Proud to be a Woman Fighting Female Genital Mutilation free essay sample

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a technique that includes halfway or complete evacuation of the outside female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-clinical reasons. Generally, this training is held in Africa for strict convictions. Be that as it may, 18 % of expert human services suppliers play out this training, and this pattern continues expanding. FGM is universally observed as an infringement to human rights. However, 100 million young lady every year experience Female Genital Mutilation in Africa. This training has no medical advantages to ladies. It really, harms solid female organs, and meddles with common courses in girls’ and women’s bodies. Some moment complexities incorporate extreme torment, drain ( overwhelming bleeding),shock, lockjaw or sepsis (bacterial disease), open wounds in the genital, and injury to solid tissues. Most young ladies pass on only a couple of days after the method happens. The individuals who endure, experience the ill effects of long haul confusions, for example, intermittent bladder and urinary tract infections,cysts, infertility,an expanded danger of labor complexities and infant passings. We will compose a custom paper test on Glad to be a Woman: Fighting Female Genital Mutilation or on the other hand any comparative theme explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page Others need to experience dangerous medical procedures to dispose of these complexities. While others can't bear the cost of it. FGM is for the most part practice in Muslim nations in the west, Christian Copts in Egypt and Sudan, Beta Israel in Ethiopia and different animist gatherings. FGM is regularly spurred convictions about what is viewed as legitimate sexual conduct, connecting techniques to pre-marriage virginity and conjugal faithfulness. It is accepted that this training, brings down a woman’s moxie, and causes her to oppose unlawful sexual practices. In any case, research expert Ellen Gruenbaum expressed that FGM â€Å"is not ordered by strict scriptures†. However, a large number of strict young ladies endure structure this torment. Female Genital Mutilation is universally observed as an infringement to human privileges of young ladies and ladies. This training renacts significant imbalance between the two genders. It finds profound established separation towards ladies and little youngsters. Since it is generally completed on minors, it is additionally observed as an infringement to youngsters rights. Minors don't know about what they are gotten through. This training additionally abuses a human’s rights to security, wellbeing and physical uprightness. Ladies in Africa ought to be liberated from torment and mercilessness used to dehumanize or corrupt their bodies . Also the privilege of life, for the system brings about death. In December 2012, the UN General Assembly acknowledged a goals about the end of FGM. Notwithstanding, 60,000 young ladies are ravaged regularly in Africa. Indeed, even wellbeing experts practice this unfortunate methodology on ladies. It is an undesirable technique that mortifies ladies. Despite the fact that many view it as a strict custom, it isn't requested by any strict contents. In what capacity will our general public keep on creating, in the event that we permit our ladies to be tormented to death, and separated, for non-legitimate reasons?

What America Means To Me Essays - Music Industry, Childrens Art

What America Means To Me What America Means To Me To me, America resembles a crate of colored pencils. In the event that we don't utilize them all, the image isn't finished. On the off chance that one of those colored pencils gets worn out - simply hone it. There have been issues that we confronted with where our nation has worn. In any case, we have consistently bobbed back and honed our colored pencil, however honed our picture also. We vanquished such issues as the Great Depression, isolation, the Revolutionary War, and bondage. These are instances of issues that a few nations despite everything can't overcome. There are additionally issues happening right now that are wearing us out as a nation Such things as our national obligation, government disability, and legislators and their outrages. We are all things considered, searching for approaches to tackle these issues. There are three basic hues that ought to be remembered for the image. They are red, white, and blue. To me, they speak to three things we underestimate each day. They are opportunity, freedom, and the quest for bliss. They are three fundamental things in American life that pull in individuals to our nation, that make our image stand apart among the rest. That is the reason America resembles a container of colored pencils. America is about assorted variety and shading. Without it, we would resemble each other country. Experimental writing

Essay Topics

Essay TopicsThere are many essay topics can range from legal, scientific, and mathematical to political, religious, or social and ethical. In fact, there are over 100 unique argumentative essay topics which will suit different degree programs and can easily be translated to use at the school level.However, the problem with the huge variety of essay topics is that some might be far more suitable than others. There are several things to consider when choosing essay topics for your college essays. One of the most important factors is that essay topics should answer the question - what is going on?For example, instead of asking - 'what is the difference between economics and literature,' a more appropriate question might be - 'how does a child grow up in an economic, social, and cultural environment?' It would also be a better question for a philosophical essay because it questions the very existence of the philosophical idea. The final point to consider is the purpose of the essay topic .There are many essay topics that are intended to present a particular argument. These arguments should then be examined closely for their logic, and also their logical coherence. In addition, any essay topics must be consistent with the type of college student they are being used for.There are a number of options for writing software that can help you write essay topics. Many courses and even college professors will use essay writing software as a way to help students prepare for their exams. Some of the more advanced essay writing software may even allow you to create topic titles and even brief summaries for your essay.Essay topics can also be created by hand using topic guidelines and outlines. This process is called brainstorming. Just keep in mind that a research paper or thesis is more complex than a simple list of facts and figuresso you will have to be thorough in your research and create the best argument possible.If you take time to organize your thoughts, write down your questions, and make notes on the topics of the essays, you will find that it will be easier to find answers to the questions you have posed in your essays. When you are searching for essay topics, remember that the important thing is to come up with some topic ideas, to sit down and think about the topic, and to write about it.So, when you are searching for essay topics, keep in mind the basics that apply to all essay topics and go from there. In short, if you are unsure about the topic, ask the professor, the guidance counselor, or another professor, or talk to someone who knows about the topic.

English for Specific Purposes - 2243 Words

2 The development of ESP The best laid schemes o mice and men Gang aft a-gley. (Robert Burns) From its early beginnings in the 1960s ESP has undergone three main phases of development. It is now in a fourth phase with a fifth phase starting to emerge. We shall describe each of the five phases in greater detail in later chapters, but it will provide a useful perspective to give a brief summary here. It should be pointed out first of all that ESP is not a monolithic universal phenomenon. ESP has developed at different speeds in different countries, and examples of all the approaches we shall describe can be found operating somewhere in the world at the present time. Our summary must, therefore, be very general in its focus. It will be†¦show more content†¦The basic hypothesis of this stage is succinctly expressed by Allen and Widdowson (1974): We take the view that the difficulties which the students encounter arise not so much from a defective knowledge of the system of English, but from an unfamiliarity with English use, and that consequently their needs cannot be met by a course which simply provides further practice in the composition of sentences, but only by one which develops a knowledge of how sentences are used in the performance of different communicative acts. Register analysis had focussed on sentence grammar, but now attention shifted to understanding how sentences were combined in discourse to produce meaning. The concern of research, therefore, was to identity-the organisational~patterns in texts and to specify the linguistic means by which these patterns are signaled. These patterns would then form the syllabus of the ESP course. The Rhetotical Process Chart below (from EST: A Discourse Approach by L.ouis Trimble (1985)) is representative of this approach: Level Description ol level A The objectives fl the total discourse EXAMPLES 1. Detailing an experiment 2. Making a recommendation 3. Presenting new hypotheses or Theory 4. Presenting other types of EST information B The genera! rhetorical functions that develop the objectives of Level AShow MoreRelatedEnglish For Specific Purposes ( Esp )2074 Words   |  9 Pages English for specific purpose (ESP) has a long history in the field of English teaching. ESP is a branch of English language Teaching (ELT) and refereed as ‘applied ELT’ because the aims and contents of any ESP course is based on specific needs of the learners and context and focuses more on specific and immediate needs of the learners . Based on Tome Hutchison and Alan Walters, 1990, English for specific purposes (ESP) is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content andRead MoreNeeds Analysis: The Major Difference of English for Specific Purposes from General English Course968 Words   |  4 PagesThe major difference of ESP from GE (General English) is that it focuses solely on the particular needs of the students. In GE specific learning materials design is not always necessary as it is mostly predetermined by the school, government or other institution. In ESP it is the case that teachers themselves have to develop the whole course or at m ost– the materials (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987). Nevertheless, ‘what distinguishes ESP from GE is not the existence of a need as such but rather an awarenessRead MoreThe Language Of International Business Essay1741 Words   |  7 Pageshistory. The most current lingua franca of international business is English. It is estimated, for example, that more than 80% of the global interactions occur between speakers whose native tongue this language. (Weil Weil, 2011). Nowadays, the global society is facing problems they require an answer which involves a good interaction and communication. In order to complete this process, dwellers needs to do it efficiently. English in the last century has become in one of the most international languagesRead MoreHatchinson and Waters (1987) asserted that â€Å"ESP should properly be seen not as any particular1300 Words   |  6 PagesHatchinson and Waters (1987) asserted that â€Å"ESP should properly be seen not as any particular language product but as an approach to language teaching which is directed by specific and apparent reasons for learning† (p. 19). In addition, â€Å"it is an approach to language learning which is based on learner need. The foundation of all ESP is a simple question: Why does this leaner need to learn a foreign language?† (Hatchinson Waters, 1987, p. 19). Strevens (as cited in Dudley Evans St. John, 1998)Read MoreGraduation Speech : A Student1334 Words   |  6 PagesName Date Class Introduction Attention Getter: After being a student in Stretch English, the improvements that I have made have impressed me. I can now compose an advanced level essay. Purpose (state specific purpose, relate the topic to an audience and establish credibility): Step by step I have accomplished or improved in a strategy that is better in my English. In the beginning of college, I was afraid of how I would perform in my classes. I know I would be writing many essays in collegeRead MoreLanguage Between Language And Language1680 Words   |  7 Pagesand therefore every child develops language differently depending on what they are exposed to in their specific context (Diaz-Rico Weed, 2010). The way in which individuals use and understand language is affected by the Discourses in which they take part. Discourses in this sense refer to ways of communicating within specific groups, for example within the family, school, community and specific groups and clubs (Green, 2006). Each individual takes part in their own range of Discourses, and interactsRead MoreLearning English As A Fine Language1647 Words   |  7 PagesLearning English as a fine Language â €“EFL About the course Concentrating on communication abilities with emphasis on speaking and listening, to improve your general skill to access higher level courses; to improve your English for everyday use; to improve your English for travel; to improve your English for work purposes or to do casual work in an English speaking country. This program is specially designed for the people looking to improve their general English communication skills. Course StructureRead MoreReflection Paper In English1063 Words   |  5 PagesEnglish is a terrible subject. We learn it the day we start school in kindergarten and all the way till the end of high school and possibly college. English composition is a completely unavoidable subject and not everyone likes learning about things such as grammar, writing, and reading comprehension. It is one of those subjects that many students just want to get it over with as quickly as possible. On the other hand, students need to realize the English composition classes offer a lot more benefitsRead MoreThe Purposes of Punishment1402 Words   |  6 PagesThe purposes of punishment. What are the purposes of punishment? Which do you consider to be the most important and why? Student: *********** Student number: ******* Tutor name: ************* Hand-in date: 21st of November 2011 To begin with, it is necessary to say that punishment is an integral part of modern countries’ legal systems, because countries have a duty to protect society from wrongdoers and authorities could reach success in it by punishing offenders. Oxford EnglishRead Morenm,n. On the other hand the main dissimilarity of those two essays is authors view towards the society. Their ideas are very helpful for the development of our society.1747 Words   |  7 PagesDoes it reflect the purpose of the essay? (2) What are his subsidiary claims? That is, what are the claims that he uses to support his main claim? Are they clear and valid? Are they related to the main claim? (3) Does the author address opposing views fairly and counter them successfully? B. Evidence (1) What kind of evidence does the author use? (e.g., facts, statistics, examples, personal experience, expert testimony, analogy) (2) Is the evidence sufficient, specific, relevant, and convincing

