BKCALMCH.RVW 940926 "Calculating Machines", Hartree, 1984, 026081474, U$32.50 %A Douglas R. Hartree %C 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1399 %D 1984 %E Martin Campbell-Kelly %G 026081474 %I The MIT Press %O U$32.50 curtin@mit.edu %P 200 %S Charles Babbage Institute Reprint Series, (Vol. VI) %T "Calculating Machines" The Charles Babbage Institute, and MIT Press, are to be commended on the choice of this classic for reprint. The work at first glance would seem an unlikely candidate: a lecture, and lecture series, by a mathematical physicist with an interest in calculators. An overview of the work in progress on designing the very earliest of what we would now call computers. The lectures were designed for an audience with a sophisticated grasp of mathematics and physics, and sections of the text are dense with equations. Overall, however, the book is a fascinating history of the development of calculating machinery. Not only does it provide solid information on ENIAC, and other machines of that time, but also substantial analysis of Charles Babbage's own work. As well, a number of "forgotten" devices are resurrected here. Many are examples of analogue computers. An excellent volume, salutarily humbling to those of us who *thought* we knew our computing history. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKCALMCH.RVW 940926 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94311-0/3-540-94311-0