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THE COMPUTER: A PHOTO ESSAY
UBIQUITOUS THOUGH it is, the digital computer is a relatively recent thing. Plenty of us remember our first significant encounter with its wonders—mine, an IBM 1620 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the early 1960s.
A neat source: Computers An Illustrated History, by Christian Wurster, Taschen, 2002. Both Amazon.com and ABEBooks.com list it.
A wonderful collection of images resides in Computers An Illustrated History, by Christian Wurster. This is one of Taschen’s high-quality, if iconoclastic, art books that always seem double the weight because of the paper stock. By way of brief review, here and there the text is indifferently edited with errors of fact having been reported.
Nevertheless, a real strength of the book is what follows here: a photo essay selected from its more than 300 images of computers. See if any coincides with your first digital encounter.
The Univac I was the first computer produced in sufficient numbers to be used in non-government activities. Image, Remington Rand, 1957.
The IBM 705 was designed for commercial applications. Note its tape storage units and line printer. Image, IBM, 1957.
The prototype mouse, 1963. Image, Douglas Engelbart, 1968.
Communication with large mainframe systems was accomplished through Teletype machines. I used such a system at a CBS School of Management seminar in 1983. Image, Teletype, 1970.
The HP 35 put (some) computing power in your pocket. Image, Hewlett Packard, 1972.
Pong introduced many of us to the purely entertainment side of computing. Image, Atari, 1973.
The Alto, from Palo Alto Research Center, was the first with a mouse-driven graphics interface. Image, Xerox PARC, 1974.
Two guys named Jobs, at left above, and Wozniak, at right, built the Apple I, below, of surplus electronics and wood. Image, Apple, 1976.
The Apple Macintosh, above, might well be remembered for an iconic Superbowl ad. Image, Apple, 1984.
The convergence of computer and cell phone technologies came more than a decade ago. Image, NTT Docomo Japan, 2001.
To close on a predictive note, included in the cover art of Computers, An Illustrated History is a citation from Popular Mechanics magazine, 1949: “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2012
Simanaitis Says 
Very interesting article. Everyone have forgotten how it was… Thank you so much for bringing that all back.
Thank you. It’s curious to me that retro stuff is interesting, cars, furniture, etc, but not computers. I am tempted to see if my old Olivetti/Tandy still works.