The automatic sequence controlled calculator — I
Howard Hathaway Aiken, Grace Murray Hopper · Electrical Engineering · 1946
With the increasing need for accurate computation occasioned by the use of numerical analysis in many scientific developments, as well as by the increased accuracy of physical measurement, more and more time and effort must be devoted to computational labor which is, moreover, always susceptible to human fallibility. As a step toward remedying the situation, the automatic sequence controlled calculator will carry out any selected sequence of the five fundamental operations of arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and reference to tables of previously computed results) under completely automatic control. Part I of a 3-part article describes the mechanism and explains its function in addition and subtraction.