“Automatic Calculating Machines.” In: The Mathematical Gazette, Volume XXXIV, No. 310 (Dec. 1950), pp. 241-252.
A survey of recent work in the area of computing, published shortly after Hartree’s pioneering work, Calculating Instruments and Machines (University of Illinois Press, 1949). Includes eight half-tone illustrations of early calculating machines. Library rubberstamp on front wrapper. Very good. The complete volume, in original printed wrappers. Octavo. Item #12078
Hartree (1897-1958) was a Cambridge-educated physicist and mathematician. He was one of the designers of the Manchester Meccano differential analyzer. He wrote the first technical description of the ENIAC and worked on early computers at Cambridge. “Hartree’s chief contribution to science was his development of powerful methods of numerical mathematical analysis, which made it possible for him to apply successfully the so-called self-consistent field method to the calculation of atomic wave functions of polyelectronic atoms, that is, those which in the neutral condition have more than one electron surrounding the nucleus. These calculations involved the numerical solution of the partial differential equations of quantum mechanics for many-body systems subject to the usual boundary conditions” (DSB).
Price: $500.00