History of Science

Lecture 2: Creating
computers

 History of Science

Overview:
• Cold War Science (background)
• (Dutch) Dinosaurs
• 1984 and the public

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Today we will focus on the ideals that made people

bother. Why after WW II people started putting faith
in machines that evidently did not work.

Meanwhile we will
discuss how the
question “which
one was the first
computer” became
relevant.
Z1 (1938) by
Konrad Zuse

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Cold War Science

But let us start by clearing a prejudice.
Campbell-Kelly: “Britain was the only country other
than the United States not so devastated by the war that
it could establish a serious computer research
program.”

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Yamashita type statistical

machine, 1944-1948
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Cold War Science

Manhattan Project
Aeronautical calculations
Code breaking (Bletchly Park)
Radar
Supplying troups

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Cold War Science

After WW II need for scientific calculations exploded
NASA
Atomic power

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Cold War Science

In (continental) Europe of the late 1940s as well:
rebuilding
the nation
(Marshall plan)

Mix of fatalism
and optimism

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Cold War Science

Mathematisch Centrum (1946) - Moore school

David van Dantzig Aad van Wijngaarden

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Cold War Science

Hans Freudenthal (1905-1990)
Rekenmachines winnen den oorlog, De Groene (March
16, 1946)
Society could improve!

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Cold War Science

Can man build a
superman? Harvard Mark
III soon to be delivered to
the Navy. Time Magazine,
January 1950

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Cold War Science

Jean Jacques Servan-Schreiber (1924-2006)
Le défis Américain (1968)

Bull Gamma 3

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Cold War Science

Manchester, december 1948: the “Manchester Baby”.
War trodden Europe was quite ready to move into the
computer age, as
was Japan. The
devastation could
even be profitable:
relays and radio
tubes were
relatively cheap.

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Dutch dinosaurs:
In the land reclamation and waterworks, huge
calculation efforts were undertaken in the 1910s and
1920s by H.A. Lorentz and C. Lely.

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Dinosaurs:
In the tradition of process control: engineer Johan van
Veen (1893-1953), Rijkswaterstaat

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Dinosaurs:
In the tradition of process control until 1972: Deltar

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Dinosaurs: Amsterdam
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Dinosaurs: Amsterdam
Aad van Wijngaarden (1916-1987), from 1947 onwards
director of the “computing department” of the
Mathematisch Centrum

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Dinosaurs: Amsterdam
Jan van der Corput
(1890-1975), from 1950
onwards general director of
the Mathematisch Centrum

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Dinosaurs: Amsterdam
Jan van der Corput (1890-1975), 1952:
Nobody doubts the innocence of automatic calculators,
but, like any piece of technology, it is constructed for a
specific purpose, and once in existence it can be used
for good and for evil. You can’t wish them away.
Although these machines were devised for destruction,
it is now our duty to put them to good use. They might
lead to the loss of labour, with all the horrible social
consequences that go with that. But they might also
help to prevent disaster in the future.

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Dinosaurs: Amsterdam
June 21, 1952: ARRA

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Dinosaurs: Amsterdam
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Dinosaurs: Amsterdam

“Bluffing
their way into
the computer
age” - Gerard
Alberts
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Dinosaurs: Amsterdam
ARRA II
March 1954

—> FERTA

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Dinosaurs: Amsterdam
Electrologica, spin off 1956
X1, subsequently bought by
Mathematisch Centrum

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Dinosaurs
Mathematisch
Centrum

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Dinosaurs: Delft
Willem van der Poel (*1926), school of prof.dr. N.G.
de Bruijn (optics and fiber technology)
1950 ARCO (Automatic Relais Calculator for Optical
problems)
later called: Testudo
Relays
Programs hard-wired,
but interchangeable

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Dinosaurs: Delft
Facilitating telephone traffic (PTT):
ZERO (Zeer Eenvoudig Reken Orgaan), 1951
PTERA (PTT Electronische Reken Automaat), 1953

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Dinosaurs: Delft
Beginning of 1955 Van der Poel designed ZEBRA
(Zeer Eenvoudig Binair Reken Apparaat)
In production 1957: Standard Telephone and Cable
Company (STANTEC)

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Dinosaurs: Eindhoven
PETER (Philips Elementair Tweetallig Elektronisch
Rekenapparaat)
Wim Nijenhuis
1953-1956
Testing

(agreement with
IBM)

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Dinosaurs: Eindhoven Philips NATLAB

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Dinosaurs: Eindhoven
PASCAL (Philips Akelig Snelle Calculator)
STEVIN (Snel Tel- En Vermenigvuldigings Instrument)

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Dinosaurs: Vienna (1955)

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Dinosaurs
Note the acronyms and names.

Shell (1953) made the newspapers with their new

machine: MIRACLE (Mokums Industrial Research
Automatic Calculator for Laboratory and Engineering)

All these people got involved with one another, either

in projects (sea defence), in the Colloquium “Moderne
Rekenmachines” (since 1952) or in the development of
ALGOL 60.



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Modern times (1936)

American reception of Taylorism - modernity

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European tradition of dystopian literature

Karel Capek, R.U.R. (1920)
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932)
Popular expression:
Metropolis (1927)

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1984
George Orwell, 1984 (1948)

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1984
George Orwell, 1984 (1948)

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1984
George Orwell, 1984 (1948)
totalitarianism, nationalism, surveillance, censorship,
SYSTEMS in control

Who controls the past,

controls the future.
Who controls the present,
controls the past.

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The public
All Cold War projects were costly and had to be sold to
the general public.
Documentaries on nuclear power, space travel and the
blessings of science in general.

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The public

Historically the rise of

computing technology as
part of modernity can be
pinpointed to the 50s

Hergé, Les aventures de

Tintin: l’Étoile mystérieuse
(1947)
Objectif lune (1953)

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The public
Forbidden planet (1956)

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The public
Desk set (1957)

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THE END (for now)

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