Harvard’s new Mark I computer | Techday, April 17th
On this TECHDAY in history, on April 17th 1944, Harvard University President James Conant sent a letter to IBM founder Thomas Watson to inform him that the Mark I computer they jointly designed had been put into operation. This was one of many examples of the US government, universities and private individuals working together during World War II to build computers to be put into military service. In his letter, Conant notes that the Mark I “is already being used to address specialized war-related problems.”
The electromechanical computer found use in the last part of World War II. On of the very first programs run was by John von Neumann, at that time working on the Manhattan Project. He would determine if the implosion would be suitable way to detonate the atomic bomb, used a year later.
The computer, though, computed and printed the mathematical tables, the initial goal of Charles Babbage.
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Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
