Product Description
This reprint of Douglas Hartree's principal work also includes his inaugural Cambridge lecture, Calculating Machines: Recent and Prospective Developments and Their Impact on Mathematical Physics, which is extremely difficult to obtain and which makes ideal preliminary reading for the main set of lectures presented in Calculating Instruments and Machines. In these, Hartree provided the first comprehensive survey of the significant developments in computation that were going on at the time—the main directions of development in storage systems, serial machines, and parallel programming and coding, and particularly with high-speed automatic digital machines that were precursors of the modern stored program computer.

Calculating Instruments and Machines was originally published in 1949 by the University of Illinois Press. It is Volume VI in The Babbage Institute Reprint Series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Computing Prehistory by One of Its British Participants
Calculating MachinesDouglas R. Hartree

A review by Frederick A. Ware

This book is volume six in the Charles Babbage Institute Reprint Series for the History of Computing. Douglas Hartree was primarily aphysicist, his most significant contribution being the Hartree-Fockself-consistent approximation technique for generating molecular wavefunctions. Later in his career, he became one of the leading computerresearchers in Britain during the late 1940s when Britain briefly overtookthe United States in this new field.

This was a tremendously enjoyablebook. It goes into significant depth in a number of areas. The reader isimpressed and surprised by how far computer hardware and softwaredevelopment had moved in the three years since the unveiling of Eniac.

This is a valuable historical reference, as well, touching upon theprimary classes of computing machinery during what is arguably the mostcritical two decades in the realization of the computer. In 1930 the onlycomputing instruments were the mechanical desk calculator and slide rule.By 1950 there were several dozen stored program machines doing useful workscattered across two continents.

This book covers the development ofcalculating instruments and machinery during the 1930s and the 1940s.Briefly, the nine chapters are:

[1] Introduction

[2] The DifferentialAnalyser (those Brits don't know how to spell) - The Bush DifferentialAnalyser is described extensively. The core of this mechanical analoguecomputer is the two diskintegrator. Shaft rotations are used to representnumerical values, and ordinary differential equations may be solvednumerically with the instrument. There is also some discussion of howmechanical analogue computers were quickly replaced by analogue electroniccomputers with the development of the vacuum tube operationalamplifier.

[3] The Differential Analyser and Partial DifferentialEquations - Partial differential equations are turned into ordinarydifferential equations be evaluating them with one of the independent keptto a limited range. The equations are solved repeatedly to give a family ofnumerical solutions.

[4]Some Other Instruments - Analogue instrumentationcapable of Fourier decomposition and Fourier synthesis is described.

[5]Introduction to Large Automatic Digital Computers - The structure of adigital computer is described - main store, processing unit, control unit,and an input/output unit. Also the basic classes of commands used toprogram the machine are described: load/store transfers, arithmetic/logicaloperations, sequencing operations (branch and skip), and input/outputoperations. Computer science 101, but it was pretty new in 1949.

[6]Charles Babbage and the Analytical Engine - A description of Babbagescomputer demonstrating how it mapped into the digital computer of chapter5.

[7] The First Stage of Development - A description of the firstcomputers (really just souped-up calculaters with some kind of automaticsequencing capability). This included the Harvard Mark I mechanical digitalcomputer, the Bell Telephone relay digital computer, and the Penn Statevacuum tube digital computer. Of the three, the Eniac was the mostsignificant because of its blinding speed - the electronic components gaveit a 1000x performance advantage over the other technologies. The keycontribution of Mauchley and Eckert was to prove that large numbers ofvacuum tubes could be operated reliably. The architecture of the machinewas not significant, with all subsequent vacuum tube machines utilizing thefamiliar stored program architecture.

[8] Projects and Prospects - Thedevelopment of large, fast main storage is the critical problem to beaddressed in the late 1940s. The two principle alternatives to vacuum tubeflipflops are mercury delay lines and electrostatic storage on a CRT . Bothare volatile and require refreshing techniques. Both go on to be used in anumber of computers in the next five years until ferrite core memory isdeveloped.

[9] High Speed Automatic Digital Machines and NumericalAnalysis - The first attempts to develop numerical algorithms that arestable and efficient. The problems are the same as those attacked by theearlier analogue machines, but the problems of roundoff and quantizationmust be addressed for the first time. ... Read more

Product Description
This scientific biography of Douglas R Hartree not onlydescribes important events in his life but also outlines hiscontributions to a number of fields. He is best known for his"self-consistent field" theory for atoms, a theory he later used forthe much more difficult problem of predicting the behavior of amagnetron. When Fock pre-empted his work on exchange, he beganresearch into radio-wave propagation. Hartree was very interested inthe process of computation. When he learned of a differential analyzerfor solving differential equations, he first built a model usingMeccano, a toy for children. The success of this model spread thenotion of using devices to solve scientific problems. Application ofthe analyzer led Hartree to control theory and fluid dynamics. In boththese areas he made significant, original contributions. With hisextensive computing background, he was selected as the first civilianto evaluate the possibility of applying the US ENIAC computer tononmilitary problems. His research touched the lives of manyscientists. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A service to science
Charlotte Froese Fischer has done science in general and computer science in particular a great service by portraying the life and work of Douglas Rayner Hartree.He was not only a notable pioneer in atomic theory, numerical analysis and computer software but as well, probably more than any other person, did more to demonstrate the enormous value of the differential analyzer to science and technology - and by no means least to the theory of automatic control.The book reveals Hartree as a wonderful teacher and friend.It is sad to reflect that his intense dedication to the war effort during World War II may have shortened his life.