The Invention Of The Electric Light Bulb - 1418 Words

Can you ever imagine a world without light bulb? Before light bulb was created, the night can only be lit by the moon and stars. People working and traveling after sunset could only use candles or oil lamps, which caused many inconveniences. Without any bright light, moving inside your own house even seemed dangerous. However, things changed after the ambitious inventors brought their bright idea, which was to light the world, to life. The invention and the commercialization of light bulb not only changed the way people live, but also became a technological breakthrough for future energy use in our daily lives. The electric light bulb has been called the most important invention ever since the discovery of fire. Before eighteenth centuries, there are limited sources of light. The most common artificial light sources for people to use were only candles, oil lamps, and fire. These light sources not only emitted very weak lights, but also produced smokes and awful orders, which made people impossible to work productively after sundown. Many houses at that time period were made of timbers, therefore, having fire or open flame inside the house was hazardous. Once a house caught on fire, the entire neighborhood would be in danger, since there was no running water inside the buildings. Darkness was the epitome of evil. When the sun went down and darkness spread through, the night became the realm of crime. The darkness worked as the perfect cover for thief, murderer, and rapist.Show MoreRelatedLight Bulbs : The Invention That Changed The World895 Words   |  4 PagesLight bulbs: The Invention th at Changed the World In our contemporary American society, we tend to take for granted the incredible inventions that surround us daily. From the inventions of cell phones to hybrid cars, new innovations shape our daily lives. One important invention transformed the American lifestyle and increased productivity: Light bulbs. In 1879, Thomas Alva Edison developed an incandescent light bulb that used platinum filaments, which was later replaced in 1880 with a carbonizedRead MoreThe Invention of the Light Bulb908 Words   |  4 PagesThe light bulb is the most important invention in history. This invention helps in so many ways, most importantly; it helps us see when we are not able to, mostly at night. The light bulb is an invention that is used all the time. The light bulb has impacted the world in various ways. The only light source that was available consisted of candles, oil lanterns, and gas lamps. It was a very long process to create the light bulb known today. What the inventors mostly did was they kept on addingRead MoreAnalysis Of Thomas Alva Edison s Life1475 Words   |  6 Pagesand he began to work on inventing devices that would help make life a little easier for him despite his deafness. One of these devices consisted of a printer that would convert electrical signals to letters. Edison realized that he had a love for inventions, so much so, that he decided to quit telegraphy in 1869, to pursue the life of a fulltime inventor1. After Thomas Edison left the field of telegraphy, he began to develop his career as an independent entrepreneur. By doing this, he managed to formRead MoreGreat Invention in Electrical Field –light bulb Light bulb is one of the most influential900 Words   |  4 PagesGreat Invention in Electrical Field –light bulb Light bulb is one of the most influential inventions in the word. It makes us work more productive at night and helps us enjoy more activities at night. It significantly change people lives all over the world. The born of light bulb also helped us by making more inventions that related to light, such as phones, televisions, and computes. By using light bulb, we actually reduced the probability of having fire accidents because if we don’t have lightRead MoreThe Invention Of The Light Globe1149 Words   |  5 PagesThe Light Globe, since its early invention, has quickly become one of the basic essentials of the modern technological world we know of today. The multiple sources that are credited for the creation of this fundamental force have made a major breakthrough in the way we as humans perceive our society and how it works. Nowadays, we must acknowledge the basic element that is light, the agent that stimulates sight and allows visibility, and not take the invention of the light globe for granted. In thisRead MoreThe Light Globe1152 Words   |  5 PagesThe Light Globe The Light Globe, since its early invention, has quickly become one of the basic essentials of the modern technological world we know of today. The multiple sources that are credited for the creation of this fundamental force have made a major breakthrough in the way we as humans perceive our society and how it works. Nowadays, we must acknowledge the basic element that is light, the agent that stimulates sight and allows visibility, and not take the invention of the light globe forRead MoreThomas Edison1061 Words   |  5 Pages What do you use to see at night? You probably said some form of light containing a light bulb of some kind. Well, before Thomas Edison came along people used gas lamps, and fire to see. Thomas Edison was person who revolutionized the world with his amazing invention of the incandescent light bulb, and he also had other revolutionary inventions. Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio (Edison’s Light bulb). His parents were Samuel and Nancy Edison, and he was the last ofRead More Thomas Edison Essay1443 Words   |  6 Pagesgreatest inventors in history. He was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847 and died in 1931. During his life he patented 1,093 inventions. Many of these inventions are in use today and changed the world forever. Some of his inventions include telegraphy, phonography, electric lighting and photography. His most famous inventions were the phonograph and the incandescent light bulb. Edison did some of his greatest work at Menlo Park. While experimenting on an underwater cable for the automatic telegraphRead MoreThomas Edison : The Greatest Inventor1516 Words   |  7 PagesEdison came about his very first unsuccessful invention which was a vote counter. Over the following course of years, following his first invention, Edison continued to invent or improve different inventions and with the Invention Solutions 2 money he received he set toward establishing the world’s earliest industrial-research lab for himself in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It was at this laboratory that he created one of his most original, and favourite inventions, the â€Å"Phonograph†, he was later on givenRead MoreThomas Edison: Inventor or Patent Thief?1631 Words   |  7 PagesThomas Edison: Inventor or Patent Thief? Most inventions are created from a multitude of ideas and a number of men, and one man simply cannot be credited for the inventions such as the phonograph, the kinetoscope, or the light bulb. Unfortunately, it is usually the corrupt businessman who exploits such creations and claims them as his own who receives the lion’s share. Thomas Alva Edison was an ideal example of such a person. Edison hardly played any role in the actual production of anything revolutionary

Shakespeare s Power Of Love And Silence - 1775 Words

Chandler Caffery Professor Hasselbach Introduction to Shakespeare 11/16/15 Shakespeare’s Power of Love and Silence Many of Shakespeare’s plays emphasize silence and the lack of language as an important dramatic feature. Particularly, this is in regards to characterization and the development of the composition’s theme. A character’s lack of words may signify the feeling of an emotion that is outside the limits of human understanding. It may also express that the character experiences a feeling of intimidation or communicates with defiance. Furthermore, the text of comedies and tragedies can display â€Å"silence† via the written work in regards to an activity or reaction that is not represented directly, such as the audience being aware of a character’s true identity while the characters within the play face this absence. There are various arguments that focus upon the ambiguity of whether a women’s silence in Shakespeare’s plays reflects passivity or resistance; the following analysis will argue both. The female characters of Shakespeare’s comedic and tragic plays, specifically Twelfth Night and Othello, fall silent at the periods in time when their speech would impair the writer’s effort at bringing attention to the social constructions of the seventeenth century. These moments, which manifest a strategic and vital development, exemplify the most common stereotype of females that is found within Shakespeare’s compositions: all members of this gender-based category should beShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Play Othello 1119 Words   |  5 Pagesplay â€Å"Othello†, by William Shakespeare and film adaption by Oliver parker explores the idea of how an individual’s sense of identity affects their actions and how this can be manipulated to create conflict. Shakespeare uses techniques such as soliloquies, dramatic irony, imagery, foreshadowing, and symbolism to show us how tragedy occurs from counteracting to patriarchal rules and stereotypes. Identity is a very key, important thematic issue in William Shakespeare s tragic play, â€Å"Othello†. IdentityRead MoreShakespeare Is The Greatest Masterpiece Ever Written? Essay1710 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"To read or not to read,† that is the question. With each passing year, the philosophical question must be asked, â€Å"Is Shakespeare relevant in the 21st century.† Shakespeare lived over 400 years ago and the English style in which he wrote has changed, making it difficult for new students to read and understand his writings without the use of translation. Shakespeare’s eloquent execution of rhyme and flowing images commands a locution that slips from the tongue like silken cream, and this giftedRead MoreWomen in Othello/ Elizabethan Times1608 Words   |  7 Pages(Stevenson, Robert).In play Othello identity is a topic that appears throughout the play. In Shakespeare Othello all the women, Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca have no separate identi ty all three are defined by who they are or not married to or the male characters they are connected with. â€Å"According to the Elizabethan times that the play was written in and the general hierarchies within Venetian society men hold all the power and women are considered to be of low intellect† (Berggren 55). Yet it is the womenRead MoreThe Taming Of The Shrew By William Shakespeare1382 Words   |  6 Pagesof women. As written of the representation of women in early literature, â€Å"the focus of interest is on the heroine’s choice of marriage partner, which will decide her ultimate social position and †¦ determine her happiness † Yet through the story Shakespeare subtly presents a relationship which is built upon trust, involving two intelligent characters who come to appreciate one another. Which can be supported by the view of later feminists, who agree that it is not necessarily individual men who oppressRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Romeo And J uliet1124 Words   |  5 PagesShakespeare on Love – A Response to Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet Omid Jafari English September 10, 2015 Shakespeare on Love – a Response to Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet To assess Baz Luhrmann s use of setting in his film, Romeo + Juliet, we can begin by contrasting the film with the play as it was originally performed in the 16th-century theatre. The key difference between the manner in which the film and the play deal with location is that the film is primarily an image-intensive mediumRead MoreShakespeare: Close Reading Brutus`S Speech1094 Words   |  5 PagesClose Reading: Shakespeare `Julius Caesar` III. 2 lines 11- 48 (Brutus) Julius Caesar is an historical tragedy, written by Shakespeare in 1599. Set in ancient Rome it depicts the rise and fall of an emperor and a time of vast political change. Presenting a tale of manipulation and a struggle for power Shakespeare uses the uses the art of the orator and rhetoric to describe key moments in Rome’s history. Structurally central to the play is Act III, scene 2, as it is at this pivotal moment, afterRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Sonnet 301181 Words   |  5 PagesIn â€Å"Sonnet 30’’, William Shakespeare introduces the audience to a sad state of mind, extreme abstract metaphors ,and the use of very strong mechanical features ,which opens an intake on ageing love for his audience to imagine the memories of love, all regrets ,and pain that soon evaporates. â€Å"Sonnet 30’’ closely repeats â€Å"Sonnet 29’s† theme that the memories of youth are priceless and it also uses the same structure in Shakespeareâ₠¬â„¢s other sonnets. The quatrains focuses on the emotions of pain withRead MoreThe Importance Of Tongue In A Midsummer Nights Dream1637 Words   |  7 Pagesmodern audience, it is evidently â€Å"in reference to speech† (OED, â€Å"tongue† II), yet to an audience contemporary to Shakespeare, it carries a much different implication. One of two primary uses of tongue as a noun is, indeed, â€Å"in reference to speech† (OED, â€Å"tongue† II) because the tongue is â€Å"considered as the principal organ of speech; hence, [â€Å"tongue† can refer to] the faculty of speech; the power of articulation or vocal expression or description; voice, speech; words, language† (OED, â€Å"tongue† II.4.a).Read MoreWilliam Shakespeare s King Lear877 Words   |  4 PagesShakespeare, born around 1564, was instrumental in the standardization of the English language. His writings were so popular and influential during the Elizabethan era that approxim ately 1,700 new words were adopted from his plays. Shakespeare’s reference to the gods is prominent in most of his plays. In Shakespeare’s play King Lear, many characters are dynamic and change throughout the play, however, Cordelia remains a static character. Thus, Cordelia is a tragic hero. Aristotle’s writings suggestRead MoreThe And Human Nature s Love For Categorization1011 Words   |  5 Pagesreviewing it may be difficult to do in an overall sense. Seeing as there are endless aspects to a good work of literature, trying to review one on this general basis may be unfair to the work itself. Due to the complexity of literature, and human nature’s love for categorization, we started looking at pieces of literature through â€Å"critical lenses†. The lenses help us narrow down the aspects of our criticism, effectively categorizing them. For example, there are four main critical lenses: Marxist, Feminist

