computer genealogy poster, 1600 - 1945
Date: circa 1980
Inventory Number: 1998-1-1042
Classification: Poster
Subject:
Maker: Digital Equipment Corporation (1957 - 1998)
Cultural Region:
Place of Origin:
Dimensions:
91.2 x 60.8 cm (35 7/8 x 23 15/16 in.)
Material:
DescriptionA large glossy rectangular wall poster colored with a grey gradient, darkest at the bottom at lightest at the top. The poster is divided into six rows, each with a different shade of grey. Each row pertains to a different period of development.
The poster is divided into six rows, each colored with a different shade of grey. The bottommost row is darkest and the topmost row is the lightest. The rows are separated by a white band with a date typed in black along the leftmost edge of the poster. The inner four rows numbered with a large white numeral, with a red shadow border. The second row from the bottom is numbered "4" decreasing to the second row from the top, numbered "1". Instead of a number, the bottom row is labeled "Pre-Computer Generations" in a white box with a red shadow border.
The bottommost row (unnumbered) is separated from row 4 by the date 1600 (in the left end of the white separation bar), rows 4 and 3 are separated by the date 1800, rows 3 and 2 are separated by the date 1890, rows 2 and 1 are separated by the date 1930, and row 1 is separated from the topmost (unnumbered) row by the date 1945.
At the left end of each of the bottom five rows are listed several significant technological and theoretical developments of the time period represented by that row. Each list is printed in black bulleted type. The lists are as follows, from top to bottom, beginning with the bottom row:
Pre-Computer Generations:
- Moveable Type, Guttenberg 1440
- Clock, deVick 1300s
- Block Printing, China 770
- Water Clock, Ktesibios 283 b.c.
4, also labeled "Manual"
- Battery, Volta 1800
- Steam Engine, Watt 1767
3, also labeled "Mechanical"
- Incandescent Bulb, Edison1879
- Typewriter, 1874
- Electrical Current, Gramme 1973
- Maxwell's Equations, 1860
- Problem Solving Logic, Boole 1854
- Gyroscope, 1852
- Telegraph, Morse 1837
- Electro-magnetic Relay 1830
2, also labeled "Electro-mechanical
- Magnetic Drum, Toushek 1928
- Flip-flop, Eccles Jordan 1919
- Propositional Calculus, Whitehead and Russell, 1910
- Gyroscope, Anschutz 1908
- Triade, deForest 1906
1, also labeled "Electronic"
- Binary Numbers, Condon Patent 1940
- Boolean Algebra and Relay Design, Shannon 1938
- Computability, Turing 1906
There is no list of developments in the topmost row.
The main body of the poster consists of a genealogical tree of various branching technological and theoretical developments. They begin at the bottom of the poster and progress upwards and forwards in time. There are various "starting nodes" at various places on the poster that have no "parent" below them, but from which other developments grow. Each of the following lists begins with the bottommost "parentless" node (usually representing a genre of computation, rather than a specific development) in a certain branching chain and progress to the topmost end of that chain. When chains branch into two directions, this will be noted. When a new "genre" of computing is introduced (whether as a parentless node or as a label for a certain branch) this will be indicated by CAPITAL LETTERS. It is indicated in brackets after each entry what row the entry is in: a row from 4 to 1, "PCG" for "Pre-Computational Generations" and "T" for the topmost, unlabeled row (which only contains one entry: "Computers").
The chains are listed from left to right.