Arthur Porter
Professor Emeritus
University of Toronto

Review
An interesting review of the life and work of Hartree.Though his contributions to science are significant, Froese Fischer exaggerates the impact of his contributions.Instead of giving a realistic account of an ordinary scientist, Froese Fischer attempts to give an extraordianry account of an extraordinary scientist - which Hartree is not.However, the book does provide much information that would not have otherwise been available to the public. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Science and Its Times, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 135 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The histories of science, technology, and mathematics merge with the study of humanities and social science in this interdisciplinary reference work. Essays on people, theories, discoveries, and concepts are combined with overviews, bibliographies of primary documents, and chronological elements to offer students a fascinating way to understand the impact of science on the course of human history and how science affects everyday life. Entries represent people and developments throughout the world, from about 2000 B.C. through the end of the twentieth century. ... Read more

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Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Nikolay Bogolyubov, Reinhard Oehme, Asghar Qadir, Douglas Hartree, E. T. Whittaker, Peter Guthrie Tait, Vasilii Sergeevich Vladimirov, Robin Bullough, Vladimir Ignatowski, N.v.v.j. Swamy, Vladimir Varićak, Asad Naqvi, Vadym Adamyan, Antonio Signorini, Walter Thirring, Hermann Rothe, Yurii Mitropolskiy. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Nikolay Nikolaevich Bogolyubov (another spelling Bogoliubov, Russian: , Ukrainian: ; 21 August 1909, Nizhny Novgorod 13 February 1992, Moscow) was a Russian and Ukrainian Soviet mathematician and theoretical physicist known for a significant contribution to quantum field theory, classical and quantum statistical mechanics, and to the theory of dynamical systems; a recipient of the Dirac Prize (1992). Nikolay Bogolyubov was born on 21 August 1909 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, in the family of a priest of Russian Orthodox Church, teacher of theology, psychology and philosophy Nikolay Mikhailovich Bogolyubov and Ol'ga Nikolaevna, teacher of musics. The Soviet Union regulations issued soon after the October Revolution in 1917 did not allow for children of priests to obtain a good education, and in 1921 the family of Nikolay Bogolyubov moved to Kiev, where these regulations did not work. In Kiev Nikolay Bogolyubov began to actively study physics and mathematics. He attended research seminars in Kiev University and soon started to work under the supervision of a famous mathematician Nikolay Krylov. In 1924, at the age of 13, Nikolay Bogolyubov wrote his first published scientific paper On the behavior of solutions of linear differential equations at infinity. In 1925 he entered Ph.D. program at the Academy of Sciences of Ukrainian SSR and obtained the degree of Kandidat Nauk (Candidat of Sciences, equivalent to Ph.D.) in 19...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=2582609 ... Read more

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Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking, John Randall, William Whiston, Jim Al-Khalili, Frederick Lindemann, Douglas Hartree, Harry Boot, Reginald James, Alfred Lauck Parson, Michael Green, John D. Eshelby, William Chandler Roberts-Austen, John Ellis, John Barrow, John Floyer. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : Isaac Newton (4 janvier 1643 G - 31 mars 1727 G, ou 25 décembre 1642 J - 20 mars 1727 J) est un philosophe, mathématicien, physicien, alchimiste et astronome anglais. Figure emblématique des sciences, il est surtout reconnu pour sa théorie de la gravitation universelle et la création, en concurrence avec Leibniz, du calcul infinitésimal. En optique, il a développé une théorie de la couleur basée sur l'observation selon laquelle un prisme décompose la lumière blanche en un spectre visible. Il a aussi inventé le télescope à réflexion composé d'un miroir primaire concave appelé télescope de Newton. En mécanique, il a établi les trois lois universelles du mouvement qui sont en fait des principes à la base de la grande théorie de Newton concernant le mouvement des corps, théorie que l'on nomme aujourd'hui Mécanique newtonienne ou encore Mécanique classique. En mathématiques, Newton partage avec Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz la découverte du calcul infinitésimal. Il est aussi connu pour la généralisation du théorème du binôme et l'invention dite de la méthode de Newton permettant de trouver des approximations d'un zéro (ou racine) d'une fonction d'une variable réelle à valeurs réelles. Newton a montré que le mouvement des objets sur Terre et des corps célestes sont gouvernés par les mêmes lois naturelles ; en se basant sur les lois de Kepler sur le mouvement des planètes, il développa la loi universelle de la...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more