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— — — _ — Portrait of a Computer Pioneer Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer Howard Hathaway Aiken (1900-1973) was a major figure of the early digital era. He is best known for his first machine, . the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator or Harvard Mark |, conceived in 1937 and put into operation in 1944. But he also made significant contributions to the development of applications for the new machines and to the creation of a university curriculum for computer science. This biography of Aiken, by a major historian of science who was also a colleague of Aiken’s at Harvard, offers a clear and often entertaining introduction to Aiken and his times. Aiken's Mark | was the most intensely used of the early large-scale, general-purpose automatic digital computers, and it had a significant impact on the machines that followed. Aiken also proselytized for the computer among scientists, scholars, and businesspeople and explored novel applications in data processing, automatic billing, and production control. But his most lasting contribution may have been the students who received degrees under him and then took prominent positions in academia and industry. |. Bernard Cohen argues convincingly for Aiken‘s significance as a shaper of the computer world in which we now live. |. Bernard Cohen is the Victor S. Thomas Professor Emeri- tus of the History of Science at Harvard University. History of Computing series "The Aiken Portrait is on a par with Hodge's Turing biography. | found the book thoroughly absorbing—a real page-turner. Not only is it a story of computers, but it is a real slice of American life. It is affectionate and atmos- pheric, and it carries terrific authority because of Professor Cohen's intimate personal knowledge of Aiken.” —Martin Campbell-Kelly, University of Warwick Learning Resources Center Carroll Community College i ace anr “IR Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2020 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/howardaikenportrO0O00cohe H oward Aiken: Portrai t of a Computer Pioneer History of Computing I. Bernard Cohen and William Aspray, editors editorial board: Bernard Galler, J. A. N. Lee, Arthur Norberg, Brian Randell, Henry Tropp, Michael Williams, Heinz Zemanek William Aspray, John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing Charles J. Bashe, Lyle R. Johnson, John H. Palmer, and Emerson W. Pugh, IBM's Early Computers Paul E. Ceruzzi, A History of Modern Computing I. Bernard Cohen, Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer I. Bernard Cohen and Gregory W. Welch, editors, Makin’ Numbers: Howard Aiken and the Computer John Hendry, Innovating for Failure: Government Policy and the Early British Computer Industry Michael Lindgren, Glory and Failure: The Difference Engines of Johann Miiller, Charles Babbage and Georg and Edvard Scheutz David E. Lundstrom, A Few Good Men from Univac R. Moreau, The Computer Comes of Age: The People, the Hardware, and the Software Emerson W. Pugh, Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology Emerson W. Pugh, Memories That Shaped an Industry Emerson W. Pugh, Lyle R. Johnson, and John H. Palmer, IBM’s 360 and Early 370 Systems Dorothy Stein, Ada: A Life and a Legacy Maurice V. Wilkes, Memoirs of a Computer Pioneer Howard Aiken: Portrai t of a Computer Pioneer I. Bernard Cohen The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 1999 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. Set in New Baskerville by Wellington Graphics. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cohen, I. Bernard, 1914— Howard Aiken : portrait of a computer pioneer / I. Bernard Cohen. p. cm.—(History of computing) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-03262-7 (hc : alk. paper) 1. Aiken, Howard H. (Howard Hathaway), 1900—1973. 2. Computer engineers—United States—Biography. 3. Computers—History. I. Title. IL. Series. QA76.2.A35C65 1999 004’.092—de21 [b] 98-43965 CIP for Peter Galison and Jed Buchwald, each setting standards for the history of Science, and for Maurice V. Wilkes, who has taught me so much about computers and computer history a _ : onan a ar el