Awards

• Winner of Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science (United States).

Overview

In 1942, Lt. Herman H. Goldstine, a former mathematics professor, was stationed at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. It was there that he assisted in the creation of the ENIAC, the first electronic digital computer. The ENIAC was operational in 1945, but plans for a new computer were already underway. The principal source of ideas for the new computer was John von Neumann, who became Goldstine's chief collaborator. Together they developed EDVAC, successor to ENIAC. After World War II, at the Institute for Advanced Study, they built what was to become the prototype of the present-day computer. Herman Goldstine writes as both historian and scientist in this first examination of the development of computing machinery, from the seventeenth century through the early 1950s. His personal involvement lends a special authenticity to his narrative, as he sprinkles anecdotes and stories liberally through his text.

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9780691023670

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Reviews

The book is first-rate: it is written in a style that all can understand... Nature Herman Goldstine is himself a pioneer of the computer... [He] writes with disarming candor and good humor. Scientific American

Winner of the Award in Science, Phi Beta Kappa ""The book is first-rate: it is written in a style that all can understand...""--Nature ""Herman Goldstine is himself a pioneer of the computer... [He] writes with disarming candor and good humor.""--Scientific American

Whrr. . . tick. . . whrrr. . . tick. . . whrrrtick whrrrtick whrrrrr. Computers have speeded up their service and disservice to man. How they came to be is a story of abstract mathematics-cum-technology often told in a contemporary tongue. But long needed has been a readable history of the people who developed the many computational and mechanical ideas over the centuries. Goldstine, a director of scientific development at IBM, offers just this in an historic-scientistic, digressive, studious narrative, covering it all meticulously from the 16th century through Pascal and Leibnitz, Babbage's Difference Engine, the development of Boolean algebra, Kelvin's Harmonic Analyzer, those now ubiquitous punch cards, ballistics, lunar tables, Whitehead, through yon Neumann and EDVAC - all ending in and around the mid-'50's. To the so-minded, it can be scientific theater, what with different fields and neoteric personalities impinging on each other, coalescing with the acceleration of product improvement in the 20th century, thanks to two World Wars. But the drama is lost here in this dry work, as Goldstine seldom puts noise into his cast, failing for instance to impart urgency in the race between IBM and Bell Telephone for a superior computer in the '40's. Choice bits for academics, but most others will probably be willing to wait for a better programmed history. (Kirkus Reviews)

The book is first-rate: it is written in a style that all can understand... Nature Herman Goldstine is himself a pioneer of the computer... [He] writes with disarming candor and good humor. Scientific American

Author Information

Herman H. Goldstine is currently Executive Officer of the American Philosophical Society.

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