1940's Science and Technology | Computer Science and Information Technology

Collaborative Efforts.

Early computers are examples of the scientific innovations that resulted from the collaboration of the military, academia, and private industry. Unlike future generations of digital computers, early computers were bulky systems that slowly and clumsily combined various tasks—including gathering, storing, and processing data.

The Mark I.

As early as 1937 IBM and Harvard University agreed to cooperate on producing "an automatically operated assembly of calculating machines/' primarily for the "use of scientists." IBM envisioned the project as a contribution to science, not as a commercial venture, and expected favorable publicity in the scientific community as its reward for its expenditure of money, time, and parts. In 1943 Howard Aiken at Harvard invented the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), soon known as Harvard Mark I. The new computer was first demonstrated to the...