Theory and Techniques for Design of Electronic Digital Computers (popularly called the "Moore School Lectures") was the a course in the construction of electronic digital computers held at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering between July 8, 1946 and August 30, 1946, and was the first time any computer topics had ever been taught to an assemblage of people. The course disseminated the ideas developed for the EDVAC (then being built at the Moore School as the successor computer to the ENIAC) and initiated an explosion of computer construction activity in the United States and internationally, especially in Great Britain. ... The University of Pennsylvania (Penn is the moniker used by the university itself [2]) is a private, nonsectarian research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ... The Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania came into existence as a result of an endowment from Alfred Fitler Moore on June 4th, 1923. ... July 8 is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 176 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... August 30 is the 242nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (243rd in leap years), with 123 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... The EDVAC as installed in Building 328 at the Ballistics Research Laboratory. ... ENIAC ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer[1], was the first large-scale, electronic, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems[2], although earlier computers had been built with some of these properties. ...

Background

In 1946 the Moore School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was at the center of developments in high-speed electronic computing. On February 15 of that year it had publicly unveiled the ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, developed in secret beginning in 1943 for the Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory. Prior even to the ENIAC's completion, work had begun on a second-generation electronic digital computer, the EDVAC, which incorporated the stored program model. Work at the Moore School attracted such luminaries as John von Neumann, who served as a consultant to the EDVAC project, and Stan Frankel and Nicholas Metropolis of the Manhattan Project, who arrived to run one of the first major programs written for the ENIAC, a mathematical simulation for the hydrogen bomb project. Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Quaker City, the City that Loves You Back Motto: Philadelphia maneto (Let brotherly love continue) Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Mayor John F. Street (D) Area    - City 369. ... February 15 is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... ENIAC ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer[1], was the first large-scale, electronic, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems[2], although earlier computers had been built with some of these properties. ... The US Army Ballistics Research Labatory is at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, Maryland. ... The EDVAC as installed in Building 328 at the Ballistics Research Laboratory. ... The so-called von Neumann architecture is a model for a computing machine that uses a single storage structure to hold both the set of instructions on how to perform the computation and the data required or generated by the computation. ... John von Neumann in the 1940s. ... Stanley Phillips Stan Frankel (1919 – May, 1978) was an American computer scientist. ... Nicholas Constantine Metropolis (June 11, 1915 – October 17, 1999) was a Greek-American mathematician, physicist, and computer scientist. ... The Manhattan Project resulted in the development of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation at the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 lifted nuclear fallout some 18 km (60,000 feet) above the epicenter. ...

World War II had spawned major national efforts in many forms of scientific research—continued in peacetime—that required computationally intensive analysis; the thirst for information about the new Moore School computing machines had not been slaked, but instead intensified, by the distribution of von Neumann's notes on the EDVAC's logical design. Rather than allow themselves to be inundated with requests for demonstrations or slow progress in computer research by witholding the benefits of the Moore School's expertise until papers could be published formally, the administration, including Dean Harold Pender, Prof. Carl Chambers, and Director of Research Irven Travis, respectively proposed, organized, and secured funding for what they envisioned as a lecture series for between 30 to 40 participants enrolled by select invitation. This article is becoming very long. ... Harold Pender (1879–1959) was an academic, author, and inventor. ...

The 8-week course was conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Army's Ordnance Department and the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research, who promised (by verbal authorizations) the $3,000 requested to cover lecturer salaries and fees and $4,000 for travel, printing, and overhead. ($1,569 over this figure was ultimately claimed.) The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Branch insignia of Ordnance Corps The Ordnance Corps is a combat service support branch of the United States Army. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... ONR Logo The Office of Naval Research (ONR), headquartered in Arlington, Virginia (Ballston), is an office of the U.S. Navy that carries out scientific research to support the Navy and Marine Corps in the interest of national security. ...

