The Prehistory of Computing, Part Ii

Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago

olooney

70 points

9 comments

oranlooney.comSciencestory

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History of ComputingEarly Computing DevicesComputing Pioneers

Key topics

History of Computing

Early Computing Devices

Computing Pioneers

The article 'The Prehistory of Computing, Part II' explores the early history of computing devices, sparking a thoughtful discussion among commenters about related historical devices and the evolution of computing technology.

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01Story posted
Sep 27, 2025 at 8:24 AM EDT
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Oct 1, 2025 at 3:57 AM EDT
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Discussion (9 comments)

Showing 9 comments

cocodill

3 months ago

1 reply

I would recommend to visit Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum, they have a lot old stuff.

http://hnf-erstes-og.360touren24.de/

detourdog

3 months ago

Whenever Nixdorf gets mentioned on HN I post pictures of my Nixdorf 820

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B1i59UlCqNHCjx

Which has rod cell memory board

https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/memory-storage/8/...

rickcarlino

3 months ago

1 reply

I’ve always been fascinated by information systems that predate the transistor. I’ve been slowly compiling a list in my Obsidian notebook. In case anyone else has a similar itch to scratch: https://rickcarlino.com/notes/ideas/primitive-information-te...

detourdog

3 months ago

Thank you for compiling and posting this.

theodorethomas

3 months ago

1 reply

Part I managed to miss the Antikythera Mechanism.

Mr_Minderbinder

3 months ago

It misses a great deal more than just that.

Animats

3 months ago

The picture of the top is of the tape readers for the Harvard Mark I, from 1944. It's Peak Tabulating Machine, a reasonably general purpose automatic computer built from IBM tabulating machine parts. The project started in 1939, but was held up by WWII.

IBM's early computing history was a long struggle between what people wanted to do and what could cost-effectively be built.

jibal

3 months ago

> In philosophy he’s chiefly remembered for his incomprehensible theory of monads and for stating that this was the best of all possible worlds.

Those are not in fact the things Leibniz is best known for in philosophy ... in that field he's primarily known for the Identity of Indiscernibles and for Leibniz's Mill ... and many other things as well.

sevensor

3 months ago

Totally worth reading Part 1 as well; I was unfamiliar with the sector as a computing device before today. It’s very clever.

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