Howard Aiken, the designer of the Harvard Mark I computer, was a revolutionary pioneer who demonstrated advanced automatic computation and paved the way for modern computer science. Overcoming a difficult childhood, Aiken earned advanced physics degrees at Harvard while formulating concepts for large-scale computer devices. His famous Harvard Mark I, developed with IBM, was one of the first computers capable of complex calculations without human intervention.
Childhood and Early Life
Aiken was born in 1900 in New Jersey. His father was an abusive alcoholic who eventually left the family. From age 12, Aiken worked full-time manual labor jobs like installing telephones while attending school to support his mother and grandmother. Despite the hardship and having to forgo some high school, his intellectual promise earned him encouragement from teachers. Aiken graduated high school in 1919.
Aiken attended the University of Wisconsin and graduated in 1923 with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He gained professional experience at various electric and engineering companies through the late 1920s and early 1930s:
- 1923-1927: Chief engineer at Madison Gas and Electric Company
- 1927-1931: General engineer at Westinghouse Electrical manufacturing Company
- 1931-1932: District manager of Line Material Company in Detroit
Eventually tiring of managerial engineering, Aiken returned to university to study physics full time. This lead him to Harvard for a masters and doctorate, completed in 1937 and 1939 respectively.
Conceiving the Groundbreaking Harvard Mark I
While studying physics at Harvard in the 1930s, Aiken envisioned a large automatic calculating device to produce mathematical tables and solve problems by executing long computations automatically. As Aiken stated:
The onset of the Depression, coupled with pressing personal needs for calculating more rapidly some of my results, led me to conceive of an automatic calculator. – Howard Aiken
Lacking funding to construct the machine alone, Aiken connected with IBM president Thomas J. Watson Sr in 1937. IBM agreed to provide engineering expertise, components and technicians while Harvard offered workspace and personnel.
Several years of intense effort followed, with testing and modifications done throughout WWII. The ambitious project finally came to fruition in 1944 as the Harvard Mark I, considered one of the first automatic digital computers. It utilized hundreds of miles of wires and electromechnical relays, demonstrating sophisticated capabilities:
Harvard Mark I Features
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944 |
| Developers | Howard Aiken (concept), IBM engineers |
| Length | 51 feet |
| Height | 8 feet |
| Components | 750,000 |
| Weight | 10,000 pounds |
| Speed | 3 calculations/second |
| Memory | 72 registers holding 23 decimal numbers each |
| Input | Paper tape |
| Output | Electric typewriters |
The massive device could automatically handle arithmetic problems, square roots, logarithms, and trigonometric tables. Most groundbreakingly, it executed computations without needing human intervention between execution steps. The efficient and accurate capabilities accelerated mathematics and physics advances.
While not originally programmable, it was later upgraded to read instructions from punched tape allowing some programmability – an advancement laying foundations for modern computer programming. Throughout its 16 years of operation, the Mark I facilitated vital military and academic calculations for ballistics, aerodynamics and other fields.
Later Innovations and Predictions
Aiken continued teaching computer science courses for over 2 decades at Harvard, spearheading subsequent Mark computer models using newer technologies. He helped establish Harvard‘s Computation Laboratory which became an important computer research institute.
In 1947, Aiken rather boldly predicted that "only six electronic digital computers would be required to satisfy the computing needs of the entire United States." In reality, the rapid proliferation of computers across business, government, science and schools exponentially exceeded expectations. By 1960 over 10,000 computers were already deployed and millions more followed (Clarke, 2004) – a testament to Aiken‘s inability to envision the coming microelectronics revolution.
Conclusion: Aiken‘s Legacy as Computer Pioneer
Howard Aiken passed away suddenly during a business trip in 1973. His contributions fundamentally advanced modern computation capabilities. The Harvard Mark I was historic for conclusively demonstrating complex automatic digital calculation was feasible using electromechanical relays. While not the first nor most high performing computer, it set important precedents that paved the way for imminent computer progress.
Computer historian Paul Ceruzzi (1998) stated Aiken‘s visionary accomplishment well:
That such a machine could be built and made to work reliably was an enormous feat. The Mark I showed that computations hitherto requiring human computers could be done by machine, setting important precedents for the subsequent development of computer technology.
Against tough odds early in life, Howard Aiken persevered through brilliance and determination to become one of the founding pioneers of computer science. His enduring legacy continues influencing computation today.
References:
Ceruzzi, Paul. "Aiken, Howard." Computer: Bit Slices from a Life, 1998.
Clarke, Arthur C. “Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination” in Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible, 2004.
Image source: Smithsonian Institute
