Milestone-Proposal:Harvard Mark 1 Computer, 1944 - 1959

From IEEE Milestones Wiki
Revision as of 20:25, 6 March 2014 by Ggcooke (talk | contribs)


To see comments, or add a comment to this discussion, click here.

Docket #:2013-09

This Proposal has been approved, and is now a Milestone


To the proposer’s knowledge, is this achievement subject to litigation?


Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? Yes

Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s designated fields as defined by IEEE Bylaw I-104.11, namely: Engineering, Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Physical Sciences, Biological and Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical Communications, Education, Management, and Law and Policy. Yes

Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? Yes

Was it of at least regional importance? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? Yes

Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? Yes

Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an IEEE Milestone? Yes


Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:

Operating 1944 to 1959

Title of the proposed milestone:

Harvard Mark 1 Computer

Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance:

The Mark I computer was a general-purpose electro-mechanical computer that could execute long computations automatically. Conceived by Harvard University's Dr. Howard Aiken, the Mark I was built by International Business Machines Corporation in New York. The machine used mechanical punch-card tabulating equipment. Considered the first large-scale electro-mechanical computer, it represented a leap forward in modern computing. Grace Hopper began her career as a programmer on Mark I.

200-250 word abstract describing the significance of the technical achievement being proposed, the person(s) involved, historical context, humanitarian and social impact, as well as any possible controversies the advocate might need to review.


IEEE technical societies and technical councils within whose fields of interest the Milestone proposal resides.


In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?

Boston

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):

Unit: Boston Section
Senior Officer Name: Robert Alongi, Business Manager

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:

Unit: Boston Section
Senior Officer Name: Robert Vice

IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque(s):

IEEE Section: Boston Section
IEEE Section Chair name: Robert Alongi, Business Manager

Milestone proposer(s):

Proposer name: Gilmore Cooke, Chair Boston Section Committee
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates in decimal form of the intended milestone plaque site(s):

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science, 1 Oxford Street Cambridge MA 02138

Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.

Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need. The Mark I was eventually disassembled, although portions of it remain at Harvard in the Science Center. It is part of the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. The milestone plaque will be mounted adjacent remaining apparatus on display.

Are the original buildings extant?

Yes

Details of the plaque mounting:

Inside the lobby of Harvard Science Center (1 Oxford Street), Cambridge MA, in proximity to the historical display that features significant components from the original Mark I.

How is the site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public?

The Harvard school lobby is generally opened to the public.

Who is the present owner of the site(s)?

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science

What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)? If personal names are included in citation, include justification here. (see section 6 of Milestone Guidelines)

The IEEE should award this milestone to the Mark 1 Computer, the name used by the Operator, Harvard University, Howard Aiken, Grace Hooper,and others for nearly 15 years. The designation preferred by IBM was 'IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC)' which should be considered a temporary or shop name. Since the computing machine was the brainchild of Howard Aiken, naming rights belong to him.


. for business as it was named by the owner/operator, not the name given to the machine by IBM by its Milestone the innovator, the entrepreneur, the driving force behind the Mark I, that is Howard Aiken. Not IBM. As collaborator, builder, financier, IBM played an important role in the development of Mark I. IBM was just the brides mate, never the bride in this project. The name Harvard Mark I computer is preferrfed to the name given by its maker, IBM Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Mark_I

The IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), called the Mark I by Harvard University,[1] was an electro-mechanical computer. The electromechanical ASCC was devised by Howard H. Aiken, built at IBM and shipped to Harvard in February 1944. It began computations for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships in May and was officially presented to the university on August 7, 1944.

The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (Harvard Mark I) was the first operating machine that could execute long computations automatically. A project conceived by Harvard University's Dr. Howard Aiken, the Mark I was built by IBM engineers in Endicott, N.Y. A steel frame 51 feet (16 m) long and eight feet high held the calculator, which consisted of an interlocking panel of small gears, counters, switches and control circuits, all only a few inches in depth. The ASCC used 500 miles (800 km) of wire with three million connections, 3,500 multipole relays with 35,000 contacts, 2,225 counters, 1,464 tenpole switches and tiers of 72 adding machines, each with 23 significant numbers. It was the industry's largest electromechanical calculator.[2]

What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

Biographer Cohen recounts how Aiken was driven by a vision of designing and building a very large calculating machine. He was rejected twice but he persisted. Eventually he succeeded. Wikipedia writes "The original concept was presented to IBM by Howard Aiken in November 1937.[2] After a feasibility study by IBM's engineers, Thomas Watson Sr. personally approved the project and its funding in February 1939. Howard Aiken had started to look for a company to design and build his calculator in early 1937."

What features set this work apart from similar achievements?

Technical features are stated on the GHN and other websites listed below.

Supporting texts and citations to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or chapters in scholarly books. 'Scholarly' is defined as peer-reviewed, with references, and published. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article. All supporting materials must be in English, or accompanied by an English translation.

1 IEEE GHN Biography of Howard Aiken,

http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Howard_Aiken

2 IEEE GHN Harvard Mark I http ..... LATER

3 Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Mark_I

4 Cohen, Bernard (2000). Howard Aiken, Portrait of a computer pioneer. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

5 Aiken, Howard H. and Grace M. Hopper, "The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator", Electrical Engineering, Vol.65 No.8-9, pp.384-391 (Aug 1946); No.10, pp.449-454 (Oct 1946); No.11, pp.522-528 (Nov 1946).

6 Harvard Computation Laboratory, A Manual of Operation for the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, The Annals of the Computation Laboratory of Harvard University, Vol.1, Harvard University Press (1946), 561pp.

Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.

Photographs and information on IBM's collaboration can be found on Frank da Cruz website: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/mark1.html - sources

A priceless image of the team working on Mark I was captured from www. britannica.com

NATHAN PLEASE CORRECT GRACE HOOPER NAME TO HOPPER!!#@$@$%

Grace Murray Hopper (seated second from right) and Howard Aiken (seated center) along with other members of the Bureau of Ordinance Project. Photo taken in front of Mark !.

Please email a jpeg or PDF a letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property, and a letter (or forwarded email) from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application to ieee-history@ieee.org with the subject line "Attention: Milestone Administrator." Note that there are multiple texts of the letter depending on whether an IEEE organizational unit other than the section will be paying for the plaque(s).

Please recommend reviewers by emailing their names and email addresses to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please include the docket number and brief title of your proposal in the subject line of all emails.



Mark 1 computer group team.png
Dean Murray Harvard IEEE Mark 1.pdf