Even as the Moore School found itself in the computing spotlight, its computer design team was disintegrating into splinter groups who hoped to advance computing research commercially, or academically at more prestigious institutions. In the former group were ENIAC co-inventors J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, who the previous March had departed the Moore School amidst a patent rights dispute to found the first computer company, the Electronic Control Company (later renamed to Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation), and took many on the Moore School staff with them; in the latter group were Herman Goldstine (the Army's liason to the Moore School who served as administrative overseer of the ENIAC's construction) and Arthur Burks (a Moore School professor on the ENIAC design team), lured to the Institute for Advanced Study by von Neumann. Despite the somewhat acrimonious fracturing of the ENIAC/EDVAC group, these figures gave the majority of the Moore School Lectures, with Eckert and Mauchly receiving the highest salaries ($1,200 each), while Goldstine and the others received only travel expenses and an honorarium ($50 per lecture). John Presper Eckert, a computer pioneer, was born April 9, 1919 in Philadelphia and died June 3, 1995 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. ... John William Mauchly (August 30, 1907 – January 8, 1980) was an American physicist who, along with J. Presper Eckert, designed ENIAC, the first general purpose electronic digital computer, as well as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer made in the United States. ... The Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) was founded by J. Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly, and was incorporated on December 22, 1947. ... Herman Heine Goldstine (September 13, 1913 – June 16, 2004) was one of the original developers of ENIAC. He worked closely with John von Neumann. ... Arthur Walter Burks (born October 13, 1915 in Duluth, Minnesota) is an American mathematician who in the 1940s as a senior engineer on the project contributed to the design of the ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer. ... Fuld Hall The Institute for Advanced Study is a private institution in Princeton Township, New Jersey, U.S.A. (although it is not part of Princeton University), designed to foster pure cutting-edge research by scientists in a variety of fields without the complications of teaching or funding, or the...

Lecturers and lectures

Lectures were given 5 days a week on weekdays and were up to 3 hours long; the afternoons were typically reserved for informal seminars.

Many of the pioneers of computer development contributed to the Moore School Lectures, most prolifically Pres Eckert, followed by John Mauchly and Herman Goldstine. The topics covered virtually all facets of electronic computing relevant to the construction and operation of digital computers, and included, by popular demand, an unscheduled presentation of the ENIAC during the latter half of the sixth week and the first half of the seventh week, with lectures by Mauchly, Sharpless, and Chu. Discussions of the ENIAC were resisted since its logical design had been obsoleted even before its completion by ongoing work on the EDVAC with its stored-program concept; nevertheless, it was the only electronic digital computer then in operation and the students petitioned to see demonstrations and learn of its design.

From the Moore School team

• J. Presper Eckert of the Electronic Control Company:
  • "A Preview of a Digital Computing Machine" (July 15, 1946)
  • "Types of Circuits—General" (July 18, 1946)
  • "Reliability of Parts" (July 23, 1946)
  • "Adders" (July 26, 1946) (with Sheppard)
  • "Multipliers" (July 29, 1946)
  • "Tapetypers and Printing Mechanisms" (August 1, 1946)
  • "Continuous Variable Input and Output Devices" (August 6, 1946)
  • "Reliability and Checking" (August 7, 1946)
  • "Electrical Delay Lines" (August 14, 1946)
  • "A Parallel-Type EDVAC" (August 22, 1946)
  • "A Parallel Channel Computing Machine" (August 26, 1946)

• John W. Mauchly of the Electronic Control Company:
  • "Digital and Analogy Computing Machines" (July 8, 1946)
  • "The Use of Function Tables with Computing Machines" (July 12, 1946)
  • "Sorting and Collating" (July 25, 1946)
  • "Conversion Between Binary and Decimal Number Systems" (July 29, 1946)
  • "Code and Control II: Machine Design and Instruction Codes" (August 9, 1946)
  • "Introduction to the ENIAC" (August 15, 1946) (unscheduled)
  • "Block Diagrams of the ENIAC III" (August 20, 1946) (unscheduled)
  • "Accumulation of Errors in Numerical Methods" (August 30, 1946)

• Herman Goldstine of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey:
  • "Numerical Mathematical Methods I" (July 10, 1946)
  • "Numerical Mathematical Methods II" (July 11, 1946)
  • "Numerical Mathematical Methods III" (July 16, 1946)
  • "Numerical Mathematical Methods V" (July 22, 1946)
  • "Numerical Mathematical Methods VI" (July 30, 1946)
  • "Numerical Mathematical Methods VII" (August 2, 1946)

• Arthur W. Burks of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey:
  • "Digital Machine Functions" (July 12, 1946)
  • "Numerical Mathematical Methods IV" (July 22, 1946)
  • "Numerical Mathematical Methods VIII" (August 2, 1946)

• T. Kite Sharpless of the Moore School:
  • "Switching and Coupling Circuits" (July 19, 1946)
  • "Block Diagrams of the ENIAC I" (August 16, 1946) (unscheduled)
  • "Block Diagrams of the ENIAC II" (August 19, 1946) (unscheduled)
  • "Description of Serial Acoustic Binary EDVAC I" (August 28, 1946)
  • "Description of Serial Acoustic Binary EDVAC II" (August 28, 1946)