Chain One:
TABLES (PCG) - Napier's Bones, 1615 (4) - Tables of Products, Hutton 1781 (4) - CRC Table, 1900 (2) - Tables for Statisticians, Pearson 1914 (2) - Burrington's Tables, 1937 (1)
Chain Two:
ANALOG (PCG) - Logarithms, Napier 1614 (4) - Gunter Scale, 1620 (4) - Oughtred Scales, 1621 (4) = branch 1 from Oughtred Scales - Planimeter, Gonelli 1824 (3) - Circular Rule, Fuller 1846 (3) - Ball and Disk Integrator, Thomson 1860 (3) - Spiral Rule, Fuller 1878 (3) - Thatcher Rule, 1881 (3) = branch 2 from Oughtred Scales - Tide Predictor, Kelvin 1872 (3) - Harmonic Analyzer, Kelvin 1876 (3) - Equation Solver, Torres 1893 (2) - Harmonic Integrator, Michelson and Stratton 1898 (2) - Electrical Equation Solver, Wright 1909 (2) - Power Network Analyzers, 1920 (2) - Differential Analyzer, Bush 1930 (2/1) - Electronic Analog, Philbrick 1938.
Chain Three:
SIMPLE CALCULATORS (PCG) - Shickard Calculator, 1623 (4) = branch 1 from Shickard Calculator - Pascal's Adder, 1647 (4) - Quicksum, 1924 (2) = branch 2 from Shickard Calculator - Stepped Reckoner, Leibniz 1671 (4) = branch 1 from Stepped Reckoner - Arithmometer, Thomas 1872 (3) - Millionaire, Stegner 1893 (2) - Electric Millionaire, 1923 (2) = branch 2 from Stepped Reckoner - ROTARY (3) - Arithmometer, Odhner 1874 (3) - Arithmometer, Baldwin 1875 (3) = branch 1 from Arithmometer, Baldwin - Rechnitzer, 1902 (2) - Marchant, 1936 (2) = branch 2 from Arithmometer, Baldwin - KEY PUNCH (3) Comptometer, 1887 (3) - Adding Machine, Burroughs 1892 (2) - Monroe Electric, 1912 (2) - Monroe Automatic, 1920 (2).
Chain Four:
Will begin from the center, rather than the leftmost branch, to maintain temporal consistency:
MACHINE-READABLE INFORMATION (4) - Paper Tape, Bouchon 1725 (4) - Punched Cards, Faloon 1728 (4) - Card Operated Looms, Vaucauson 1745 (4) - Jacquard Loom, 1801 (3) = branch 1 from Jacquard Loom, to the left - COMPLEX FUNCTION CALCULATORS (4) - Difference Engine, Babbage 1822 (3) - Difference Engine, Scheutz 1853 (3) - Difference Tabulator, Columbia 1901 (1) = branch 2 from Jacquard Loom, in the center - Paper Tape Telegraph, 1839 (3) - Teletypwriter Code, Baudot 1876 (3) - Punched Card, Hollerith 1884 (3) - Card Perforator and Sorter, Gore 1896 (2) - Flexowriter (1) = branch 3 from Jacquard Loom, to the right - ELECTRO-MECHANICAL (3) - Analytic Engine, Babbage 1833 (3) - Electro-mechanical calculator, Torres 1920 (2) = branch 1 from Electro-mechanical calculator, to the left - Zuse I, 1936 (1) - Bell Laboratory Calculator, Stibitz 1937-9 (1) - Zuse II, 1939 (1) - Zuse III, 1941 (1) - Harvard M[AR]K I, Aiken 1937 - 1945 (1) = branch 2 from Electro-mechanical calculator, to the right - ELECTRONIC (1/2) - Atanasoff-Berry Reports, 1935 - 42 (1) - Magnetic Recording, Disks 1943 (1) - ENIAC, 1943 - 48 (1) - Collosus, 1943 (1) - ACE Report, Turing 1945 (1) - EDVAC Report, Von Neumann 1945 (1) - Computers (T).
Each entry in the tree is typed in black inside a white box with a red shadow border. The chained entries are connected by white lines with red shadow borders. Some of the chains end with a dotted white line proceeding towards the top edge of the poster. The space between each entry is representative of how many years passed in between the developments contained therein.
