Home / Collections / Computation / Early
The history of computation is longer than the history of modern computers, and so the New Media Museum has a collection of mechanical and electronic computational devices that predated the computer to use for instruction.1
On the Web
Calculating tools (Georgi Dalakov, History of Computers and Computing)
History of Mechanical Calculators (James Redin)
Pre-History of Computing (I-Programmer)
The Alan Kaminsky Museum of Antique Computing Devices (Alan Kaminsky, Rochester Institute of Technology)
Mechanical Calculation mechanical machines (Mark Glusker)
Mechanical Computing Devices Timeline (Stephen White)
Abacus
On the Web
The art of calculating with beads (Luis Fernandes)
The Bead Unbaffled (Totton Heffelfinger & Gary Flom, Abacus: Mystery of the Bead)
The Abacus (Hitmill.com)
The Abacus (Georgi Dalakov, History of Computers and Computing)
Abacus (The History of Computing Project)
The Abacus and the Numeral Frame (National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution)
Antikythera Device
On the Web
The Antikythera Mechanism at the National Archaeological Museum (Athens, Greece)
The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project
Slide rule
Slide Rule from MIT CSAIL Mac 50
May May 28 29, 2014
http://mac50.csail.mit.edu/
On the Web
Slide Rules (The Oughtred Society)
International Slide Rule Museum (Mike Konshak)
Slide Rules (National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution)
Slide Rules (MIT Museum) (Video)
Slide Rules (The Museum of HP Calculators)
How to use a slide rule (Ron Manley)
Collection Notes
1 Some of these resources were originally acquired to support the course ECOMP 7100: Fundamentals of Computers (Lesley University, 2004). More recent resources were acquired for an earlier iteration of the New Media Museum called the NEW Computer Museum.
© New Media Museum created by M. E. Hopper
You must be logged in to post a comment.