Abstract
This is a book on the history of computing technology before late capitalist modernity (historical capitalism)—in the vocabulary of the book, a history before the “electronic era.” As I gradually enter into the narrative of the history of general slide rules (Chap. 2), electrification-related slide rules (Chap. 3), analyzers (Chap. 4), graphs and tables (Chap. 5), and calculating and tabulating machines (Chap. 6), I move on to refine my argument.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
See the pioneering collection that William Aspray (ed.). 1990. Computing before computers. Ames: Iowa University Press. For an early challenge to the technical superiority of digital computers , I refer to the study by Larry Owens on the history of the interwar development and use of the most known analog computer , Vannevar Bush’s differential analyzer: Larry Owens. 1986. Vannevar Bush and the differential analyzer: The text and the context of an early computer. Technology and Culture 27(1): 63–95. For the most recent addition to approaches that perceptively challenge the decontextualized treatment of the digital as superior, which covers the postwar decades, see Care, Charles. 2010. Technology for modelling: Electrical analogies, engineering practice, and the development of analogue computing. London: Springer. Unlike, however, these two otherwise insightful approaches to analog computing, I don’t accept the technical demarcation between analog and digital computing to start with.
- 3.
For a pioneering article on human computers, which set the stage for the subsequent literature on the topic that I refer to in the following chapters of the book, see Ceruzzi, Paul E. 1991. When computers were human. Annals of the History of Computing 13(1): 237–244.
- 4.
On theoretical analysis that suggests to treat differentiations like this as relative, see Nicos Poulantzas. 1975. Classes in contemporary capitalism. London: New Left Books.
- 5.
See Ludwig Wittgenstein. 1956. Remarks on the foundations of mathematics, ed. G.H. Wright, R. Rhees, and G.E.M. Anscombe and Trans. G.E.M. Anscombe. Oxford: Blackwell, and Jacques Lacan. 1977. The four fundamental concepts of psycho-analysis, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller and translated by Alain Sheridan. London: Hogarth Press.
References
Aspray W (ed) (1990) Computing before computers. Iowa State University Press, Ames
Care C (2010) Technology for modelling: electrical analogies, engineering practice, and the development of analogue computing. Springer, London
Ceruzzi PE (1991) When computers were human. Ann Hist Comput 13(1):237–244
Hobsbawm E (1994) Age of extremes: the short twentieth century 1914–1991. Michael Joseph, London
Hobsbawm E (1987) The age of empire, 1875–1914. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London
Lacan J (1977) The four fundamental concepts of psycho-analysis (Miller JA (ed) and trans: Sheridan A). Hogarth Press, London
Owens L (1986) Vannevar Bush and the differential analyzer: the text and context of an early computer. Technol Cult 27(1):63–95
Poulantzas N (1975) Classes in contemporary capitalism. New Left Books, London
Wittgenstein L (1956) Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, edited by Wright GH, Rhees R, and Anscombe GEM and translated by Anscombe GEM. Blackwell, Oxford
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Tympas, A. (2017). Introduction. In: Calculation and Computation in the Pre-electronic Era. History of Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-742-4_1
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