First draft of a report on the EDVAC

The first draft of a report on the EDVAC written by John von Neumann is presented. This first draft contains a wealth of information, and it had a pervasive influence when it was first written. Most prominently, Alan Turing cites it in his proposal for the Pilot automatic computing engine (ACE) as the definitive source for understanding the nature and design of a general-purpose digital computer. Az EDVAC-ról szóló jelentés első tervezete. A Smithsonian Libraries tulajdonát képező „Az EDVAC első jelentéstervezete” című kézirat eredeti példányának digitalizált változata, Paul Ceruzzi a Smithsonian Institut kurátorának ajándéka

Guide to the Dr. L.S. Dederick Papers, 1908-1956, undated

Louis Serle (L.S.) Dederick was born in Chicago in 1883. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Harvard University in 1909. From 1909 – 1917 he was a professor at Princeton University. From 1917 – 1924 he was professor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. In 1926 Dederick began working for the U.S. Army, Ordnance. During his time there he was the Associate Director of the Ballistic Research Laboratory at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Maryland where he focused on ballistics research. While Dederick worked as a mathematician at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, he was involved with numerous projects. He worked in the fields of ballistics calculations, the development of computing methods for machines which included differential analyzers, the Bell Relay computer, oversaw the creation of the ENIAC computer (the world’s first digital computer), as well as its successors the EDVAC computer and the ORDVAC computer. These computers were designed with the goal of making ballistics calculations more quickly and efficiently. Some of his work on these projects included project management, administrative work, and search for personnel to add to project teams. His immediate supervisors while working at Aberdeen included Col. Leslie E. Simon and Col. Alden P. Taber. Dederick retired from this position in May 1953. After his retirement he was pulled into efforts of the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1954 to give statements on behalf of some of the workers he supervised who were being questioned about possible connections to communism. Dederick passed away in 1972. He is buried in Princeton Cemetery, located in Princeton, NJ. This Collection consists mostly of documents from L.S. Dederick’s time at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland. This Includes his work with the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, better known as the ENIAC, the world’s first digital computer, as well as the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer, known as the EDVAC. The ENIAC, completed in 1945, aided in allowing the United States Army’s Ballistic Research Laboratory to more easily perform ballistics calculations. It marks the beginning of the computer age

John von Neumann and the National Accounting Machine

A visit to D. H. Sadler, Superintendent, H.M. Nautical Almanac Office in 1943 by von Neumann and the author led to one of von Neumann's early contacts with programming

¿Arquitectura Von Neumann?

Postprint (author's final draft

Could the SNA Complete the SCOT Model? \\Computer development in the USA between 1931-1950: a case study approach

Analyzing the literature of computing history we can establish that computing stories of different epochs are concerned with an array of problem areas, thus the authors of the accounts posed various questions - from the misunderstood inventions and forgotten genius to the community revaluation role of the Internet in the post-modern society. J. V. Atanasoff, J. Mauchly, J. P. Eckert, H. Aiken, G. Stibitz and J. Neumann all played their parts in the history of computing between 1930 and 1950 in the USA. Bowing before their notability the authors of institute-specific accounts recognised all of them as founders of electrical-digital computing technology. In this study I will argue that any discussion about claims to priority is an outworn conception because the first electrical- digital computer in the USA came into being in a network of ``socio-technical ensembles´´. The argument is based on a social construction approach (SCOT) of the history of technology combined with social network analysis as during our investigation the SCOT model proved inadequate for studying the history of computers. Following the improvement of key concepts and methods applied by SCOT-ists in different case studies I endeavour to choose the best suitable framework which can be applied to a description of a technological artefact more complex than the bicycle