Harvard Mark1

Harvard Mark 1

Key Figures: 

Howard H.Aiken 

Date of Birth : March 8, 1900 

Date of Death : March 14, 1973 (73)

Nationality : American

Fields : Applied Mathematics, Computer Science 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_H._Aiken

Thomas J. Watson, Sr

Date of Birth : February 17, 1874 

Date of Death : June 19,1956 (82)

Nationality : American

Occupation : Chairman CEO of IBM 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson

Charles Babbage

Date of Birth : February 26, 1791 

Date of Death : June 19,1956 (82)

Nationality : English

Fields : Mathematics, Computer Science, Political Engineering, Political Economy 

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

Brief History 

Left Side 

The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), coined Mark 1 by the Harvard staff. This was a general purpose electro mechanical computer that was mostly used in the war effort during the end of World War 2. It was presented by Howard Aiken and after in depth study by IBM's engineers it was personally approved by Thomas J.Watson, Sr 

Right Side 

The Harvard Mark 1 was the first machine that was able to compute large amounts of data automatically. Howard Aiken, a Harvard university professor who was working on on digital devices that where used for calculations. Over the course of his studies he came across Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.In 1937 he started to lay out detailed plans on four separate sophisticated machines based on different technologies at the time, these ranged from the Mark I - IV.  

Aiken  explored advances made in technology since the steam power available to Charles Babbage, He looked at machinery and techniques that where already being used in business machines such as a switch with no moving parts which provided more reliability where used in his early experimental machines.

In early 1937 he started to looking for a company that would help him design and build his calculator. He got rejected twice and was later shown a demonstration set that Charles Babbage's son had given to Harvard 50 years earlier, interested he studied Charles Babbages work and add references to his Analytical engine to his proposal. This brought Babbage's work to realization whilst also adding new features which where quite important at the time. The ASCC was built and developed at the IBM Endicott plant and later shipped to Harvard, its first work was to compute for the U.S. Navy Bureau of ships. In August 7,1944 it was officially presented to Harvard.

Detail of Input/Output and control

Design and Construction

From the IBM Archives :

"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."

Further Information on how it worked can be found at :

http://chsi.harvard.edu/markone/function.html

References :

Wikipedia. 2014. Howard H.Aiken. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_H._Aiken. [Accessed 16 February 15].


The Mark 1 Computer. 2015. How did it work?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://chsi.harvard.edu/markone/function.html. [Accessed 16 February 15].


Computer History Museum. 2015. Timeline of Computing History. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/?year=1944. [Accessed 16 February 15].


IBM. 2015. IBM's ASCC introduction. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/markI/markI_intro.html. [Accessed 16 February 15].


Michael R.Swaine. 2014. Harvard Mark I. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/44895/Harvard-Mark-I. [Accessed 16 February 15].


Wikipedia. 2015. Thomas J. Watson. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson. [Accessed 16 February 15].


Wikipedia. 2015. Charles Babbage. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage. [Accessed 16 February 15].


Wikipedia. 2015. Harvard Mark I. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Mark_I. [Accessed 16 February 15].