Who invented mark i computer

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List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Mary Bellis. Inventions Expert. Mary Bellis covered inventions and inventors for ThoughtCo for 18 years. She is known for her independent films and documentaries, including one about Alexander Graham Bell.

Updated February 03, Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Bellis, Mary. Who Invented the Mark I Computer? August Calendar of Famous Inventions and Birthdays. January Calendar of Famous Inventions and Birthdays. Achievements and Inventions of Women in History.

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He was an extreme: on a scale from 1 to 10, you would either be a 0 or an His strong will and original mind often caused conflicts thourouhgout his career.

He stood six feet tall and was said to have satanistic eyebrows. Aiken was educated in the public school system. All through school and university, he was working full-time in order to support his family. He got a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin and worked as a successful electrical engineer for ten years before deciding to return to university for further training in science. He enrolled in a physics graduate program in at Harvard University.

Aiken was involved in a small science group, where he was primarily interested in vacuum tubes. For his doctor paper, he reseached conductivity in space charge which involved calculating with differential equations which he simply thought were too time-consuming to calculate by hand, and visioned a machine that could perform all this.

He started drawing on a machine and was primarily concerned with the logic and general architecture of the machine rather than technolgy involving choice of components. The components of the machine would depend on the company willing to finance the project. The machine was hereby built by electromagnetical components rather than using an electrical system.

Aiken has said it was only a question of money and which company was willing to pay the bill, but admitted on the same time that in his view, vacuum tubes were unreliable and he preferred slower and more reliable relays. The reaction from the rest of the world was great when it in was presented to the public and the the US Navy and during war-time of Mark I ran almost non-stop for the US Navy, dealing with problems associated with magnetic fields: protecting of ships from being destructed by magnetic mines, and radar usage and design.

In Aiken's time, the work of Babbage was not greatly known, but Aiken was well aware of and inspired by it. There are many differences between Mark I and Babbage's machines, but the only difference that mattered to Aiken was that his worked. To him, it was Baggage's dream-come-true. Aiken has three different ways to claim fame: - Mark I, Mark II, III, IV, together with methods of numerical analysis - Establishing the pioneering school of advanced computer science - Lectures and articels especially from the computer conferences held in the years after the 2nd World War.

Through these, Aiken spread the interest for computer science Aiken was rewarded for his job by many honorary doctorates, medals and memberships in important scientific societies worldwide. Although Mark I meant a great deal for the development in computer science, it's not recognised greatly today.

One could ask why; the reason for this is the fact that Mark I and also Mark II was not electronic - it was electromagnetical. And why was that? Aiken self explained "I never had any preconceived notion about what kind of components you should use to build a computing machine: mechanical, relays, vacuum, or what.

The thing to do was to get the machine built and running so that it would make numbers. It weighed 5 tons, used miles of wire and , separate parts. The operation of these parts was powered and synchronized by a long horizontal rotating shaft. A four horsepower engine drives the mechanical parts.

There were counter wheels and relay components.