B chapter.indd - Charles Babbage Institute - University of Minnesota

226
Erwin Tomash Library
Burks, Arthur Walter Burks, Arthur Walter
Glashütte was a major supplier of calculating machines
worldwide.
This paper describing the early history of calculating
does not go into any depth but does give examples of
Greek, Chinese and other numerals as well as illustrating
a few methods of calculating.
A four-page 1893 manuscript letter by Burkhardt is laid
in.
Illustrations available:
Front cover
B 290
Burks, Arthur Walter (1915–)
Electronic computing circuits of the ENIAC. In
Proceedings of the I.R.E., vol. 35, #8, August 1947.
Year: 1947
Place: New York
Publisher: Institute of Radio Engineers
Edition: 1st
Language: English
Binding: original journal paper wrappers
Pagination: pp. 756–767
Size: 278x217 mm
Reference: Ran ODC, p. 409
Burks was a member of the ENIAC computer team.
After the war, he joined John von Neumann at the
Institute for Advanced Study, then became a professor,
and later chairman, of the Department of Computer and
Communication Sciences at the University of Michigan.
He is also known for his work in logic and the philosophy
of science.
This paper describes the circuit elements of the ENIAC.
It indicates that the rate of circuit failure has only been
about two or three per week, usually resulting from a
failure of the heaters in the vacuum tubes. With an
operator thoroughly familiar with all the details of
ENIAC design and with the particular problem being
solved … only a few hours per week are lost on account
of failures.
Illustrations available:
None
B 291
Burks, Arthur Walter (1915–) and Jesse B. Wright
Theory of logical nets. In Proceedings of the I.R.E., vol.
41, #10, October 1953
Year: 1953
Place: New York
Publisher: Institute of Radio Engineers
Edition: offprint
Language: English
Binding: unbound
Pagination: pp. 1357–1365, [3]
Size: 278x217 mm
This is an extract from the Proceedings of the I.R.E. It
is a technical paper on the design of computer circuits
using the concept of logical nets. It requires some
mathematical sophistication to follow the development
of the theorems.
Illustrations available:
First page
B 292
B 292
Burks, Arthur Walter (1915–); Herman Heine
Goldstine (1913–) and John Von Neumann (1903–1957)
Preliminary discussion of the logical design of an
electronic computing instrument. Part I, Volume I
Year: 1947
Place: Princeton
Publisher: Institute for Advanced Study
Edition: 2nd
Language: English
Binding: original printed paper wrappers; back wrapper torn
Pagination: ff. [6], 42
Size: 279x213 mm
Reference: Ran ODC, p. 409
This series of reports prepared by Burks, Goldstine and
von Neumann were some of the most detailed available
on the construction of a stored program computer and
were widely circulated among the early computing
community. This report discusses the general nature of
the IAS computer; it is divided into sections discussing
the memory, control, and arithmetic organs of the
machine. At this time they were still planning to use the
RCA Selectron memory tube (with 4,000 40-bit words
of memory); that idea ultimately proved impractical, and
they switched to the use of a Williams’ tube memory.