Candela Corporation Case free essay sample

In 2002, Candela Corporation statement of cash flows shows a net loss of income at $2,154,000. The reason for the loss is from accrual methods as non-cash expenses are added back. This method shows the company the true cash flows of the business. Some of the items that were added back in that had a significant affect is from loss of the discontinued operations and the interest firm the stock warrants. The categories that had significant subtractions were the foreign currency exchange rate difference and the respect of the deferred taxes. The results are the working capital that had resulted in a gross outflow of cash flow, which caused the cash outflow to show from the operating activities. There is a purchase of fixed assets in the investment activities, which caused an outflow of cash. In the financing activities, it looks as if the total outflows were trying to stay in control with acquiring a modest debt and share issue. We will write a custom essay sample on Candela Corporation Case or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page However, because of the previous commitments that the business had, they were required to buy back stock and to continue to pay on the existing debt. However, when this happened it caused another outflow of cash, and the results are a negative balance with the operating, investing, and financing activities. With the company they had a previous cash balance and had the ability to survive with a severe damaging effect to the cash balance. The net profit in 2003 was 6,814,000 as shown on the statement. Adjustments were made in the non-cash items. A very important adjustment was in the loss from notional interest on stock warrants, discontinued operations, notional interest on stock warrants, and the foreign exchange rate difference accrued. This tax benefit of stock option and the respect of deferred taxes were two important subtractions. The analysis of the working capital is there was cash flow from the notes, deferred income, the sale of inventories, sale of other assets, and more control on payroll cost and tax refund. These cash outflows came from warranty cost, receivables, payment of payables, and restricted cash. This created a positive cash flow from the operating activities. The investing activities showed that there was one purchase in fixed assets category, which caused an outflow in the terms of investing. The financing activities show an increase for the shares sold, following a good amount of a payment in the long-term debt and the lines of credit. Therefore, with in inflow of the share issue becoming larger, this produced n inflow of cash. Not including the investing activities, the other two activities created a positive cash flow, therefore increasing the company’s cash reserves. A net profit was shown on the statement in 2004 of $8,119,000. This adjusted non-cash items accurately were important add-ons were a new provision for loss on discontinued operations, the loss from discontinued operations, the foreign exchange rate difference, and deferred taxes. The subtraction that was considerable was in the respect of benefit on stock options. This is an indication that the business is showing advancement. The analysis of the working capital is for this year cash flows were from the notes, deferred income, warranty costs, a control on payroll cost, and taking some services on credit. The cash outflows were from the receivables (higher credit sales), restricted cash, purchase of inventory, and other current assets. Meanwhile the non-cash adjustment created a positive figure along with positive cash inflows from the working capital adjustments, created a positive cash flow from operations activities. The purchase of fixed asset of $685,000, lower from the former year, shows that the business purchased most of its fixed assets last year and this year the business needed less. Their financing activities only showed activity for the shares issued and it showed a positive inflow of cash. Besides the investing activities, the other two activities were showing positive, giving the company a positive net flow of cash and an increase in the business’s cash reserves. The information that was not found on the income statement or the balance sheet is as listed: 1. The cash that was received from sales. 2. Any payments that were made to suppliers and/or employees. 3. The cash receipts or payments on behalf of royalty fees, etc. 4. Any interest and taxes have been paid. 5. The cash receipts for issue of shares. 6. The money receipt or payment for acquisition or disposal of fixed assets. 7. Any cash payments for debentures 8. The dividends paid or received. 9. Segregation of any non-cash items. 10. The ability to forecast future cash flows 11. Highlighting any of the business area that is need of management attention in the terms of cash flow.

Larry Bird Essays - Boston Celtics, , Term Papers

Larry Bird One of the greatest basketball players of all time emerged from the small town of French Lick, Indiana. With a population of 2,059 people, around 1,600 of them came to watch the Valley High basketball games, especially the blond-haired shooting whiz with a funny smile named Larry Joe Bird. Following a sophomore season that was shortened by a broken ankle, Bird erupted as a junior. Springs Valley went 19-2 and young Larry became a local celebrity. Generous fans always seemed to be willing to give a ride to Bird's parents, who couldn't afford a car of their own. As a senior Bird became the school's all-time scoring champion. About 4,000 people attended his final home game. When Bird went on to college, he found life very difficult. He started out as an Indiana Hoosier, but later left Bobby Knight's team. In 1976 Bird enrolled at Indiana State, which had a 12-14 record for the 2 previous years. Home- game attendance hovered around 3,100 when he arrived, but as he had done in Springs Valley, Bird single-handedly packed the house and propelled his team to respectability. He averaged better than 30 points and 10 rebounds for the Sycamores during his first campaign. Season-ticket sales tripled. TV stations showed film clips of Bird instead of commercials. Students skipped class to line up for tickets eight hours before tip-off. "Larry Bird Ball" was the most popular sport in Terre Haute. The Sycamores went undefeated and reached No. 1 in Bird's senior year-that is, until a Michigan State team featuring a 6-foot-9 guard named Earvin "Magic" Johnson knocked them off in the 1979 NCAA Championship Game. Bird was ! named the 1978-79 College Player of the Year and left ISU as the fifth- highest scorer in NCAA history. The Sycamores had gone 81-13 during Bird's three-year career. Then In 1978 the Boston Celtics selected him in the NBA Draft, hoping that he would skip his senior season. Bird decided to stay one more year at Indiana. The Celtics' record that year was 29-53. Then in ?79-80, Bird finally came to Boston and sparked one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in NBA history. The 1979-80 Celtics improved by 32 games to 61-21 and returned to the top of their division. Playing in all 82 games, Bird led the team in scoring (21.3 ppg), rebounding (10.4 rpg), steals (143), and minutes played (2,955) and was second in assists (4.5 apg) and three-pointers (58). Bird was named NBA Rookie of the Year and made the first of his 12 trips to the NBA All-Star Game. The next year the Boston Celtics drafted Robert Parish and Kevin McHale. That year the Celtics took the championship by defeating the Houston Rockets. Bird once again led the team in points (21.2 ppg), rebounds (10.9 rpg), steals (161), and minutes (3,239). In 1981-82 Bird made the first of his three consecutive appearances on the NBA All-Defensive Second Team. He finished runner-up to Moses Malone for the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. Bird scored 19 points in the 1982 NBA All-Star Game, including 12 of the East's last 15, earned him the game's MVP trophy. It wasn't until 1983-84, however, that the Celtics returned to the NBA Finals. By that time Bird's scoring average had reached the mid-20s, and he was averaging upwards of 7 assists, and making nearly 90 percent of his free-throw attempts. Coming off the first of his three consecutive MVP seasons, Bird helped the Celtics to a seven-game victory against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1984 NBA Finals. It was Bird's first postseason meeting with Magic Johnson since the 1979 NCAA title. In Game 5, with the temperature inside Boston Garden soaring to 97 degrees, Bird pumped in 34 points, leading the Celtics to a 121-103 victory. In Game 7 a record TV basketball audience watched Bird score 20 points and gather 12 rebounds in Boston's 111-102 win. With series averages of 27.4 points and 14.0 rebounds, Bird was named Finals MVP. Bird's scoring average soared to 28.7 points in 1984-85, the second highest mark in the league and the second highest of his career. He boosted that average with a career-best 60 points against Atlanta on March 12. He also made 56 out of 131 three-point attempts, second in the NBA behind the Lakers' Byron Scott. Injuries to Bird's elbow and fingers, however, contributed to the Celtics' six-game loss to the Lakers in the 1985 Finals. Nevertheless, at season's

7 Signs of Trouble at Home Teachers Should Know

7 Signs of Trouble at Home Teachers Should Know As teachers, we arent only in charge of our students homework assignments and spelling tests. We also need to be aware of the signs of possible trouble at home. Our vigilance and responsible action help our young students be happy and healthy both at home and in the classroom. It can feel uncomfortable to bring up touchy subjects with a students parents. But as responsible adults in our students lives, it is part of our duty to look out for their best interests and help them live up to their full potential. Sleeping at School Sleep is exceedingly important to the health and well-being of young children. Without it, they cant concentrate or perform to the best of their abilities. If you notice a student regularly catching up on sleep during school hours, consider talking to the school nurse for help in formulating a plan of action in conjunction with the parents. Sudden Change in Behavior Just like with adults, an abrupt change in behavior usually signals a cause for concern. As teachers, we get to know our students very well. Keep an eye out for sudden changes in behavior patterns and work quality. If a formerly responsible student completely stops bringing his or her homework, you may want to broach the subject with the students parents. Working as a team, you can enlist their support and implement strategies to get the student back on track. Lack of Cleanliness If a student shows up at school in dirty clothes or with substandard personal hygiene, this can be a sign of neglect at home. Again, the school nurse may be able to support you in addressing this concern with the students guardians. Not only is dirtiness a health issue, but it can also cause isolation and teasing from classmates if its readily noticeable. Ultimately, this can contribute to loneliness and depression. Visible Signs of Injury As mandated reporters in some states, teachers can be legally required to report any suspected child abuse. There is nothing more important (and morally imperative) than saving a helpless child from harm. If you see bruises, cuts, or other signs of injury, dont hesitate to follow your states procedures for reporting suspected abuse. Lack of Preparedness Observant teachers can notice the outward signs of neglect at home. These signs can come in many forms. If a student mentions not eating breakfast each day, or you notice the student doesnt have lunch (or money to buy lunch), you may need to step in as an advocate for the child. Alternatively, if a student doesnt have basic school supplies, make arrangements to provide them, if at all possible. Small children are at the mercy of adults at home. If you notice a gap in care, you may need to step in and help make it right. Inappropriate or Inadequate Clothes Be on the lookout for students who wear the same outfit virtually every day. Similarly, watch out for students who wear summer clothes in the winter and/or lack a proper winter coat. Worn-out or too-small shoes may be additional signs that something isnt right at home. If the parents arent able to provide appropriate clothing, you may be able to work with a local church or charity to get the student what he or she needs. Mentions of Neglect or Abuse This is the most obvious and clear sign that something is wrong (or maybe even dangerous) at home. If a student mentions being home alone at night or getting hit by an adult, this is definitely something to investigate. Again, you should report these comments to a child protective services agency in a timely manner. It is not your job to determine the veracity of such statements. Rather, the relevant government agency can investigate according to ​its  procedure and figure out whats really going on.

