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Sep 21, 2009 | 25
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Martin Campbell-Kelly’s September article on the origins of computing traces the history of machine computation from Charles Babbage, the 18th century British mathematician, through the 20th century. Yet according to many of our readers, we made a critical omission.
John Hauptman, a professor of physics at Iowa State University, writes:
The first person to build and operate an electronic digital computer was a physics professor, as correctly noted in your excellent article “Dr. Atanasoff’s Computer,” Scientific American, August 1988 [not online]. Atanasoff’s first computer was a 12-bit 2-word machine running at 60Hz wall-plug frequency and could add and subtract binary numbers stored in a regenerative memory using a logic unit built with seven triode tubes. This was 1937. There was no war, no Pearl Harbor, just a theoretical physicist trying to solve problems in quantum mechanics with his students at Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa.
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BoraZ Journal editors and their excuses https://t.co/kbq3k4paZP BoraZ Obedient Media: Press release sees missing link in space. Hmm, a weak metaphor. Cliche too. Most use it anyway. http://t.co/NcKB5ygIRB
philipyam @dcastelvecchi @Yahoo It's annoyingly hidden in your name, forcing you to hover over it to see. But still not as bad as Gmail's
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