ABSTRACT
Modern computers are such a complex amalgam of logic and engineering
that it is ludicrous to imagine that it would be possible to single out any
one person as the inventor. Nevertheless in 1973, in resolving a patent
dispute (in the case Honeywell v. Sperry Rand), a judge came close to doing
just that. As our story moves from the underlying logical ideas behind
modern all-purpose computers to their actual construction, engineering
issues and the people who were able to deal effectively with them come to
the fore. Accounts of the history of computing have made varying claims,
and before continuing our story, it’s worth having a quick look at the cast of
characters:
Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752-1834). The Jacquard loom that could
weave cloth with a pattern specified by a stack of punched cards revolu-
tionized weaving practice, first in France, and eventually all over the world.
With perhaps understandable hyperbole, it is commonly said among profes-
sional weavers that this was the first computer. Although it is a wonderful
invention, the Jacquard loom was no more a computer than is a player
piano. Like a player piano, it permits a mechanical device to be controlled
automatically by the presence or absence of punched holes in an input
medium.1
