Description

Image of an exhibit, a panel on Vannevar Bush's work on the differential analyzer machine in the center. The panel consists of five photographs and five captions. On the top left is an image of Bush standing behind the differential analyzer; on the top right, an image of equasions produced by the analyzer; on the bottom right, an image of an operator at a plotting table; and at the bottom left a view of the entire analyzer. Original captions, clockwise form top: "Vannevar Bush with his first differential analyzer. 'I was trying to solve some of the problems of electric circuitry, such as the ones comnnected with failures and blackouts in power networks,' he reports, 'and I was thououghly stuck because I could not solve the tough equations the investigation led to.'" "Solutions of equations drawn by a differential analyzer built in 1938 by Svein Rosseland in Oslo. It was one of the many machines based on Bush's basic design." "After the differential equation is set up in the machine, operators stationed at plotting tables enter data by keeping a moving point on a curve as the solution proceeds." "Analog Computing/ Before Bush's machine, analog computers had been made to solve only particular kinds of problems. The 'network analyzers' built by the power companies in the 1920's were computing simulators-in effect, scale models of a power network. But Bush's differential analyser was the first general equation solver. It was very successful. And to many people it began to appear that such big, general-purpose analog computers were the way of the future for scientific calculation. In 1935, Bush began to build an even more general machine using electrical components." "The Bush differential analyzer originally gave its solutions in the form of curves; later it was adapted to have a five-register numerical output (seen in foreground)." Original caption (on verso): "from IBM exhibit A Computer Perspective". Original credit line: Charles Eames 901 Washington Boulevard Venice California, COX 1712 L.