The poster is divided into six rows, each colored with a different shade of grey. The bottommost row is darkest and the topmost row is the lightest. The rows are separated by a white band with a date typed in black along the leftmost edge of the poster. The inner four rows numbered with a large white numeral, with a red shadow border. The second row from the bottom is numbered "4" decreasing to the second row from the top, numbered "1". Instead of a number, the bottom row is labeled "Pre-Computer Generations" in a white box with a red shadow border.
The bottommost row (unnumbered) is separated from row 4 by the date 1600 (in the left end of the white separation bar), rows 4 and 3 are separated by the date 1800, rows 3 and 2 are separated by the date 1890, rows 2 and 1 are separated by the date 1930, and row 1 is separated from the topmost (unnumbered) row by the date 1945.
At the left end of each of the bottom five rows are listed several significant technological and theoretical developments of the time period represented by that row. Each list is printed in black bulleted type. The lists are as follows, from top to bottom, beginning with the bottom row:
Pre-Computer Generations:
- Moveable Type, Guttenberg 1440
- Clock, deVick 1300s
- Block Printing, China 770
- Water Clock, Ktesibios 283 b.c.
4, also labeled "Manual"
- Battery, Volta 1800
- Steam Engine, Watt 1767
3, also labeled "Mechanical"
- Incandescent Bulb, Edison1879
- Typewriter, 1874
- Electrical Current, Gramme 1973
- Maxwell's Equations, 1860
- Problem Solving Logic, Boole 1854
- Gyroscope, 1852
- Telegraph, Morse 1837
- Electro-magnetic Relay 1830
2, also labeled "Electro-mechanical
- Magnetic Drum, Toushek 1928
- Flip-flop, Eccles Jordan 1919
- Propositional Calculus, Whitehead and Russell, 1910
- Gyroscope, Anschutz 1908
- Triade, deForest 1906
1, also labeled "Electronic"
- Binary Numbers, Condon Patent 1940
- Boolean Algebra and Relay Design, Shannon 1938
- Computability, Turing 1906
There is no list of developments in the topmost row.
The main body of the poster consists of a genealogical tree of various branching technological and theoretical developments. They begin at the bottom of the poster and progress upwards and forwards in time. There are various "starting nodes" at various places on the poster that have no "parent" below them, but from which other developments grow. Each of the following lists begins with the bottommost "parentless" node (usually representing a genre of computation, rather than a specific development) in a certain branching chain and progress to the topmost end of that chain. When chains branch into two directions, this will be noted. When a new "genre" of computing is introduced (whether as a parentless node or as a label for a certain branch) this will be indicated by CAPITAL LETTERS. It is indicated in brackets after each entry what row the entry is in: a row from 4 to 1, "PCG" for "Pre-Computational Generations" and "T" for the topmost, unlabeled row (which only contains one entry: "Computers").
The chains are listed from left to right.
Chain One:
TABLES (PCG) - Napier's Bones, 1615 (4) - Tables of Products, Hutton 1781 (4) - CRC Table, 1900 (2) - Tables for Statisticians, Pearson 1914 (2) - Burrington's Tables, 1937 (1)
Chain Two:
ANALOG (PCG) - Logarithms, Napier 1614 (4) - Gunter Scale, 1620 (4) - Oughtred Scales, 1621 (4) = branch 1 from Oughtred Scales - Planimeter, Gonelli 1824 (3) - Circular Rule, Fuller 1846 (3) - Ball and Disk Integrator, Thomson 1860 (3) - Spiral Rule, Fuller 1878 (3) - Thatcher Rule, 1881 (3) = branch 2 from Oughtred Scales - Tide Predictor, Kelvin 1872 (3) - Harmonic Analyzer, Kelvin 1876 (3) - Equation Solver, Torres 1893 (2) - Harmonic Integrator, Michelson and Stratton 1898 (2) - Electrical Equation Solver, Wright 1909 (2) - Power Network Analyzers, 1920 (2) - Differential Analyzer, Bush 1930 (2/1) - Electronic Analog, Philbrick 1938.