• Chuan Chu of the Moore School:
  • "Magnetic Recording" (July 31, 1946)
  • "Block Diagrams of the ENIAC IV" (August 21, 1946) (unscheduled)

• C. Bradford Sheppard of the Moore School:
  • "Elements of a Complete Computing System" (July 15, 1946)
  • "Adders" (July 26, 1946) (with Eckert)
  • "Memory Devices" (July 24, 1946)
  • "Code and Control I" (August 8, 1946) (filling in for Eckert)
  • "Code and Control III" (scheduled but not given)
  • "A Four-Channel Coded-Decimal Electrostatic Machine" (August 27, 1946)

• Irven Travis of the Moore School:
  • "The History of Computing Devices" (July 8, 1946)

• Sam B. Willams, consultant to the Moore School:
  • "Reliability and Checking in Digital Computing Systems" (August 7, 1946)

John Presper Eckert, a computer pioneer, was born April 9, 1919 in Philadelphia and died June 3, 1995 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. ... July 15 is the 196th day (197th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 169 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 18 is the 199th day (200th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 166 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 23 is the 204th day (205th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 161 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 29 is the 210th day (211th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 155 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 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August 26 is the 238th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (239th in leap years). ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... John William Mauchly (August 30, 1907 – January 8, 1980) was an American physicist who, along with J. Presper Eckert, designed ENIAC, the first general purpose electronic digital computer, as well as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer made in the United States. ... July 8 is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 176 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 12 is the 193rd day (194th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 172 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 25 is the 206th day (207th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 159 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 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Fuld Hall The Institute for Advanced Study is a private institution in Princeton Township, New Jersey, U.S.A. (although it is not part of Princeton University), designed to foster pure cutting-edge research by scientists in a variety of fields without the complications of teaching or funding, or the... Princeton, New Jersey, is the name of a section of Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. ... July 10 is the 191st day (192nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 174 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 11 is the 192nd day (193rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 173 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 16 is the 197th day (198th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 168 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 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(although it is not part of Princeton University), designed to foster pure cutting-edge research by scientists in a variety of fields without the complications of teaching or funding, or the... Princeton, New Jersey, is the name of a section of Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. ... July 12 is the 193rd day (194th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 172 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 22 is the 203rd day (204th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 162 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... August 2 is the 214th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (215th in leap years), with 151 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 19 is the 200th day (201st in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 165 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 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July 15 is the 196th day (197th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 169 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 24 is the 205th day (206th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 160 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... August 27 is the 239th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (240th in leap years), with 126 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 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From the University of Pennsylvania

• Hans Rademacher:
  • "On the Accumulation of Errors in Numerical Integration on the ENIAC" (July 22, 1946)

Hans Rademacher (1892 - 1969) was a German mathematician, known for work in mathematical analysis and number theory. ... July 22 is the 203rd day (204th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 162 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

From Harvard University

• Howard Aiken:
  • "The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator" (July 16, 1946)
  • "Electro-Mechanical Tables of the Elementary Functions" (July 17, 1946)

Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Harvard Mark I / IBM ASCC, left side. ... July 16 is the 197th day (198th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 168 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

From the U.S. Navy Office of Research and Inventions

• Perry Crawford, Jr.:
  • "Applications of Digital Computation Involving Continuous Input and Output Variables" (August 5, 1946)

August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (218th in leap years), with 148 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

From the National Bureau of Standards

• John H. Curtiss:
  • "A Review of Government Requirements and Activities in the Field of Automatic Digital Computing Machinery" (August 1, 1946)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, formerly known as The National Bureau of Standards) is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce’s Technology Administration. ... August 1 is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years), with 152 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

From the University of California, Berkeley

• Derrick H. Lehmer:
  • "Computing Machines for Pure Mathematics" (July 9, 1946)

The University of California, Berkeley (also known as UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, and by other names, see below) is the oldest and flagship campus of the ten-campus University of California system. ... July 9 is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 175 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

From the University of Manchester

• Douglas Hartree:
  • "Some General Considerations in the Solutions of Problems in Applied Mathematics" (July 9, 1946)

The University of Manchester in Manchester, England, was formed by the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester (commonly known as the University of Manchester before the merger) and UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) on 1 October 2004. ... Douglas Rayner Hartree (March 27, 1897 - February 12, 1958) was an English mathematician and physicist most famous for the development of numerical analysis and its application to atomic physics. ... July 9 is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 175 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