Liberty and Equality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Liberty and Equality - Essay Example As a function of this confusion with regards to some of the core precept that help to define the society in which we live, it will be the express intent of this particular analysis to engage the reader with an understanding of the immutable nature of equality and liberty. Through such analysis and focus upon the way in which these two are related and differentiated from one another. Yet, the fact of the matter is that the interplay between equality and liberty is something that perennially exists. Ultimately, each and every decision that is made with regards to greater levels of liberty, or the exercise thereof, has a direct and/or tangential impact with regards to the manner in which an individual can experience a degree of equality. Naturally, in a perfect world, society views equality and liberty as two â€Å"goods† that should be able to exist alongside one another in equal measure. However, the fact of the matter is that one necessarily constrains the other and causes a s ituation by which an increased degree of equality adversely impacts liberty; and vice versa. The following analysis and discussion will more appropriately define this inverse relationship and the means by which it is exhibited within the United States; both past and present (Smith 456). One analyst noted, â€Å"The balancing of liberty and equality interests cannot be accomplished in the abstract. We cannot decide issues involving specific legislation by determining that we lack ''enough'' liberty or that our society has ''too much'' equality. Careful evaluation requires inquiry into the specific nature of the individual freedom that may be sacrificed and the value of the equality that will be enhanced if the proposal becomes law† (New York Times 1). As such, the interplay between these two seemingly competitive virtues is clearly manifest. Firstly, before delving into an active definition and understanding of either liberty or equality, it must be appreciated that neither of these terms are in direct competition with one another for a position of being the most important guiding principle of democracy; rather, these concepts are both cornerstones through which democracy is defined, upheld, and delineated. If one of these two terms had to be understood as of greater importance than its counterpart, then the entire framework upon which representative government is fabricated would topple. Ultimately, at its very core, liberty necessarily defines the state of being free. As such, this freedom has been exhibited within almost each and every aspect of the way in which the American experience of government has come to be known. Although the freedom of liberty is a defining hallmark of the way in which he United States has come to experience its own development and growth as a political and social concept, the fact of the matter is that the actual application of liberty itself is not static. Just like with the way in which equality has come to be re-defined a nd re-understood throughout different periods of the nation’s history, liberty and the freedoms that it entails has been defined, constrained, and redefined as different experiences have shaped the way in which this concept is reflected within the American populace. A quick example of this can of course be seen with regards to the way in which liberty came to be constricted after the attacks of September 11th, 2001. Whereas the nation itself was in a

Fashion and identity relation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fashion and identity relation - Essay Example The essay "Fashion and identity relation" focuses on the identity relation and fashion. Modernism is a movement that rejects traditional style and the way of life and embracing a new form of life which no one truly understands yet as no one has explored it yet. Then the idea of post modernism, which has brought an enormous debate in the fashion world, comes in question. Modernism embraced uniqueness of an individual the autonomous nature of mankind while at the same time shunning tradition. Postmodernism rejected the autonomous individual believing that greatness is in communal power and action. Culture can be defined as the characteristic of a particular group. It could be in terms of language, fashion, cuisine, social habits, music, and many more. Culture can be obtained through individual or group striving. It defines human nature as it is what creates purpose in all the actions of the human being. Because of these there exist cultural difference created by the barriers or if clea rly stated the boarders of life. These barriers can be either local or international, but it is what creates the distance and the variation inhuman behaviour across the globe. The current world embraces post modernity whereby everything is changing at a rate almost unrecognisable. The result of this is competition without an end. The competition is in terms of gender, social identity, politics and the like all only to try and fit or find a place of comfort within the society. Fashion gives the perfect solution to this.

Employment in America Essay Example for Free

Employment in America Essay The United States is amongst the global states which are embracing low rates of unemployment. Except for the Latin America which is fiercely allied to high informal employment the rest of the American continent is having a low unemployment rate which goes as low as 3% compared to 55-60% for most Asian and African countries. Broadly, the effects of law rate of unemployment in the US can be allied to the interaction phenomena in both the macroeconomic and microeconomic structures which have acted to influence the broad array of the economic growth. The state of the economy is stable with few challenges into the inhibitors of poor states of economy. Over decade of years, US have enjoyed the superiority context into a stable state of the economy with elsewhere high purchasing power of the American dollar. Across the global imagery, it has enjoyed various economic benefits and economic integrations of its stable state of economy and strong purchasing power of its currency. High state of economic activity have been the launching pad and the benchmark into high capital inflows from other states through foreign investment in America and the economies allied to favorable balance of payments enjoyed by the America. From the favorability in the economic structures, America has continued to embrace the economic structures of a macroeconomic capacity which provide instruments for high rates of employment. For states within the Latin American region, the high rate of informal employment is much functional and beneficiary with even better wages than most formal employments in the developing countries. Broadly, the high rate of employment/low rate of unemployment in American can summarily be explained by the operation interlinkage between various macroeconomic and microeconomic structures. However, the great deal behind this situation can be credited to the macroeconomic variables which are captured in the broad economic equation. Elsewhere, the fiscal and monitory variables in the functional outlay of the American system provides an adequate pursuit for moral sense of high rates of employment. (Riggs, 2004) At one level, microeconomic variables lobby in to define the factors at an individual level which influence and determine the state of employment. This is mostly credited to the reciprocating factors in the relationship between household income and the levels of consumption and savings. Generally, the economic model of personal income is described as a function of consumption and saving. The relative changes to one another gives the respective marginal propensities (to consume and save). The two are reciprocals of one another where a decrease in one will increase the other. However, within America, the individual population has high marginal propensity to save due to the high income obtained from the formal employment and informal cases. With high saving ratios, the population is able to finance investment cost for new investment structure. The general investment portfolio within the US is highly favorable and highly growing to shoulder in the relatively high employment requirements. High investment structures provide an adequate room with which the broader human population is able to be absorbed within the employment structures. (Riggs, 2004) Macroeconomic influences provide a great refuge for creating employment opportunities. Such macroeconomic tools can be defined in terms of the economic environment to yield adequate economic conditions for a high rate of employment. Generally, the fiscal economic variable does a lot to provide adequate environment for ensuring high state of economic activity. Generally, the federal government has done a lot about its spending to the public. High government spending has been a benchmark in the foundations of high states of economic activity which does not compromise high employment rates. Government spending has been of a diverse nature in which it has provided various insurance allowances to the unemployed above other social structures allied to the public population. Government spending has helped to increase the broad income supply within the public. High expenditure has been an instrument in to the provision of capital for investment by the people. Elsewhere, the federal government has been in the forefront in instituting various structures aimed at providing adequate environment in its investment in government investment. Fiscal policy has also been promoted by various adequate systems in its taxing structure. Consequently, the taxing system has provided a comprehensive package of desirable rate of taxes which are less prone driving out investors from the economy due to losses through government taxation. Through adequate levels of taxes which include tax exemption and rebates for various persons within the economy, the people and investment bodies have embraced the value consequence allied to such law rates of taxes. (Riggs, 2004) Within the America, the monitory policy does a lot in providing an adequate environment for high rates of employment and the reduction of various unemployment inequalities borne of the people. The strong sense of the monitory policy provides a structure with which capital inflow is available. Indeed, America is amongst the global states in which case capital inflow is subordinately of high scale and encompassing no monitory rigidities. Broadly, the American monitory policy can be described in terms of the state of money supply and the demand for American dollar. However, the two sides (both the demand and the supply conditions) show a concrete rigidity in their equilibrium level. The state of money supply is equal to the relative demand which helps to provide an attractive state of equilibrium. With equilibrium in the money market, the American dollar has embraced a high state of purchasing power. Economically, such high purchasing power has been the backbone of facilitating high capital inflows within the states. High purchasing power has provided economic advantage in the international symmetry of economic integrations. Through favorable conditions of economic integrations, America has embraced high capital inflows from its trading partners. (Riggs, 2004) Alternatively a positive challenge into the monitoring system has been a solid factor for the influence of a positive balance of payment. Economically, desirable conditions and states of the monetary marketing are discretionally importance factors in determining the state of employment. Every high employment is an in depended variable of the state of monitory policies. Conceptually, stable monetary economy defines the stability in the economic integration and the parameters of balance of payments. A stable economy is discretionary important for providing structures aimed at improving the state of employment. For every essence of capital inflow within America, this has been a foundation aimed at improving the export level and decreasing the state of foreign imports. Every aspect of high exports than imports helps to improve the state of employment. To America, the low rates of unemployment are counter factors determined by the existing state of high export than imports. Stability in the economic state and the purchasing power of the currency has helped to improve the state of capital inflow within America High capital investment from the foreign world which has helped to improve the existing state of employment states. Summarily, the low state of unemployment in America can be allied to the prevailing economic structures existing within the American economy. The same has favored the stable state of investment which has on the other hand helped to increase the rate of employment within the state.

Action and Observation in Shakespeares King Lear Essay -- King Lear E

Action and Observation in King Lear      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Auden once asserted that Shakespearean tragedy is necessarily parabolic, pertaining to the only myth that Christianity possesses: that of the 'unrepentant thief'. We as the spectators are thus implicated in the action since each of us 'is in danger of re-enacting [this story] in his own way'.1 The sufferings of the hero could be our own sufferings, whereas in Greek tragedy, such a notion is precluded precisely because the misfortunes of a character can be traced back to the discontent of the gods. Hippolytus is not a moral agent; Hamlet is. The aesthetic of Shakespearean tragedy is therefore dynamic, with an audience that, to a certain extent, are also participants. Auden proposes a model of observing based upon an Aristotelian conception of drama, one that involves the spectator in an emotional relationship with the characters on stage. King Lear too, offers the audience several quite distinct paradigms of both observation and action, and crucially, it is on the var ying successes of these models that the tragedy hinges.    One does not need to look far in King Lear for a figure that might fit Auden's mould. Kent surely embodies that which Schlegel termed the 'science of compassion' in the play.2 He is publicly traduced and humiliated by Lear in Act I, Scene 1, and yet, in the guise of Caius, risks his life in order to serve his king still. Kent observes Lear's 'hideous rashness' (I.i.153) and he is motivated into participating in his master's sufferings:    I have a journey, sir, shortly to go; My master calls me; I must not say no. (V.iii.323-324)    The simple rhyme, metric balance, and monosyllabic plainness of this couplet infuse the lines with a sen... ...onathan Bates, Penguin 1992, p. 381 3 Samuel Johnson, Johnson as Critic, ed. John Wain, Routledge & Kegan Paul 1973, pp. 216-217 4 John Willet, The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht, Methuen 1964, p.170 5 Ibid, p.172 6 Euripides, Alcestis and other plays, trans. John Davie, Penguin 1996, p.80 7 The Romantics on Shakespeare, ed. Jonathan Bates, Penguin 1992, p. 390 8 Kiernan Ryan, 'King Lear: The Subversive Imagination' in New Casebooks: King Lear, ed. Kiernan Ryan, Macmillan 1993, p.80 9 A. C. Bradley, Shakespearian Tragedy, Macmillan 1908, p.55 10 W. H. Auden, The Dyer's Hand and Other Essays, Vintage New York 1989, p.201 11 Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Fourth Estate 1999, p.481 12 William Blake, 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' (plate 3 lines 11-12) in The Complete Poems, Penguin 1977, p.181    Action and Observation in Shakespeare's King Lear Essay -- King Lear E Action and Observation in King Lear      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Auden once asserted that Shakespearean tragedy is necessarily parabolic, pertaining to the only myth that Christianity possesses: that of the 'unrepentant thief'. We as the spectators are thus implicated in the action since each of us 'is in danger of re-enacting [this story] in his own way'.1 The sufferings of the hero could be our own sufferings, whereas in Greek tragedy, such a notion is precluded precisely because the misfortunes of a character can be traced back to the discontent of the gods. Hippolytus is not a moral agent; Hamlet is. The aesthetic of Shakespearean tragedy is therefore dynamic, with an audience that, to a certain extent, are also participants. Auden proposes a model of observing based upon an Aristotelian conception of drama, one that involves the spectator in an emotional relationship with the characters on stage. King Lear too, offers the audience several quite distinct paradigms of both observation and action, and crucially, it is on the var ying successes of these models that the tragedy hinges.    One does not need to look far in King Lear for a figure that might fit Auden's mould. Kent surely embodies that which Schlegel termed the 'science of compassion' in the play.2 He is publicly traduced and humiliated by Lear in Act I, Scene 1, and yet, in the guise of Caius, risks his life in order to serve his king still. Kent observes Lear's 'hideous rashness' (I.i.153) and he is motivated into participating in his master's sufferings:    I have a journey, sir, shortly to go; My master calls me; I must not say no. (V.iii.323-324)    The simple rhyme, metric balance, and monosyllabic plainness of this couplet infuse the lines with a sen... ...onathan Bates, Penguin 1992, p. 381 3 Samuel Johnson, Johnson as Critic, ed. John Wain, Routledge & Kegan Paul 1973, pp. 216-217 4 John Willet, The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht, Methuen 1964, p.170 5 Ibid, p.172 6 Euripides, Alcestis and other plays, trans. John Davie, Penguin 1996, p.80 7 The Romantics on Shakespeare, ed. Jonathan Bates, Penguin 1992, p. 390 8 Kiernan Ryan, 'King Lear: The Subversive Imagination' in New Casebooks: King Lear, ed. Kiernan Ryan, Macmillan 1993, p.80 9 A. C. Bradley, Shakespearian Tragedy, Macmillan 1908, p.55 10 W. H. Auden, The Dyer's Hand and Other Essays, Vintage New York 1989, p.201 11 Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Fourth Estate 1999, p.481 12 William Blake, 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' (plate 3 lines 11-12) in The Complete Poems, Penguin 1977, p.181   

