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The First Personal Computer (?)--"Simon", 1950

JF Ptak Science Books

The first exposure of the American public in general to a "personal computer" may have been in this issue of the Scientific American for November 1950--an article called "Simple Simon" by Edmund Berkeley.  ( Berkeley also wrote a book called Giant Brains, which seems to me to be the first mass-consumption book--written in terns for the general public--on how the computer works, and the design of "how a machine will think".  Berkeley looks at the MIT Differential Analyzer #2, the Moore School ENIAC, Bell Labs' General-Purpose Relay Calculator, and the IBM Automatic Sequence-Controlled Calculator.) 

The Simon was a five-hole paper tape (which was its data entry and memory) 2-bit storage relay-based computer that could use numbers from 0 to 3.  It was extremely limited, but it worked, and it was real.  And affordable.  And a baseline for things to come.

Berkeley introduced the idea for Simon in Giant Brains:

"We shall now consider how we can design a very simple machine that will think.. Let us call it Simon, because of its predecessor, Simple Simon... Simon is so simple and so small in fact that it could be built to fill up less space than a grocery-store box; about four cubic feet....It may seem that a simple model of a mechanical brain like Simon is of no great practical use. On the contrary, Simon has the same use in instruction as a set of simple chemical experiments has: to stimulate thinking and understanding, and to produce training and skill. A training course on mechanical brains could very well include the construction of a simple model mechanical brain, as an exercise..."--Edmund Berkeley, in Giant Brains, 1949, p. 22 

In the Scientific American paper Berkeley introduced the machine and how it functioned; he also described three  three outcomes for Simon:

First: "Simon itself can grow.  It possess all the essentials of a mechanical brain..."

Second: "It is likely to stimulate the building of other small mechanical brains.  Perhaps the simplicity and relatively low cost of such machines may make them attractive to amateurs as the radio set and the small telescope."  [The "low cost" in 1951 was $600--equal to about $3000 today.]

Third:  "It may stimulate thought and discussion on the philosophical and social implications of machines that handle information..."

Berkeley finishes the three-page article with the following paragraph, looking into the not-too-distant future:

"Some day we may even have small computers in our homes, drawing their energy from electric-power lines like refrigerators or radios ... They may recall facts for us that we would have trouble remembering. They may calculate accounts and income taxes. Schoolboys with homework may seek their help. They may even run through and list combinations of possibilities that we need to consider in making important decisions. We may find the future full of mechanical brains working about us."

BERKELEY, E.C. (1950). Simple Simon in Scientific American, No. 183, November 1950, pp. 40-43.  Very nice copy, original paper wrappers.  $225

Polling for Opinions on the Japanese, 1944

JF Ptak Science Books        

3 documents, as follws, all 1943/4.  $225.00

I uncovered a few interesting documents this morning from The American Council, Institute of Pacific Relations (in 1944 at the address 744 Jackson Place, N.W., D.C.) relating to collecting opinions on Japan and the Japanese, right at the height of the war.   And this is what the American Council was doing--prep work to assess the extent of public opinion on the treatment of Japan post-war, which entailed reviewing existing polling data (from Gallup) was well as conducting their own original research. [These documents are available from our blog bookstore, here.]

The "first" issue (so far as I can determine)  was perhaps the most aggressive:

Is Japan incurably warlike?

The question was asked of an undefined group over three periods of time  (February 1942 to June 1943) for both Japan and Germany, the statements the respondents having to choose from being: "always want war", "too easily led" and "do not like war" at three different times, from February 1942 to June 1943.  From Feb '42 to June '43, people's opinions that the Japanese "always want war" went up from 48% to 62%, while for the same time the same question regarding the Germans stayed about the same, 22%.  The Gallup Poll for June 1943 reported that for 75% of the respondents only 8% of the folks thought that "we can get along" with the Japanese, while 67% favored our chances with the Germans. 

Get along with them or not, or feeling that they are war-like or not, had little to do with the opinions of people (reported by the National Opinion research Center, August 1942) who thought that reparations should be paid, and paid hard, by the Axis powers across the board, "as much as it is possible to get out of the Axis countries, even if it breaks them".

The following two papers came a little later, closer to the realization that victory was coming, that the war would be over, that victory would be taken--probably at the end of 1944 or the beginning of 1945, when position statements were more circumspect than the earlier public opinions.  "Expert Opinion on Post-War Treatment of Japan"  was more understanding when speaking to the post-war existence of Japan, stating in a number of different ways that "there should be no attempt to keep Japan permanently repressed" and "the Japanese people must work out their own political salvation".  Also that there would be no "continuing burden of reparations payments...as done with Germany after the last war". 

The overall feeling of this and the following document ("The Treatment of Japan") can be found in the section "Teaching Japan a Lesson":  "United Nations effort should be directed toward demonstrating to the people of Japan the advantages of making peace rather than the penalties of losing a war".  The issue regarding the Emperor and whether or not he should or could stay--an issue that would stay with high command right through the second week of August 1945.