From RCA

• Jan Rajchman:
  • "The Selectron" (August 23, 1946)

August 23 is the 235th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (236th in leap years), with 130 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

From the Naval Ordnance Laboratory

• Calvin N. Mooers:
  • "Code and Control IV: Examples of a Three-Address Code and the Use of 'Stop Order Tags'" (August 12, 1946)
  • "Discussions of Ideas for the Naval Ordnance Laboratory Computing Machine" (August 26, 1946)

The Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL), now disestablished, formerly located in White Oak, Maryland was the site of considerable work that had practical impact upon world technology. ... Calvin Northrup Mooers (1919-1994), was an American computer scientist who originated the expression_oriented text_processing language TRAC, and attempted to control its development by enforcement of his trademark on the name TRAC. External link Calvin N. Mooers Categories: Stub | 1919 births | 1994 deaths | Computer scientists ... August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... August 26 is the 238th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (239th in leap years). ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

From the Institute for Advanced Study

• John von Neumann:
  • "New Problems and Approaches" (August 13, 1946)

John von Neumann in the 1940s. ... August 13 is the 225th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (226th in leap years), with 140 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

Indepedent consultant

• George Stibitz:
  • "Introduction to the Course on Electronic Computers" (July 8, 1946)

The initial plan for the lectures, outlined by Chambers in a June 28, 1946 memorandum, was for them to be grouped into four major headings, with the second and third being presented concurrently after the completion of the first: General Introduction to Computing, covering the history, types, and uses of computing devices; Machine Elements, focusing on hardware and, indeed, software, under the term "code and control"; Detailed Study of Mathematics of Problems, what today might constitute a course in programming, including the Goldstine/Burks lectures on numerical mathematical methods and Mauchly's lectures on sorting, decimal-binary conversion and error accumulation; and finally a series of lectures on overall machine design called Final Detailed Presentation of Three Machines, though it actually came to include six machines, including the ENIAC, which despite its fame had not been an intended focus of any of the lectures. George Stibitz (April 20, 1904 – January 31, 1995) was a Bell Labs researcher mostly known for his 1930s and 1940s work on the realization of Boolean logic digital circuits using electromechanical relays as the switching element. ... July 8 is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 176 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... June 28 is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 186 days remaining. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

The actual record of the lectures is incomplete. While many of the lectures were recorded on a wire recorder by Herman Lukoff and Dick Merwin, the recorder frequently broke down mid-lecture, and the recordings took several months to be transcribed and proofed by the lecturers. It wasn't until two years after the lectures, in 1948, that all of the material was assembled and published in four volumes edited by the Moore School's George W. Patterson, who was on the EDVAC staff. Some of the gaps have since been filled in with the notes of student Frank M. Verzuh in a Charles Babbage Institute reprint. Wire recording is a type of analogue audio storage in which the recording is made onto thin steel or stainless steel wire. ... Herman Lukoff, a computer pioneer, was born on May 2, 1923, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... The Charles Babbage Institute (also titled the Center for the History of Information Technology) is a research center specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the post-World War II history of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking. ...

Students

28 students were invited to attend the Moore School Lectures, each a veteran engineer or mathematician:

• Sam N. Alexander, Edward W. Cannon, and Roger Curtis of the National Bureau of Standards
• Mark Breiter of the War Department's Office of the Chief of Ordnance
• Arthur B. Horton, Warren S. Loud, and Lou D. Wilson of MIT
• David R. Brown and Robert R. Everett of the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory
• Frank M. Verzuh of MIT's Rockefeller Electronic Computer Project
• Howard L. Clark and G.W. Hobbs of General Electric Co.
• R.D. Elbourne of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, who worked for John Vincent Atanasoff
• Herbert Galman and Joshua Rosenbloom of the Frankford Arsenal
• Orin P. Gard of Wright Field's Armament Laboratory
• Simon E. Gluck or the Moore School
• D.H. Gridley and Louis Suss of the Naval Research Laboratory
• Samuel Lubkin of Aberdeen Proving Ground's Ballistics Research Laboratory
• J.T. Pendergrass of the OP-20-G CNO Navy Department
• David Rees of Manchester University, England
• Albert Sayre of the Army Security Agency
• Phillip A. Shaffer, Jr. of the Naval Ordnance Testing Station, Pasadena, California
• Claude E. Shannon of Bell Telephone Laboratories
• Albert E. Smith of the Navy Office of Research and Inventions
• Maurice V. Wilkes of Cambridge University, who joined the course only for its final two weeks after numerous problems with his travel
• H.I. Zagor of the Reeves Instrument Company

