Collection documents the Electronic Computer Project, 1950-1957 at the Institute for Advanced Study. The goal of the project was to build a computer that would be a general-purpose postwar tool for various branches of scientific research.
Scope and Contents:
The collection includes published reports of the staff of the Electronic Computer Project, monthly progress reports, and reports by individual staff members (sometimes in draft form) on particular problems or pieces of equipment. Numerous drawings of computer components are also included, together with 10 glass photo slides in color of equipment and two slides of personnel (unidentified). A special "computer issue" of Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers (published October, 1953) contains 41 papers on technical aspects of computers.
Biographical / Historical:
This material was generated by participants in the IAS Computer Project, 1950-1957. The Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, NJ has long been a center of scholarly work in many disciplines of science by noted researchers (e.g. Albert Einstein). The computer project was initiated there in 1946 by John Von Neumann, a mathematician who had been working on ballistics computations during World War II. He used the first version of the Princeton computer to calculate the results of the thermonuclear reaction of the first H bomb in 1950. In the late 1950s, after Von Neumann's death, the project was terminated. A brief summary of the project and Von Neumann's contribution is found in Chapter 5 of Who Got Einstein's Office? by Edward Regis (Addison Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., 1987.)
Provenance:
Collection donated by Leon D. Harmon, March 23, 1982.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
