OMG…I still can’t believe I actually saw Mark I at Harvard!! YESSS I AM TALKING ABOUT THE MARK I (or as it is officially named the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator ASCC).
I had only read and heard about the early computers with their lengths spanning the entire room, and now I stood before one. While today’s computers sit on our laps or even fit our pockets, Mark I was made with thousands of pieces joining over 15 meters of length. It weighs over five tons and built from switches, relays and rotating shafts. These parts could store 72 numbers!
Designed by Harvard graduate student, Howard H. Aiken in 1937, the Harvard Mark I certainly has a place in the history of technology. It was realized from demonstration set that Charles Babbage’s son had given to Harvard 70 years earlier! IBM built the computer at Endicott plant and later shipped it to Harvard.
Harvard Mark I was the First Programmable Computer in the United States!
Several esteemed programmers Grace Hopper, Richard Bloch and Robert Campbell worked on Mark I. The first programmed ran in 1944 under John von Neumann (the same von Neumann who worked atomic bombs)! In fact, this computer played a role in Navy calculations and as proof of design used for atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project.
Mark I was the first of its line among Harvard Mark II, Mark III and Mark IV, but it did set in stone the making of computers! Today, its dissembled pieces are displayed at IBM, Smithsonian Institution, and of course right before my eyes, at Harvard Science Center.
If you’re interested in reading more about MARK I, check out the links below!
Harvard Mark I – Wikipedia
http://sites.harvard.edu/~chsi/markone/about.html
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Harvard-Mark-I
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