Uninvited attendees saw at least some of the lectures: Line drawing of the Department of Wars seal. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a private research university located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Its mission and culture are guided by an emphasis on teaching and research grounded in practical applications of science and technology. ... The General Electric Company, or GE, (NYSE: GE) is a multinational technology and services company. ... The Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL), now disestablished, formerly located in White Oak, Maryland was the site of considerable work that had practical impact upon world technology. ... John Vincent Atanasoff (October 4, 1903 – June 15, 1995) was a prominent computer engineer of Bulgarian origin. ... Frankford Arsenal was a U.S. Army ammunition plant located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, adjacent to Frankford Creek. ... National Museum of the United States Air Force at WPAFB Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force base in Greene and Montgomery counties, adjacent to Fairborn and Dayton, Ohio. ... -1... Aberdeen Proving Ground is a United States Army proving ground located in Harford County, Maryland at Aberdeen, Maryland. ... The US Army Ballistics Research Labatory is at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, Maryland. ... Headline text OP-20-G The Navys codebreaking system was better than the Armys S.I.S. It began with a secret slush fund of $100,000 in 1918. ... The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) is the senior military officer in the United States Navy. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... University of Manchester Motto: Cognitio Sapientia Hvmanitas Knowledge, wisdom, humanity. ... Pasadena is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Claude Shannon Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001), an American electrical engineer and mathematician, has been called the father of information theory, and was the founder of practical digital circuit design theory. ... Bell Laboratories (also known as Bell Labs and formerly known as AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Telephone Laboratories) was the main research and development arm of the United States Bell System. ... Rev. ... Maurice V. Wilkes Maurice Vincent Wilkes (born June 26, 1913 in Dudley, Staffordshire, England) is a British computer scientist, credited with several important developments in computing. ... The University of Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world, with one of the most selective sets of entry requirements in the United Kingdom. ...

• Cuthbert C. Hurd of IBM
• Jay Forrester of MIT
• Unidentified representatives of the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory who took the place of Brown and Everett on any given week

Additionally, many of the lecturers attended a number of the lectures. Jay Wright Forrester (born 14 July 1918 Climax, Nebraska) is an American pioneer of computer engineering. ...

The individuals and institutions represented at the Moore School Lectures went on to be involved with numerous successful computer construction projects in the late 1940s and early 1950s, including EDSAC, BINAC, UNIVAC, CALDIC, SEAC and SWAC, the IAS machine, and the Whirlwind. EDSAC EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) was an early British computer (one of the first computers to be created). ... BINAC, the Binary Automatic Computer, was an early electronic computer designed for Northrop Aircraft Company by the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in 1949. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... SEAC (Standards Electronic/Eastern Automatic Computer) was a first-generation electronic computer, built in 1950 by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (NBS) and was initially called the National Bureau of Standards Interim Computer, because it was a small-scale computer designed to be built quickly and put into... The SWAC (from Standards Western Automatic Computer) was a first-generation electronic computer, built in 1950 by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (NBS). ... The IAS machine was the first electronic digital computer built by the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton, NJ, USA. The paper describing the design of the IAS machine was edited by John von Neumann, (see Von Neumann architecture). ... The Whirlwind computer was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ...

The success of the Moore School Lectures prompted Harvard University to host the first computer conference in January, 1947; that same year the Association for Computing Machinery was founded as a professional society to organize future conferences. Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, was founded in 1947 as the worlds first scientific and educational computing society. ...

References

• (1985) Martin Campbell-Kelly and Michael R. Williams, editors The Moore School Lectures: Theory and Techniques for Design of Electronic Digital Computers. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England; Los Angeles, California; San Francisco, California: The MIT Press and Tomash Publishers. ISBN 0-262-03109-4.
• Wilkes, Maurice V. (1985). Memoirs of a Computer Pioneer. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: The MIT Press, 116-126. ISBN 0-262-23122-0.
• Lukoff, Herman (1979). From Dits to Bits: A personal history of the electronic computer. Portland, Oregon: Robotics Press, 59-60. ISBN 89661-022-0.
• Shurkin, Joel (1996). Engines of the Mind: The Evolution of the Computer from Mainframes to Microprocessors, 2, New York, New York; London, England: W.W. Norton & Company, 205. ISBN 0-393-31471-5.