History of Digital Computer

The History of Digital Computers B. RANDELL Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle upon Tyne This account describes the history of the development of digital computers, from the work of Charles Babbage to the earliest electronic stored program computers, It has been prepared for Volume 3 of â€Å"l’Histoire Generale des Techniques,† and is in the main based on the introductory text written by the author for the book â€Å"The Origins of Digital Computers: Selected Papers† (Springer Verlag, 1973). . Charles Babbage THE first electronic digital computers were completed in the late 1940’s. In most cases their developers were unaware that nearly all the important functional characteristics of these computers had been invented over a hundred years earlier by Charles Babbage. It was in 1821 that the English mathematician Charles Babbage became interested in the possibility of mechanising the computation and printing of mathematical tables.He successfully constructed a small machine, which he called a â€Å"difference engine,† capable of automatically generating successive values of simple algebraic functions by means of the method of finite differences. This encouraged him to plan a full-scale machine, and to seek financial backing from the British government. During the next 12 years both Babbage and the government poured considerable sums of money into the attempt at building his Difference Engine.However the project, which called for the construction of six interlinked adding mechanisms, each capable of adding two multiple-digit decimal numbers, together with an automatic printing mechanism, was considerably beyond the technological capabilities of the era – indeed it has been claimed that the efforts expended on the Difference Engine were more than justified simply by the improvements they generated in mechanical engineering equipment and practice.Although Babbage’s plans for a Difference Engine were somewha t premature, the basic scheme was vindicated when in 1843, inspired by their knowledge of his work, George and Edvard Scheutz successfully demonstrated a working prototype difference engine. A final version of this model was completed 10 years later, with financial assistance from the Swedish government. Several other difference engines ere constructed in the decades that followed, but such machines never achieved the importance of more conventional calculating machines, and when multi-register accounting machines became available in the 1920’s it was found that these could be used essentially as difference engines. However Babbage’s ideas soon progressed far beyond that of a special-purpose calculating machine – in fact almost as soon as he started work on his Difference Engine he became dissatisfied with its limitations.In particular he wished to avoid the need to have the highest order of difference constant, in order to be able to use the machine directly fo r transcendental as well as algebraic functions. In 1834 Babbage started active work on these matters, and on problems such as division and the need to speed up the part of the addition mechanism which dealt with the assimilation of carry digits. He developed several very ingenious methods of carry assimilation, but the time savings so obtainable would have been at the cost of a considerable amount of complex machinery.This led Babbage to realise the advantages of having a single centralised arithmetic mechanism, the â€Å"mill,† separate from the â€Å"figure axes,† i. e. , columns of discs which acted merely as storage locations rather than accumulators. Babbage’s first idea for controlling the sequencing of the various component mechanisms of the engine was to use â€Å"barrels,† i. e. , rotating pegged cylinders of the sort used in musical automata. He first planned to use a set of subsidiary barrels, with over-all control of the machine being specifi ed by a large central barrel with exchangeable pegs.However in June 1836 he took the major step of adopting a punched card mechanism, of the kind found in Jacquard looms, in place of the rather limited and cumbersome central barrel. He did so in the realisation that the â€Å"formulae† which specified the computation that the machine was to perform could therefore be of almost unbounded extent, and that it would be a simple matter to change from the use of one formula to another.Normally formula cards, each specifying an arithmetic operation to be performed, were to be read by the Jacquard mechanism in sequence, but Babbage also envisaged means whereby this sequence could be broken and then recommenced at an earlier or later card in the sequence. Moreover he allowed the choice of the next card which was to be used to be influenced by the partial results that the machine had obtained.These provisions allowed him to claim that computations of indefinite complexity could be perf ormed under the control of comparatively small sets of formula cards. Babbage talked at one time of having a store consisting of no less than 1000 figure axes, each capable of holding a signed 40-digit decimal number, and planned to provide for reading numbers from cards into the store, and for punching or printing the values of numbers held in the store.The movement of numbers between the mill and the store was to be controlled by a sequence of â€Å"variable cards,† each specifying which particular figure axis was involved. Therefore an arithmetic operation whose operands were to be obtained from the store and whose result was to be returned to the store would be specified by an operation card and several variable cards. He apparently intended these different kinds of control cards to be in separate sequences, read by separate Jacquard mechanisms.Thus in the space of perhaps 3 years Babbage had arrived at the concept of a general purpose digital computer consisting of a sto re, arithmetic unit, punched card input and output, and a card-controlled sequencing mechanism that provided iteration and conditional branching. Moreover although he continued to regard the machine, which he later came to call the Analytical Engine, as being principally for the construction of mathematical tables, he had a very clear grasp of the conceptual advances he had made.Basing his claim on the unbounded number of operation and variable cards that could be used to control the machine, the ease with which complicated conditional branches could be built from a sequence of simple ones, and the fact that automatic input and output, and multiple precision arithmetic, were provided, he stated that â€Å". . . it appears that the whole of the conditions which enable a finite machine to make calculations of unlimited extent are fulfilled in the Analytical Engine . . . . I have converted the infinity of space, which was required by the conditions of the problem, into the infinity of time. Because separate, but associated, sequences of cards were needed to control the Analytical Engine the concept of a program as we know it now does not appear very c1early in contemporary descriptions of the machine. However there is evidence that Babbage had realised the fact that the information punched on the cards which controlled the engine could itself have been manipulated by an automatic machine-for example he suggested the possibility of the Analytical Engine itself being used to assist in the preparation of lengthy sequences of control cards.Indeed in the description of the use of the Analytical Engine written by Lady Lovelace, in collaboration with Babbage, there are passages which would appear to indicate that it had been realised that an Analytical Engine was fully capable of manipulating symbolic as well as arithmetical quantities. Probably Babbage himself realised that the complete Analytical Engine was impractical to build, but he spent much of the rest of his l ife designing and redesigning mechanisms for the machine.The realisation of his dream had to await the development of a totally new technology, and an era when the considerable finances and facilities required for an automatic computer would be made available, the need at last being widely enough appreciated. He was a century ahead of his time, for as one of the pioneers of the modern electronic digital computer has written: â€Å"Babbage was moving in a world of logical design and system architecture, and was familiar with and had solutions for problems that were not to be discussed in the literature for another 100 years. †He died in 1871, leaving an immense collection of engineering drawings and documents, but merely a small portion of the Analytical Engine, consisting of an addition and a printing mechanism, whose assembly was completed by his son, Henry Babbage. This machine and Babbage’s engineering drawings are now in the Science Museum, London. 2. Babbageâ€⠄¢s direct successors Some years’ after Babbage’s death his son Henry Babbage recommenced work on the construction of a mechanical calculating machine, basing his efforts on the designs his father had made for the Mill of the Analytical Engine.This work was started in 1888 and carried on very intermittently. It was completed only in about 1910 when the Mill, which incorporated a printing mechanism, was demonstrated at a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society. By this date however the work of a little-known successor to Charles Babbage, an Irish accountant named Percy Ludgate, was already well advanced. Ludgate started work in 1903 at the age of 20 on an entirely novel scheme for performing arithmetic on decimal numbers.Decimal digits were to be represented by the lateral position of a sliding metal rod, rather than the angular position of a geared disc. The basic operation provided was multiplication, which used a complicated mechanism for calculating the two-digit products resulting from multiplying pairs of decimal digits. together. The scheme involved first transforming the digits into a form of logarithm, adding the logarithms together, and then converting the result back into a two-digit sum.This scheme is quite unlike any known to have been used in earlier mechanical calculators, or for that matter since, although there had been several calculating machines constructed that used built-in multiplication tables to obtain two-digit products – the earliest known of these was that invented by Bollee in 1887. It is in fact difficult to see any advantages to Ludgate’s logarithmic scheme, although his form of number representation is reminiscent of that used in various mechanical calculating devices in the following decades.So striking are the differences between Ludgate’s and Babbage’s ideas for mechanical arithmetic that there is no reason to dispute Ludgate’s statement that he did not learn of Babbageâ€℠¢s prior work until the later stages of his own. It seems likely that Babbage was the eventual inspiration for Ludgate to investigate the provision of a sequence control mechanism. Here he made an advance over the rather awkward system that Babbage had planned, involving separate sets of operation and variable cards.Instead his machine was to have been controlled by a single perforated paper tape, each row of which represented an instruction consisting of an operation code and four address fields. Control transfers simply involved moving the tape the appropriate number of rows forwards or backwards. Moreover he also envisaged the provision of what we would now call subroutines, represented by sequences of perforations around the circumference of special cylinders-one such cylinder was to be provided The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications 2 for division.The machine was also to be controllable from a keyboard, a byproduct of whose operation would be a perforated tape which could then be used to enable the sequence of manually controlled operations to be repeated automatically. Ludgate estimated that his Analytical Machine would be capable of multiplying two twenty-digit numbers in about 10 seconds, and that, in considerable contrast to Babbage’s Analytical Engine, it would be portable. However there is no evidence that he ever tried to construct the machine, which he apparently worked on alone, in his spare time.He died in 1922, and even if at this time his plans for the Analytical Machine still existed there is now no trace of them, and our knowledge of the machine depends almost entirely on the one description of it that he published. The next person who is known to have followed in the footsteps of Babbage and to have worked on the problems of designing an analytical engine was Leonardo Torres y Quevedo. Torres was born in the province of Santander in Spain in 1852.Although qualified as a civil engineer he devoted his career to scientific re search, and in particular to the design and construction of an astonishing variety of calculating devices and automata. He gained great renown, particularly in France and in Spain, where he became President of the Academy of Sciences of Madrid, and where following his death in 1936 an institute for scientific research was named after him. Torres first worked on analog calculating devices, including equation solvers and integrators.In the early 1900’s he built various radio-controlled devices, including a torpedo and a boat which, according to the number of pulses it received, could select between various rudder positions and speeds, and cause a flag to be run up and down a mast. In 1911 he made and successfully demonstrated the first of two chess-playing automata for the end game of king and rook against king. The machine was fully automatic, with electrical sensing of the positions of the pieces on the board and a mechanical arm to move its own pieces. The second machine was built in 1922, and used magnets underneath the board to move the pieces. ) In all this work, he was deliberately exploiting the new facilities that electromechanical techniques offered, and challenging accepted ideas as to the limitations of machines. He picked on Babbage’s Analytical Engine as an important and interesting technical challenge, and in 1914 published a paper incorporating detailed schematic designs for a suitable set of electro-mechanical components.These included devices for storing, comparing and multiplying numbers, and were accompanied by a discussion of what is now called floating point number representation. He demonstrated the use of the devices in a design for a special-purpose program-controlled calculator. The program was to be represented by areas of conductive material placed on the surface of a rotating drum, and incorporated a means for specifying conditional branching. Torres clearly never intended to construct a machine to his design, but 6 yea rs later he built, and successfully demonstrated, a typewriter-controlled calculating machine primarily to demonstrate that an electromechanical analytical engine was completely feasible. He in fact never did build an analytical engine, although he designed, and in many cases built, various other digital devices including two more calculating machines, an automatic weighing machine, and a machine for playing a game somewhat like the game of Nim. However there seems little reason to doubt that, should the need have been sufficiently pressing, Torres would indeed have built a complete analytical engine.In the event, it was not until the 1939-1945 war that the desirability of largescale fully automatic calculating machines became so clear that the necessary environment was created for Babbage’s concept to become a reality. Before this occurred there is known to have been at least one further effort at designing an analytical engine. This was by a Frenchman, Louis Couffignal, who was motivated mainly by a desire to reduce the incidence of errors in numerical computations.He was familiar with the work of Babbage and Torres y Quevedo but, in contrast to their designs, proposed to use binary number representation. The binary digits of stored numbers were to be represented by the lateral position of a set of parallel bars controlled by electro-magnets. The various arithmetic operations were to be performed by relay networks, the whole machine being controlled by perforated tapes. Couffignal apparently had every intention of building this machine, in association with the Logabax Company, but presumably because of the war never did so.However after the war he was in charge of an electronic computer project for the Institut Blaise Pascal, the design study and construction of the machine being in the hands of the Logabax Company. With Couffignal’s pre-war plans, the line of direct succession to Babbage’s Analytical Engine seems to have come to an end. Most of the wartime computer projects were apparently carried out in ignorance of the extent to which many of the problems that had to be dealt with had been tackled by Babbage over a century earlier. However in some cases there is clear evidence that nowledge of Babbage’s work was an influence on the wartime pioneers, in particular Howard Aiken, originator of the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, and William Phillips, an early proponent of binary calculation, and various other influential people, including Vannevar Bush and L. J. Comrie, were also well aware of his dream. 