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 YEAR: November 1950
 ITEM: Periodical
 PUBLISHER: Scientific American
 Volume: 183
  Number: 5
 COUNTRY: U.S.A.
 IN OUR COLLECTION: Yes
RARITY: Not rare   Click here for further information on our rarity scale Information on the rarity of this item is unknown.

Scientific American 1950 November

A view of the vintage Scientific American 1950 November an important part of computer history
This issue of Scientific American included one of the seminal pieces in early computing. The intelligent and clearly written "Simple Simon" article featured in this November 1950 issue was the first of a series of five articles on how one could build a machine that would mimic the brain. These articles followed closely after the publication of his book in 1949 entitled "Giant Brains, Or Machines That Think".

As you may have guessed, the computer was named after the nursery rhyme character, Simple Simon, because it wasn't as sophisticated as its larger brethern. ENIAC, which was one of the monsters of this era, could preform 5,000 addition operations a second; Simon could only preform 1 1/2 operations per second.

In 1955, about four years after this series of articles, Edmund designed and sold the "Geniac" computer which was more a learning toy than a computer. He continued to be an important figure in the development of computing.





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Cover of Novermber 1950 issue of Scientific American. Table of Contents for this issue; note page 40. Opening page of the article. A picture of