, on the Babbage calculating engine. "This highly favorable review...was the first popular exposition in the subject...Lardner arguing for the necessity of such a machine...the conclusion of the article is the history of the construction of the machine. with suggestions for reaching a rapid and successful conclusion to the project". "It was from this article that Scheutz...derived the first conception of constructing a small machine for effecting the same purpose as that of Babbage". Archibald, R.C. "P.G. Scheutz...Biography and Bibliography", MTAC II, no. 17, p 239, January 1947. "The machine that Lardner described...fascinated Scheutz, who (with eventual success) set out to design one for himself". Trevor WIlliams, "A History of Computing Technology", p. 175 (1985). Note on Condition: this is a binding copy of the entire volume of the Edinburgh Review for this half year--this means that the spine is pretty well shot although the covers are recoverable--the text however is crisp and bright   (Book ID 22802) $650.00
Lehmer,  Daniel H..  The Sieve Problem for All-Purpose Computers.  Washington DC:  National Research Council,  1953.  1st edition.  Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation, VII/41  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  The other contributions to this issue include: Gertrude Blanch and Everett C. Yowell Addendum to a Guide to Tables on Punched Cards . . . 1--6 D. H. L. The Sieve Problem for All-Purpose Computers . . . 6--14 L. Fox The Use of Large Intervals in Finite-Difference Equations . . . 14--18 H. P. Edmundson Monte Carlo Matrix Inversion and Recurrent Events . . . 18--21 J. J. Stone Technical Developments: The USAF--Fairchild Specialized Computer (in Automatic Computing Machinery) . . . 34--37 R. A. Brooker and D. J. Wheeler Floating Operations on the EDSAC (in Automatic Computing Machinery; Discussions) . . . 37--47 Max G. Scherberg and John F. Riordan Analogue Calculation of Polynomial and Trigonometric Expansions (in Other Aids to Computation) . . . 61--65 Anonymous Corrigenda . . .72--72   (Book ID 22905) $350.00
Moriera ed.,  Antonio.  Computer and Information Science Applications in Bioprocess Engineering.  Dordrecht:  Kluwer,  1995.  1st edition.  NATO ASI Series E Vol. 305  8vo.  Glossy hard back.  As new.    (Book ID 14021) $100.00
Shannon, Claude and Warren Weaver.,  The Mathematical Theory of Communication..  Univ. of Illinois Press.,  1949.  1st. Edition.  Red Cloth.  Nice copy of an important book.   (Book ID 16504) $275.00
Silijak,  Dragoslav.  Large-Scale Dynamic Systems, Stability and Structure.  New York:  North-Holland,  1978.  North Holland Series in System Science and Engineering  416pp  8vo.  Cloth.  Fine condition.  Very good dust jacket.    (Book ID 15441) $100.00
Simon,  Herbert.  A Comparison of Game Theory and Learning Theory..  Pittsburg:  Carnegie Institute of Technology,  1956.  1st edition.  (1956). 11x8.5", mimeographed typed sheets, staple-bound. Owner's stamp on top front wrapper upper right. Fine copy. Rare. HERBERT A. SIMON's research has ranged from computer science to psychology, administration, and economics, and philosophy. The thread of continuity through all his work has been his interest in human decision-making and problem-solving processes, and the implications of these processes for social institutions. For more than 40 years, he has been making extensive use of the computer as a tool for both simulating human thinking and augmenting it with artificial intelligence. Born in 1916 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Simon was educated in political science at the University of Chicago (B.A., 1936, Ph.D., 1943). He has held research and faculty positions at the University of California (Berkeley), Illinois Institute of Technology, and since 1949, Carnegie Mellon University, where he is Richard King Mellon University Professor of Computer Science and Psychology, and a member also of the Departments of Philosophy and of Social and Decision Sciences, and the Graduate School of Industrial Administration. In 1978, he received the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, and in 1986 the National Medal of Science; in 1969, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, in 1975 the A.M. Turing Award of the Association for Computing Machinery (with Allen Newell), in 1988, the John von Neumann Theory Prize of ORSA/TIMS, and in 1995, the Research Excellence Award of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Simon's books include Administrative Behavior, Human Problem Solving, jointly with Allen Newell, The Sciences of the Artificial, Scientific Discovery, with Pat Langley, Gary Bradshaw, and Jan Zytkow, three volumes of his collected economics papers (Models of Bounded Rationality), two volumes of collected psychology papers (Models of Thought), a volume of papers on philosophy of science (Models of Discovery), and his autobiography, Models of My Life.   (Book ID 21325) $2,750.00
Tompkins,  C.B..  High-Speed Computing Devices.  New York:  McGraw Hill,  1950.  1st edition.  8vo.  Cloth.  Very good condition.  Very nice copy of the first issue.   (Book ID 22442) $400.00
Tompkins,  C.B..  High-Speed Computing Devices.  New York:  McGraw Hill,  1950.  1st edition.  Cloth.  Fine condition.  Beautiful copy of an early reprint of the first editon.   (Book ID 22443) $450.00