3. The contribution of the punched card industry An initially quite separate thread of activity leading to the development of the modern computer originated with the invention of the punched card tabulating system.The capabilities of Herman Hollerith’s equipment, first used on a large scale for the 1890 US National Census, were soon extended considerably. The original equipment allowed cards to hold binary information representing the answers to a Census questionnaire. These cards could be tabulated, one by one, using a machine which sensed the presence of holes in the card electrically and could be wired to count the number of cards processed in which particular holes or combinations of holes had been punched. A device could be attached to such a tabulator which assisted the manual sorting of cards into a number of separate sequences.Within 10 years automatic card handling mechanisms, which greatly increased the speed of machine operation, and addition units, which enabled card tabulators to sum decimal numbers punched on cards, had been provided. The system soon came into widespread use in the accounting departments of various commercial organisations, as well as being used for statistical tabulations in many countries of the world. After the 1900 US Census relations between Hollerith and the Census Bureau deteriorated, and the Bureau began to manufacture its own equ ipment for use in the 1910 Census.The person in charge of this work was James Powers who circumvented Hollerith’s patents by producing a mechanical card reading apparatus. He retained the patent rights to his inventions and formed his own company which eventually merged with Remington Rand in 1927. In 1911 Hollerith sold his own company, the Tabulating Machine Company, which he had formed in 1896, and it was shortly afterwards merged with two other companies to form the Computing-TabulatingRecording Company. This company which was under the direction of Thomas J.Watson from 1914 became the International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. During the 1920’s and 1930’s punched card systems developed steadily, aided no doubt by the stimulus of competition, not only in the USA but also in Britain, where the Hollerith and Powers-based systems continued to be marketed under the names of their original inventors, while in France a third manufacturer, Compagnie Machi nes Bull, was also active. Unfortunately the people involved in this work did not in general publish technical papers and their work has received little public recognition.Thus full appreciation of the contribution of IBM development engineers, such as J. W. Bryce, one of the most prolific inventors of his era, will probably have to await an analysis of the patent literature. One inventor whose work has, however, been documented is Gustav Tauschek, a self-taught Viennese engineer, with more than 200 patents in the computing field to his credit. While working for Rheinische Metallund Maschinenfabrik he designed and built a punched card electromechanical accounting machine.His other patents, many of which were filed whilst he was under contract to IBM during the 1930’s, also included a â€Å"reading-writing-calculating machine† which used photocells to compare printed input characters with templates held on photographic film, a number storage device using magnetised stee l plates, and an electromechanical accounting machine designed for use in small banks capable of storing the records of up to 10 000 accounts. By the 1930’s printing tabulators were available which worked at approximately 100 cards per minute, and there were sorters which worked at 400 cards per minute.The machines were controlled by fairly intricate plugboards, but arithmetic and logical computations involving sequences of operations of any great complexity were carried out by repeated processing of sets of cards, under the direction of operators. Various attempts were made to supplement the functional capabilities of punched card systems by linking together otherwise independent machines. One such system, the Synchro-Madas machine, incorporated a typewriter/accounting machine, an automatic calculating machine and an automatic card punch.These were linked together so that a single action by the operator sitting at the typewriter/accounting machine would control several opera tions on the different machines. One other system involving a set of inter-linked card machines, although very different in concept and scale from the Synchro-Madas machine, is worth mentioning. This is the Remote-control Accounting system which was experimented with in a Pittsburgh department store, also in the mid-1930’s. The system involved 250 terminals connected by telephone lines to 20 Powers card punch/tabulators and 15 on-line typewriters.The terminals transmitted data from punched merchandise tags which were used to produce punched sales record cards, later used for customer billing. The typewriter terminals were used for credit authorisation purposes. The intended peak transaction rate was 9000 per hour. Even during the 1920’s punched card systems were used not only for accounting and the compilation of statistics, but also for complex statistical calculations. However the first important scientific application of punched card systems was made by L.J. Comrie in 1929. Comrie was Superintendent of HM Nautical Almanac Office until 1936, and then founded the Scientific Computing Service. He made a speciality of putting commercial computing machinery to scientific use, and introduced Hollerith equipment to the Nautical Almanac Office. His calculations of the future positions of the Moon, which involved the punching of half a million cards, stimulated many other scientists to exploit the possibilities of punched card systems. One such scientist was Wallace J.Eckert, an astronomer at Columbia University, which already had been donated machines for a Statistical Laboratory by IBM in 1929, including the â€Å"Statistical Calculator,† a specially developed tabulator which was the forerunner of the IBM Type 600 series of multiplying punches, and of the mechanisms used in the Harvard Mark I machine. With assistance from IBM in 1934 Eckert set up a scientific computing laboratory in the Columbia Astronomy Department, a laboratory which was la ter to become the Thomas J.Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau. In order to facilitate the use of his punched card equipment Eckert developed a centralised control mechanism, linked to a numerical tabulator, a summary punch and a multiplying punch, so that a short cycle of different operations could be performed at high speed. The control mechanism which was based on a stepping switch enabled many calculations, even some solutions 4 The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications of differential equations, to be performed completely automatically.The potential of a system of inter-connected punched card machines, controlled by a fully general-purpose sequencing mechanism, and the essential similarity of such a system to Babbage’s plans for an Analytical Engine, were discussed in an article published by Vannevar Bush in 1936. Bush was at this time already renowned for his work on the first differential analyser, and during the war held the influential position of Director o f the US Office of Scientific Research and Development.In fact an attempt was made to build such a system of inter-connected punched card machines at the Institut fur Praktische Mathematik of the Technische Hochschule, Darmstadt, in Germany during the war. The plans called for the inter-connection of a standard Hollerith multiplier and tabulators, and specially constructed divider and function generators, using a punched tape sequence control mechanism. Work was abandoned on the project following a destructive air raid in September 1944. However, by this stage, in the United States much more ambitious efforts were being made to apply the expertise of punched card equipment designers.The efforts originated in 1937 with a proposal by Howard Aiken of Harvard University that a large-scale scientific calculator be constructed by inter-connecting a set of punched card machines via a master control panel. This would be plugged so as to govern the transmission of numerical operands and the sequencing of arithmetic operations. Through Dr. Shapley, director of the Harvard College Observatory, Aiken became acquainted with Wallace Eckert’s punched card installation at Columbia University.These contacts helped Aiken to persuade IBM to undertake the task of developing and building a machine to his basic design. For IBM, J. W. Bryce assigned C. D. Lake, F. E. Hamilton and B. M. Durfee to the task. Aiken later acknowledged these three engineers as co-inventors of the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, or Harvard Mark I as it became known. The machine was built at the IBM development laboratories at Endicott and was demonstrated there in January 1943 before being shipped to Harvard, where it became operational in May 1944.In August of that year IBM, in the person of Thomas J. Watson, donated the machine to Harvard where it was used initially for classified work for the US Navy. The design of the Harvard Mark I followed the original proposals by Aiken fairly close ly, but it was built using a large number of the major components used in the various types of punched card machines then manufactured, rather than from a set of complete machines themselves. It incorporated 72 â€Å"storage counters† each of which served as both a storage location, and as a complete adding and subtracting machine.Each counter consisted of 24 electromechanical counter wheels and could store a signed 23digit decimal number. A special multiply/divide unit, and units for obtaining the value of previously computed functions held on perforated tape, and for performing interpolation, were provided together with input/output equipment such as card readers and punches, and typewriters. The various mechanisms and counter wheels were all driven and synchronised by a single gearconnected mechanical system extending along nearly the entire length of the calculator.A main sequence control mechanism incorporating a punched tape reader governed the operation of the machine. Each horizontal row on the tape had space for three groups of eight holes, known as the A, B and C groups. Together these specified a single instruction of the form â€Å"Take the number out of unit A, deliver it to unit B, and start operation C. † Somewhat surprisingly, in view of Aiken’s knowledge of Babbage’s work and writings, no provision was made originally for conditional branching.As it was, such provision was only made later when a subsidiary sequence control mechanism was built at Harvard and incorporated into the machine. The Harvard Mark I was a massive machine over 50 feet long, built on a lavish scale. Being largely mechanical its speed was somewhat limited – for example multiplication took 6 seconds – but it continued in active use at Harvard until 1959. It has an important place in the history of computers although the long-held belief that it was the world’s first operational programcontrolled computer was proved to be fals e, once the details of Zuse’s wartime work in Germany became known.It marked a major step by IBM towards full involvement in the design of general-purpose computers and, with ENIAC and the Bell Telephone Laboratories Series, represents the starting point of American computer developments. After completion of the Mark I, Aiken and IBM pursued independent paths. Aiken, still distrustful of the reliability of electronic components, moved to electromagnetic relays for the construction of the Harvard Mark II, another paper-tape-sequenced calculator.This machine had an internal store which could hold about 100 dccimal floating point numbers. One of the most interesting aspects of the machine was that it could be operated either as a single computer or as two separate ones. The complete system incorporated four of each type of input/output device, namely sequence tape readers, data tape readers and punches, numerical function tape readers and output printers. It also had multiple ar ithmetic facilities, including two adders and four multipliers (taking 0. 