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W. Stanley Jevons, Allan Marquand, and the Origins of Digital Computing
October-December 1999 (vol. 21 no. 4)
pp. 21-27
While there are many works about the development of computers, there is surprisingly little that focuses on early initiatives in digital computing. This article describes and elaborates on some of the early developments in digital computing. The logical machine of W. Stanley Jevons, for instance, interested others. The most promising offshoot was the work of Allan Marquand, who conceived of an electromechanical digital machine as early as 1885. Marquand moved from mechanical to electromechanical devices. A similar progression occurred in subsequent, but unrelated work by Konrad Zuse, who also began by constructing a mechanical digital machine.
1. 21 M.R. Williams, A History of Computing Technology.Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1985, p. 256.2. S. Peart, The Economics of W.S. Jevons.London: Routledge, 1996; M. Schabas, A World Ruled by Number: William Stanley Jevons and the Rise of Mathematical Economics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1990; J.C. Wood, William Stanley Jevons: Critical Assessments, vol. 1. London: Routledge, 1988; A.M. Treisman, "Human Attention," B.M. Foss, ed., New Horizons in Psychology. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1966.3. R. Könekamp, "William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882): Some Biographical Notes," Manchester School of Economics and Social Studies, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 251-273, 1962.4. H.W. Jevons, "William Stanley Jevons: His Life," Econometrica, vol. 2, pp. 225-231, 1934.5. Quintilian [Marcus Fabius Quintilianus], Institutio Oratoria, part 1, trans. H.E. Butler.London: William Heinemann, 1921.6. J.S. Bruner, Towards a Theory of Instruction.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1966.7. W.S. Jevons, "On the Performance of Logical Inference," Philosophical Trans. Royal Soc.London, p. 497, 1870.8. W.S. Jevons, The Elements of Logic: A Text-Book for Schools and Colleges.New York: Sheldon and Company, 1883.9. A. Smee, The Process of Thought Adapted to Words and Language, Together With a Description of the Relational and Differential Machines.London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1851.10. W.S. Jevons, The Principles of Science: A Treatise of Logic and Scientific Method.New York: Dover Publications, 1877, reprinted 1958, p. 104.11. M. Gardner, Logic Machines and Diagrams.Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1983.12. W. Mays and D.P. Henry, "Exhibition of the Work of W. Stanley Jevons," Nature, vol. 170, pp. 696-697, 1952.13. C. Hartshorne and P. Weiss, eds., Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, Volume III, Exact Logic.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1933.14. W. Mays and D.P. Henry, "Jevons and Logic," Mind, vol. 62, pp. 484-505, 1953.15. C.S. Peirce, "Logical Machines," Amer. J. Psychology, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 165-170, 1877.16. A. Marquand, "A Machine for Producing Syllogistic Variations," C.S. Peirce, ed., Studies in Logic.Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1983.17. C.J. Kloesel, ed., Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition.Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1993.18. A. Marquand, "A New Logical Machine," Proc. Amer. Academy of Arts and Sciences, pp. 303-307, 1885.19. G.W. Patterson, "The First Electric Computer, a Magnetological Analysis," J. Franklin Institute, vol. 270, pp. 130-137, 1960.20. D.L. Bitzer and D. Skaperdas, "The Design of an Economically Viable Large-Scale Computer-Based Educational System," R.E. Levin, ed., Computers in Instruction: Their Future for Higher Education.Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Corp., 1971.21. K. Zuse, The Computer—My Life.Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1993.22. P.E. Ceruzzi, "The Early Computers of Konrad Zuse, 1935-1945," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 3, pp. 241-262, 1981.
Citation:
George H. Buck, Stephen M. Hunka, "W. Stanley Jevons, Allan Marquand, and the Origins of Digital Computing," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 21-27, Oct.-Dec. 1999, doi:10.1109/85.801529
