The computer in the United States: from laboratory to market, 1930 to 1960
Choice Reviews Online · 1994
From the Publisher: This book examines how a technological innovation - in this case the computer - progresses from its origin as an idea in someone's mind to its eventual manifestation as a usable and marketable consumer product. It covers the early history of computer technology, the initial response to this technology of the vendors who eventually sold it, and the computer's fate in the American marketplace during the first decade of its existence. The book concludes with a comparison of the evolution of the computer with such earlier information technologies as the adding machine, the typewriter, and the tabulator. Throughout, the discussion is placed in the context of current historical debates and theories concerning the evolution of technology.