Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Some folks, myself included, would argue that Charles Babbage's Difference Engine predated either of these. Although it was never completely debugged (sort of like Windows95) it did function after a fashion and managed to produce the right answer at least part of the time. Since it was a single-pupose device with all logic and programming built it, it might also be construed as a 'stored program' device. Interestingly enough, until about 15 years ago the Coast & Geodetic Survey, and later NOAA after the C&GS and US Geological Survey were merged, used a purely mechanical 'computer' to calculate the time and height of tides for every port in the US. Dave >Eric Welch wrote: > >> That's funny. My uncle helped the U.S. Navy build a computer in '47. > >The Manchester one was the first stored program computer completed on >21st of June 1948, see www.computer50.org/mark1/ > >Colossus was the first electronic valve computer, designed and built in >1943, and operational in 1944 two years ahead of ENIAC. See >www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~stu19/hum2e03/o'brien/humaniti/colos.htm > >I mentioned Stockley Park in reference to this in an earlier message. This >was brain fade, I meant Bletchley Park. > > David Morton | "saepius ventis agitatur ingens >dmorton@journalist.co.uk | pinus est celsae graviore casu > Islington, London, UK | decidunt turres feriuntque summos > (+44) 171 272 8908 | fulgura montis." (Horace) > > >