Talk:Harvard Mark II

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[edit] Additional detail on history

I am not very experienced with The Wikipedia world, so I am not sure how or where to go about adding information. The Harvard Mark II computer was built at the request and recommendation of Prof. C. (Charles) Clinton Bramble, a mathematician and a U. S. Navy officer (Bureau of Ordnance, U.S. Naval Proving Grounds, Dahlgren, Virginia), starting in 1944. Dr. Bramble very quickly recognized the value of the Mark I and was able to convince the Navy to finance a second machine, initially for computing ballistic "firing tables" that were used for artillery targetting. Dr. Bramble was a personal friend of my grandfather (Dr. Ralph E. Root, Professor Emeritus, U. S. Naval Postgraduate School, Annapolis, MD), and I heard the basic story of the Mark II first hand in the early 1960's. The Smithsonian Oral History collection has a transcript online of a 1973 interview with Howard Aiken (http://invention.smithsonian.org/downloads/fa_cohc_tr_aike73027.pdf) that is fascinating to read. Dr. Bramble and Dr. Root are also listed in the Genealogy of Mathematics that is maintained at the University of North Dakota. Dave Tuttle 21:39, 1 December 2006 (UTC)