Chain Three:
SIMPLE CALCULATORS (PCG) - Shickard Calculator, 1623 (4) = branch 1 from Shickard Calculator - Pascal's Adder, 1647 (4) - Quicksum, 1924 (2) = branch 2 from Shickard Calculator - Stepped Reckoner, Leibniz 1671 (4) = branch 1 from Stepped Reckoner - Arithmometer, Thomas 1872 (3) - Millionaire, Stegner 1893 (2) - Electric Millionaire, 1923 (2) = branch 2 from Stepped Reckoner - ROTARY (3) - Arithmometer, Odhner 1874 (3) - Arithmometer, Baldwin 1875 (3) = branch 1 from Arithmometer, Baldwin - Rechnitzer, 1902 (2) - Marchant, 1936 (2) = branch 2 from Arithmometer, Baldwin - KEY PUNCH (3) Comptometer, 1887 (3) - Adding Machine, Burroughs 1892 (2) - Monroe Electric, 1912 (2) - Monroe Automatic, 1920 (2).
Chain Four:
Will begin from the center, rather than the leftmost branch, to maintain temporal consistency:
MACHINE-READABLE INFORMATION (4) - Paper Tape, Bouchon 1725 (4) - Punched Cards, Faloon 1728 (4) - Card Operated Looms, Vaucauson 1745 (4) - Jacquard Loom, 1801 (3) = branch 1 from Jacquard Loom, to the left - COMPLEX FUNCTION CALCULATORS (4) - Difference Engine, Babbage 1822 (3) - Difference Engine, Scheutz 1853 (3) - Difference Tabulator, Columbia 1901 (1) = branch 2 from Jacquard Loom, in the center - Paper Tape Telegraph, 1839 (3) - Teletypwriter Code, Baudot 1876 (3) - Punched Card, Hollerith 1884 (3) - Card Perforator and Sorter, Gore 1896 (2) - Flexowriter (1) = branch 3 from Jacquard Loom, to the right - ELECTRO-MECHANICAL (3) - Analytic Engine, Babbage 1833 (3) - Electro-mechanical calculator, Torres 1920 (2) = branch 1 from Electro-mechanical calculator, to the left - Zuse I, 1936 (1) - Bell Laboratory Calculator, Stibitz 1937-9 (1) - Zuse II, 1939 (1) - Zuse III, 1941 (1) - Harvard M[AR]K I, Aiken 1937 - 1945 (1) = branch 2 from Electro-mechanical calculator, to the right - ELECTRONIC (1/2) - Atanasoff-Berry Reports, 1935 - 42 (1) - Magnetic Recording, Disks 1943 (1) - ENIAC, 1943 - 48 (1) - Collosus, 1943 (1) - ACE Report, Turing 1945 (1) - EDVAC Report, Von Neumann 1945 (1) - Computers (T).
Each entry in the tree is typed in black inside a white box with a red shadow border. The chained entries are connected by white lines with red shadow borders. Some of the chains end with a dotted white line proceeding towards the top edge of the poster. The space between each entry is representative of how many years passed in between the developments contained therein.
Signedprinted in black letters in the bottom right-hand corner of the poster: © Copyright 1980 Digital Equipment Corporation
Inscribedprinted in black letters in the bottom right-hand area of the poster: Computer Genealogy
printed in red letters in the bottom right-hand area of the poster: Computer / Genealogy / Museum
printed in red letters in the bottom right-hand area of the poster: Computer / Genealogy / Museum
FunctionA poster designed to visually represent the genealogy of the re-programmable, electric, digital computer whose advent is placed just after 1945 along with the person or persons behind each development, and the year(s). Each chain in the poster represents a series of developments that contributed in some way to the development of the computer. The poster is organized temporally, beginning in the 1600s at the bottom and ending just after 1945 at the top.
The poster may have been used for pedagogical purposes, or simply for displaying information about computer history in an easily accessible manner.
The poster may have been used for pedagogical purposes, or simply for displaying information about computer history in an easily accessible manner.