who's on first?

From: Allison J Parent <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Tue Jul 1 15:03:11 1997

.
> seems to be the fact that they were electronic and the idea
> of electronic counters (which is most of what ENIAC was) had

This is fairly complete history of electronic computings origins however
there were several electric (relay logic) designs not mentioned here.

While slow they capitialized on the then fairly mature telephone realys
of varying design. They were generally of two types the contactor or
n-pole double throw or the stepping(counting) with typically 11
positions. The later could be used to make counters or registers.
In the early years (pre about '44) these were used to make calculator
type machines of the programmed or fixed type.

Allison
Received on Tue Jul 01 1997 - 15:03:11 BST