7 second) which could all be used simultaneously.Detailed design of the machine, which was intended for the US Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Virginia, began at Harvard early in 1945, and the machine was completed in 1947. Afterwards Aiken and his colleagues went on to design the Mark III, an electronic computer with magnetic drum storage, completed in 1950, and the Mark IV, which incorporated 200 magnetic core shift registers, completed in 1952. The designers of IBM’s next machine, the Pluggable Sequence Relay Calculator, included two of the Harvard Mark I’s design team, namely C. D. Lake and B. M.Durfee, but the machine in fact had more in common with IBM’s earlier calculating punches than with the Mark I; like the punches it was controlled using plugboard-specified sequencing, rather than by a sequence control tape of essentially unlimited length. Its relay construction resulted in its basic operation speed being considerably faster than the Mark I, although it lacked the Mark I’s ease and flexibility of programming, demanding instead the kind of detailed design of parallel subsequencing that one sees nowadays at the microprogramming level of some computers.Great stress was raid by the designers on the efficient use of punched card input/output, and it was claimed that in many cases, where other machines’ internal storage capacity proved inadequate, the IBM relay calculators could outperform even the contemporary electronic computers. Several machines were built, the first of which was delivered in December 1944 to the Aberdeen Proving Ground, and two were installed at the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory that IBM had set up at Columbia University under the directorship of Wallace Eckert.The Relay Calculator was followed by the giant IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator, a machine which was very much in the tradition of the Mark I. Wal lace Eckert was responsible for the logical organisation of the machine, with Frank Hamilton being the chief engineer on the project. The design was a compromise between Eckert’s wish, for performance reasons, to use electronic components to the full, and Hamilton’s preference for electro-mechanical relays, on grounds of reliability. As a result vacuum tubes were used for the arithmetic unit, the control circuitry, and the 8 word high-speed store, relays being used elsewhere.In addition to the 8 word store there was a 150 word random access electro-magnetic store and storage for 20000 numbers in the form of punched tapes. Numbers would be read from the electro-magnetic store, or in sequence from the punched tape store, at the speed of the multiplier, i. e. , every 20 milliseconds. The design was started in 1945, and the machine was built in great secrecy at Endicott, before being moved to New York City, where it was publicly unveiled at an elaborate dedication ceremony in January 1948. The most important aspect of the SSEC, credited to R. R.Seeber, was that it could perform arithmetic on, and then execute, stored instructions – it was almost certainly the first operational machine with these capabilities. This led to IBM obtaining some very important patents, but the machine as a whole was soon regarded as somewhat anachronistic and was dismantled in 1952. It had however provided IBM with some valuable experience – for example, Hamilton and some of his engineering colleagues went on to design the highly successful IBM 650, and many of the SSEC programmers later became members of the IBM 701 programming group.Finally, mention should be made of one other machine manufactured by IBM which can be classed as a precursor to the modern electronic digital computer. This was the Card Programmed Calculator, a machine which along with its predecessors now tends to be overshadowed by the SSEC. Like the Pluggable Sequence Relay Calculator, the C PC can trace its origins to the IBM 600 series of multiplying punches. In 1946 IBM announced the Type 603, the first production electronic calculator. The IBM 603, which incorporated 300 valves, was developed from an experimental multiplier designed at Endicott under the direction of R.L. Palmer in 1942. One hundred machines were sold, and then IBM replaced it with the Type 604, a plugboardcontrolled electronic calculator, which provided conditional branching but, lacking backward jumps, no means of constructing program loops. Deliveries of the 604, which incorporated over 1400 valves, started in 1948 and within the next 10 years over 5000 were installed. In 1948 a 604 was coupled to a type 402 accounting machine by Northrop Aircraft Company, in order to provide the 604 with increased capacity and with printing facilities. This idea was taken up by IBM, and formed the basis of the CPC.Nearly 700 CPC’s were built, and this machine played a vital role in providing computing pow er to many installations in the USA until stored program electronic computers became commercially available on a reasonable scale. In the years that followed the introduction of the CPC, IBM continued to develop its range of electronic calculators and, starting in 1952 with the IBM 701, an electronic computer in the tradition of von Neumann’s IAS machine, took its first steps towards achieving its present dominant position amongst electronic computer manufacturers. . Konrad Zuse Konrad Zuse started to work on the development of mechanical aids to calculation as early as 1934, at the age of 24. He was studying civil engineering at the Technische Hochschule, Berlin-Charlottenburg, and sought some means of relief from the tedious calculations that had to be performed. His first idea had been to design special forms to facilitate ordinary manual calculation, but then he decided to try to mechanise the operation.Continuing to use the special layouts that he had designed for his fo rms, he investigated representing numerical data by means of perforations, and the use of a hand-held sensing device which could communicate the data over an electrical cable to an automatic calculating machine. The idea then arose of using a mechanical register rather than perforated cards, and, realising that the layout was irrelevant, Zuse started to develop a general purpose mechanical store, whose locations were addressed numerically.By 1936 he had the basic design of a floating point binary computer, controlled by a program tape consisting of a sequence of instructions, each of which specified an operation code, two operand addresses and a result address. Thus, apparently quite independently of earlier work by Babbage and his successors on analytical engines, Zuse had very quickly reached the point of having a design for a general-purpose program-controlled computer, although the idea of conditional branching was lacking.More importantly, even though the various basic The Inst itute of Mathematics and its Applications 6 ideas that his design incorporated had, it now turns out, been thought of earlier (i. e. , binary mechanical arithmetic (Leibniz), program control (Babbage), instruction formats with numerical storage addresses (Ludgate) and floating point number representations (Torres y Quevedo)), Zuse’s great achievement was to turn these ideas into reality. Zuse had considerable trouble finding sponsors willing to finance the building of his machine.Despite his financial difficulties his first machine, the Z1, which was of entirely mechanical construction was completed in 1938, but it proved unreliable in operation. He then started to construct a second, fixed-point binary, machine which incorporated the 16 word mechanical binary store of the Z1, but was otherwise built from second-hand telephone relays. Although the Z2 computer was completed it was inadequate for any practical use. However by this time a colleague, Helmut Schreyer, was already working with Zuse on the problem of producing an electronic version of the Z1.This led to the construction of a small 10 place binary arithmetic unit, with approximately 100 valves, but proposals that Schreyer and Zuse made to the German government for a 1500 valve electronic computer were rejected and the work was discontinued in 1942. Earlier, in 1939, Zuse was called up for military service, but managed to get released after about a year, and for the first time received significant government backing for his plans. This enabled him to build the Z3 computer, a binary machine with a 64 word store, all built out of telephone relays.This computer, since it was operational in 1941, is believed to have been the world’s first general-purpose program-controlled computer. It incorporated units for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and square root, using a floating point number representation with a sign bit, a 7-bit exponent and a 14-bit mantissa. Input was via a manu al keyboard and output via a set of lights, in each case with automatic binary/decimal conversion, and the machine was controlled by a perforated tape carrying single address instructions, i. . , instructions specifying one operand, and an operation. In addition to his series of general-purpose computers, Zuse built two special-purpose computers, both used for calculations concerning aircraft wing profiles. The first of these was in use for 2 years at the Henschel Aircraft Works, before being destroyed through war damage. Both computers had fixed programs, wired on to rotary switches, and performed calculations involving addition, subtraction and multiplication by constant factors.Soon after completion of the Z3, the design of an improved version, the Z4, was started. This was mainly electro-mechanical but incorporated a purely mechanical binary store similar to that which had been used for the Zl and Z2 machines. The partially completed Z4 was the only one of Zuse’s machines to survive the war – indeed it eventually was completed and gave years of successful service at the Technische Hochschule, Zurich. The Z4 was inspected shortly after the war by R. C. Lyndon, whose report on the machine for the US Office f Naval Research was published in 1947. At this stage the Z4 had only manual input and output, and no means of conditional branching, although it was planned to add four tape readers and two tape punches, and facilities for repeating programs and for choosing between alternate subprograms. The machine was housed in the cellar of a farmhouse in the little village of Hopferau in Bavaria, and was not fully operational, but the mechanical store and various arithmetic operations and their automatic sequencing were successfully demonstrated to Lyndon.His report, although it gives a fairly full description of the Z4 (with the exception of the mechanical store, which he was not allowed to examine in detail), made virtually no mention of Zuse’s earlier work. Indeed it was many years before any other English language accounts of Zuse’s work were published, and Zuse’s rightful place in the chronology of computer development became at all widely appreciated. 5. Bell Telephone Laboratories The potentialities of telephone equipment for the construction of digital calculation devices were not realised for many years.The first automatic telephone exchange, which used the step-by-step or Strowger switch, was installed in 1892. As early as 1906 Molina devised a system for translating the pulses representing the dialled decimal digits into a more convenient number system. Exchanges based mainly on the use of electromechanical relays started to come into use at the turn of the century, the earliest successful centralised automatic exchanges dating from about 1914. However, from the late 1920’s various different calculating devices were developed using telephone equipment.Perhaps the most spectacular of these was the automatic totalisator. Totalisator, or â€Å"pari-mutuel,† betting became legal on British race courses in July 1929. Development of fully automatic totalisators consisting of ticket-issuing machines situated in various parts of the race course, a central calculating apparatus, and display boards which indicated the number and total value of bets made on each horse, and on the race as a whole, was already well under way.There were several rival systems. The Hamilton Totalisator and the totalisator produced by the British Automatic Totalisator Company were fully electrical, both as regards the calculations performed and the operation of the display boards, whereas the Lightning Totalisator used electrical impulses from remote ticket machines only to release steel balls which fell through tubes and actuated a mechanical adding apparatus.In January 1930 the Racecourse Betting Control Board demonstrated at Thirsk Racecourse a new standard electric totalisator supplied by Bri tish Thompson Houston, built from Strowger switches. This machine which was transportable from racecourse to racecourse could accumulate bets on up to six horses at a maximum rate of 12 000 per minute. The machine had in fact been designed in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1928 but the first complete machine to be used in the USA was installed by the American Totalisator Company at Arlington Park nly in 1933. In succeeding years much more sophisticated totalisators, involving hundreds of remote ticket-issuing machines, were used at racecourses all over USA, and it was not until many years after the advent of the electronic computer that one was used as a replacement for the central calculating apparatus of the totalisator. One early little-known design for a calculating machine to be built from telephone relays was that of Bernard Weiner in Czechoslovakia in 1923.Weiner, in association with the Vitkovice Iron Works, went on during the 1930’s to design a more powerful automatic calcu lator. He did not survive the war, and nothing is known about the results of this work. Other early work was done by Nicoladze who in 1928 designed a multiplier based on the principle of Genaille’s rods. (These were a non-mechanical aid to multiplication which enabled a person to read off the product of a multidigit number by a single digit number. Four years later Hamann described not only various different styles of relay-based multiplier, but also a device for solving sets of simultaneous linear equations, and shortly afterwards Weygandt demonstrated a prototype determinant evaluator, capable of dealing with 3 x 3 determinants. Undoubtedly in the years that followed many other digital calculating devices were developed based on telephone relay equipment, particularly during the war for such military applications as ballistics calculations and cryptanalysis – indeed, as mentioned earlier, some of Zuse’s machines made extensive use of telephone relays.It is per haps a little surprising that it was not until 1937 that Bell Telephone Laboratories investigated the design of calculating devices, although from about 1925 the possibility of using relay circuit techniques for such purposes was well accepted there. However, in 1937 George Stibitz started to experiment with relays, and drew up circuit designs for addition, multiplication and division. At first he concentrated on binary arithmetic, together with automatic decimal-binary and binarydecimal conversion, but later turned his attention to a binary-coded decimal number representation.The project became an official one when, prompted by T. C. Fry, Stibitz started to design a calculator capable of multiplying and dividing complex numbers, which was intended to fill a very practical need, namely to facilitate the solution of problems in the design of filter networks, and so started the very important Bell Telephone Laboratories Series of Relay Computers. In November 1938, S. B. Williams took over responsibility for the machine’s development and together with Stibitz refined the design of the calculator, whose construction was started in April and completed in October of 1939.The calculator, which became known as the â€Å"Complex Number Computer† (often shortened to â€Å"Complex Computer,† and as other calculators were built, the â€Å"Model I†), began routine operation in January 1940. Within a short time it was modified so as to provide facilities for the addition and subtraction of complex numbers, and was provided with a second, and then a third, teletype control, situated in remote locations. It remained in daily use at Bell Laboratories until 1949.The Complex Computer was publicly demonstrated for the first time in September 1940 by being operated in its New York City location