Tompkins,  C.B..  High-Speed Computing Devices.  New York:  McGraw Hill,  1950.  1st edition.  8vo.  Cloth.  Very fine condition.  Very good dust jacket  Beautiful copy of the book in a VG copy of the dj. The dj has the usual nicks and chips but also has the usual fading on the spine as well. This is simply the best of the pre-1960’s textbooks on the computer, complete with a seemingly endless amount of data on the golden age of computers. This classic work is enhanced by a (very) unusually complete series of chapter-ending references and bibliographies. Among much else of interest we find a treatment of the Harvard Mark I and II on pp 183-187 in the chapter on “Large-Scale Digital Computing Systems” on pp 182-222 with bibliography occupying pp 218-222. Also, the “Punched-Card Computing Systems” chapter pp 146-181 has a splendid bibliography on pp 166-181. --This is considered to be the first textbook on digital computers, the first compendium in English on digital computer technology, and a pioneering work that influenced many computer designers during the 1950s. It provides an unsurpassed picture of the state of the art during the late 1940s, and is further enhanced by the inclusion of several excellent bibliographies. Goldstine, p. 315 Sarrazin F2. "The book is a careful analysis of the electronic field as of 1950 and was in very large measure written by the late Professor C. B. Tompkins.." - Goldstine 315. It was written to satisfy "a perceived need, following the end of WW II, for compendium of technologies applicable to the emerging field of electronic digital computers...Because published technical information was scarce in the U.S., there can be little question that the book was an important contribution to computer literature...with its state of the art picture of the period 1947 through 1949, establishes a well-documented baseline fro tracking and evaluating subsequent technological progress." Arnold Cohen, from the Introduction to the 1983 Charles Babbage Institute Reprint Series Edition of the ERA Report, published by Tomash Publshing. ERA Background note: Engineering Research Associates' (ERA) origins can be traced to a classified World War II era Navy project which recruited highly skilled cryptologists, mathematicians, engineers, and physicists to break German and Japanese codes in order to pinpoint the movements of their ships. These tasks required the use of computing devices that could calculate data at ever increasing speeds. This led to an effort to investigate electronic solutions to cryptologic problems. The work of this group was coordinated by Commander Howard T. Engstrom, who before the war had been a professor of mathematics at Yale University; and Lt. Commander William C. Norris, former sales manager for Westinghouse. After the war, the Navy made an effort to keep this team together and offered several members civil service appointments. However, Engstrom and Norris preferred to go into business for themselves. In the fall of 1945, they began searching for financial backing, but this proved to be difficult because they were unable to discuss their classified projects with potential investors. Finally, John Parker, a Wall Street investment banker and former head of Northwestern Aeronautical Corporation, provided the necessary capital. In January 1946, Engineering Research Associates was formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where John Parker was based. In the fall of 1946, ERA received its first major contract from the Office of Naval Research to compile a report on “High Speed Computing Devices”. This report, which became the definitive study of the infant state of computing, was later published in book form by McGraw Hill. During this project, ERA personnel was given access to classified government reports and worked with computer pioneers John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, inventors of the ENIAC, and John von Neumann, of Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study. ERA was dependent on government funded cost-plus--fixed-fee contracts. In August 1947, it began work for the Navy on Task 13 - a project to design a general all-purpose stored-program computer. During this project ERA developed the first magnetic storage drum; the technology upon which the next two generations of computers was based. In October, 1950, ERA completed work on the Atlas computer - America's first electronic stored-program computer. The Atlas with its 2,700 vacuum tubes was capable of running twenty-four hours a day with only 10% of the time allotted for maintenance. ERA hoped to establish a niche in the private sector. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, it worked with TWA to develop an automated airline reservation system. It also had a number of contracts with Prudential Insurance Company. However, the Navy was its primary customer. This left it vulnerable to Washington politics. Even though it was recognized as the most advanced computer company in the world, Drew Pearson's 1951 column in the “Washington Merry Go Round” charged Norris and Engstrom had used war time government connections to advance their private business. Pearson charged that ERA's Navy contracts represented a clear conflict of interest and were not subjected to competitive bidding. By 1952, under considerable political pressure, ERA merged with the Remington Rand Corporation. At first it operated as a semi-autonomous division, but after the 1955 Sperry merger, it was consolidated with the Eckert-Mauchly division of Sperry Rand and became part of Sperry-UNIVAC. William Norris never found this to be a satisfactory relationship. In 1957, Norris left Sperry to establish the Control Data Corporation. Later that year, the ERA people who remained were given a good deal more autonomy when Sperry created its St. Paul Research Division led by Sidney Rubens and Arnold Cohen. This division's primary job was to develop computer systems for the military and it played a crucial role in developing the command and control systems for the U.S.'s International Continental Ballistic Missiles and early space satellites. In 1960, what was left of the ERA group became Sperrys' Military Division, which was renamed the Aerospace Division.   (Book ID 22444) $685.00
Tompkins,  C.B..  High-Speed Computing Devices.  New York:  McGraw Hill,  1950.  1st edition.  8vo.  Cloth.  Very fine condition.  Beautiful copy of the first issue.   (Book ID 22441) $550.00