'Automatic Calculating Machines' in Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, no. 4862, vol. C.

£650 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books · No longer available

First edition of the three-part Cantor Lectures presented by computer pioneer Maurice Wilkes in November 1951, whole number of the journal in the original wrappers. These outline the history of computing from Babbage forward, the structure and operation of contemporary computers such as ENIAC and the Harvard Mark I, and their current and potential uses. The material was later incorporated into Wilkes's book Automatic Digital Computers (1956). Mathematician and physicist Maurice Wilkes (1913-2010) was one of the leading figures in British computing from the 1930s onward. He was one of the first staff members, and later director, of Cambridge's Mathematical Laboratory, which 'played a critical role in the development of the electronic digital computer'. Wilkes 'directed the design and construction of EDSAC, the first readily usable, full-scale, stored-program computer' and 'was responsible for a number of programming innovations, such as labels, macros, and microprogramming' (Hook Norman, Origins of Cyberspace 1013). First edition, whole number; 8vo; illustrations throughout the text, contents clean; original cream wrappers printed in black, wire-stitched, wrappers a little rubbed and toned, excellent condition. Hook Norman, Origins of Cyberspace 1029.

• Binding: Hardcover

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