from a teletypewriter installed in Hanover, New Hampshire, on the occasion of a meeting of the American Mathematical Society, a demonstration that both John Mauc hly and Norbert Wiener attended. During 1939 and 1940 Stibitz started work on the idea of automatic sequencing and on the use of error-detecting codes. These ideas were not pursued actively until, a year or so later, the onset of the war rovided a strong stimulus and the necessary financial climate. They then formed the basis of the second of the Bell Laboratories relay calculators, the â€Å"Relay Interpolator. † This was a special-purpose tape-controlled device, with selfchecking arithmetic, designed to solve fire control problems, and was built for the National Defense Research Council, to which Stibitz had been lent by Bell Laboratories. Although mainly used for interpolation it was also used for a few problems in harmonic analysis, calculation of roots of polynomials and solution of differential equations.It became operational in September 1943, and after the war it was handed over to the US Naval Research Laboratory, where it was in use until 1961. The Model III relay c alculator, the â€Å"Ballistic Computer,† work on which started in 1942, was a much more complete realisation of Stibitz’s early plans for an automatic computer, and although once again intended for fire control problems was much more versatile than the Model II. It was tape-controlled, and had a tenregister store, a built-in multiplier (designed by E. L.Vibbard), and devices for performing automatic look-up of tables held on perforated paper tape. Perhaps most impressive was the fact that the machine was 100 per cent. self-checked. The machine was completed in June 1944, and remained in use until 1958. The Model IV relay calculator was little different from the Model III, and the series culminated in the Model V, a truly general-purpose program-controlled computer, complete with convenient conditional branching facilities. (The final member of the series, Model VI, was essentially just a simplified version of the Model V. Two copies of the Model V were built, the firs t being delivered in 1946 to the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics at Langley Field, Virginia, and the second in 1947 to the Ballistics Research Laboratory at Aberdeen, Maryland. With its multiple computing units, the Model V, which used floating point arithmetic, was what we would now call a multiprocessing system, and its â€Å"problem tapes† were the forerunners of the early simple batch-processing operating systems. Each of the two computing units comprising a complete system contained 15 storage registers.A single register could hold a floating point number consisting of a sign, a seven-decimal digit mantissa and a two-digit exponent. Decimal digits were stored in a bi-quinary form, using seven relays, and each register used a total of 62 relays. Each unit had independent provision for the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and for 8 The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications taking the square root of floating point numbers, and for printi ng or punching its results.In addition a large set of tape readers, intended for tapes of input data, tabulated functions and programs, and for the problem tapes which controlled the running of series of separate programs, were shared by the two computer units. These units normally functioned as independent computers, but for large problems would be arranged to work cooperatively. Although somewhat slow in execution, the Model V set new standards for reliability, versatility and ease of switching from one task to another, and in so doing must surely have had an important influence on the designers of the earliest round of general-purpose electronic computers.In later years, quite a number of relay calculators were constructed, in both the USA and Europe, even after the first stored program electronic computers became operational, but the importance of their role in the history of computers hardly matches that of the Bell Laboratories Model V and its contemporaries. 6. The advent of electronic computers The earliest known electronic digital circuit, a â€Å"trigger relay,† which involved a pair of valves in a circuit with two stable states and was an early form of flip-flop, was described by Eccles and Jordan in 1919.The next development that we know of was the use by WynnWilliams at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, of thyratrons in counting circuits including, in 1932, a â€Å"scale-of-two† (binary) counter. By the end of the decade quite a few papers had been published on electronic counters intended for counting impulses from GeigerMuller tubes used in nuclear physics experiments. WynnWilliams’ work had a direct influence on the ideas of William Phillips, who apparently in 1935 attempted to patent a binary electronic computing machine.He built a mechanical model, which still exists, of the intended electronic multiplication unit but no other details are presently known of his planned machine. The first known attempt to build an elect ronic digital calculating machine was begun by John V. Atanasoff in the mid-1930’s at Iowa State College where there had been an active interest in statistical applications using punched card equipment since the early 1920’s. As an applied mathematician Atanasoff had many problems requiring generalisations of existing methods of approximating solutions of linear operational equations.He first explored the use of analog techniques and with Lynn Hannum, one of his graduate students, developed the â€Å"Laplaciometer,† a device for solving Laplace’s equation in two dimensions with various boundary conditions. By 1935 the realisation of the sharp limitations of analog computing forced Atanasoff to digital methods. The disadvantages of mechanical techniques and his knowledge of electronics and of the work of Eccles and Jordan then led him to consider an electronic approach.He soon found that in these circumstances a base two number system would have great adva ntages. In 19361937 Atanasoff abandoned the Eccles-Jordan approach and conceived a system employing memory and logic circuits, whose details were worked out in 1938. He received a grant from Iowa State in 1939, and was joined by Clifford E. Berry. With Berry’s assistance a prototype computing element was built and operating by the autumn of that year. They then undertook the design and construction of a large machine intended for the solution of up to 30 simultaneous linear equations.At the heart of the machine there was a pair of rotating cylinders around the surface of which a set of small electrical condensers was placed. Each condenser could, by the direction of its charge, represent a binary digit; although the charge would leak away slowly, it was arranged that as the cylinders rotated the charge on each condenser was detected and reinforced at 1 second time intervals so that information could be stored for as long as required.The condensers were arranged so as to provi de two sets of 30 binary words, each consisting of 50 bits, the condensers corresponding to a single word being arranged in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the cylinders. The results of intermediate steps of a computation were to be punched in binary form on cards, for later re-input to the machine. In order that card punching and reading should be fast enough to keep pace with the computation, special devices were designed that made and detected holes in cards by means of electrical sparks.Ordinary input and output was to be via conventional punched cards, with the machine providing automatic binary/decimal conversions. The machine, with binary addition, subtraction and shifting as its basic arithmetic facilities, was designed to solve sets of simultaneous linear equations by the method of successive elimination of unknowns. The electronic part of the computer was operational but the binary card reader was still unreliable when in 1942 Atanasoff and Bcrry left Iowa State for w artime jobs, so that the machine was abandoned, never having seen actual use.In the late 1930’s and early 1940’s several groups started to investigate the use of digital electronic circuits as replacements for mechanical or electro-mechanical calculating devices, including several of the American business machine manufacturers such as IBM, whose work was described briefly above. The earliest known efforts at applying electronics to a general-purpose program-controlled computer were those undertaken by Schreyer and Zuse, also mentioned earlier.The next development which should be mentioned is the still classified series of electronic cryptanalytic machines that were designed and built in Britain during the war. The machines that are of particular interest, with respect to the development of electronic computers are the Colossi, the first of which was operational in late 1943, while by the end of the war ten had been installed. Each Colossus incorporated approximately 20 00 valves, and processed a punched data tape that was read at a speed of 5000 characters per second.Preset patterns that were to be compared against the input data were generated from stored component patterns. These components were stored in ring registers made of thyratrons and could be manually set by plug-in pins. The Colossi were developed by a team led by M. H. A. Newman. Alan Turing, who had been one of the main people involved in the design of an electro-mechanical predecessor to the Colossi, was apparently not directly associated with the new design, but with others provided the requirements that the machines were to satisfy.The comparative lack of technical details about the design of these machines makes it unreasonable to attempt more than a preliminary, and somewhat hesitant, assessment of the Colossi with respect to the modern digital computer. It would appear that the arithmetical, as opposed to logical, capabilities were minimal, involving only counting rather than g eneral addition or other operations. They did, however, have a certain amount of electronic storage. Although fully automatic, even to the extent of producing printed output, they were very much special-purpose machines, but ithin their field of specialisation the facilities provided by plug-boards and banks of switches afforded a considerable degree of flexibility; in fact several of the people involved in the project have since characterised the machines as being â€Å"program-controlled. † Their importance as cryptanalytic machines, which must have been immense, can only be inferred from the number of machines that were made and the honours bestowed on various members of the team after the end of the war; however, their importance with respect to the development of computers was twofold.They demonstrated the practicality of largescale electronic digital equipment, just as ENIAC did, on an even grander scale, approximately 2 years later. Furthermore, they were also a major source of the designers of some of the first post-war British computers, namely the Manchester machine, the MOSAIC, and the ACE at the National Physical Laboratory. Fascinating though they are, none of the efforts described so far comes near to matching the importance of the work at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, which led to the design of first the ENIAC and then the EDVAC computers.By 1942 the Moore School had, because of pressures of war, become closely associated with the Ballistic Research Laboratory of the US Army Ordnance Department, and the Moore School’s differential analyser was being used to supplement the work of the one at the Ballistic Research Laboratory on the production of ballistic tables. (The two analysers were identical and had been patterned on the original differential analyser invented by Vannevar Bush in 1930. ) One of the people who had worked with the analyser was John Mauchly, then an assistant professor at the Moore School.Mauchly was by this time well aware of what could be done with desk calculating machines and punched card equipment, although he was apparently unaware of the work Aiken was then doing on what became the Harvard Mark I, or of Babbage’s efforts 100 years earlier. He did however know of the work of Stibitz and had visited Iowa State in June 1941 in order to see Atanasoff’s special-purpose computer. Another person who worked on the Moore School differential analyser, and in fact made important improvements to it by replacing its mechanical amplifiers by partially electronic devices, was J. Presper Eckert, a research associate at the School.Eckert had met Mauchly in 1941, and it was their discussions about the possibility of surmounting the reliability problems of complex electronic devices that laid the groundwork for a memorandum that Mauchly wrote in August 1942. This proposed that an electronic digital computer be constructed for the purpose of solving numerical difference equations of the sort encountered in ballistics problems. Also at the Moore School, acting as a liaison officer for Colonel Paul N. Gillon of the office of the Chief of Ordnance, was Herman H. Goldstine, who before the war had been assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan.In early 1943 Goldstine and Gillon became interested in the possibility of using an electronic calculating machine for the preparation of firing and bombing tables. By this time Mauchly’s 1942 memorandum had been mislaid, and it had to be recreated from his secretary’s notes. The second version of the memorandum, together with more detailed plans drawn up by Mauchly and Eckert, was included in a report dated April 1943 which formed the basis for a contract between the University of Pennsylvania and the US Government to develop an electronic computer.A large team was assembled at the Moore School in order to design and build the computer under the supervisi on of J. G. Brainerd, with Eckert as chief engineer and Mauchly as principal consultant. As the project progressed its aims broadened, so that the ENIAC, as it became known, turned out to be much more a general-purpose device than had been originally contemplated, and although programs were represented by plugged interconnecting wires, it provided full conditional branching facilities.It was an incredibly ambitious machine incorporating over 19 000 valves and consuming approximately 200 kilowatts of electric power! (The number of valves largely resulted from the use of them for high speed storage, and the choice of number representation, which can best be described as â€Å"unary-coded decimal. â€Å") The ENIAC incorporated 20 10-digit accumulators, which could be used for addition and subtraction, and for the temporary storage of numbers, a multiplier and a combination divider and square rooter.Addition took 200 microseconds, and multiplication of two 10-digit numbers approximat ely 3 milliseconds. Storage was provided for approximately 300 numerical constants in function tables, which could be set up by manual switches prior to commencing a computation. Input and output was via punched cards, using standard IBM devices. Early in its career the method of programming the machine was modified so that the program was represented by settings of the function tables without the need for changing the interconnecting cables.