A mechanical computer is a computer built from mechanical components such as levers and gears rather than electronic components. The most common examples are adding machines and mechanical counters , which use the turning of gears to increment output displays. More complex examples could carry out multiplication and division—Friden used a moving head which paused at each column—and even differential analysis . One model, the Ascota 170 accounting machine sold in the 1960s, calculated square roots .
45-421: The Z3 was a German electromechanical computer designed by Konrad Zuse in 1938, and completed in 1941. It was the world's first working programmable , fully automatic digital computer . The Z3 was built with 2,600 relays , implementing a 22- bit word length that operated at a clock frequency of about 5–10 Hz . Program code was stored on punched film . Initial values were entered manually. The Z3
90-458: A black swastika. The reverse looked almost the same as the obverse but a black swastika replaced the eagle and eagles replaced the four swastikas. The flag was in use until the end of 1935. On 26 February 1935 Hitler officially created the Luftwaffe with Hermann Göring as its Commander-in-Chief ( German : Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe ). Late in 1935 a flag was instituted that consisted of
135-495: A carefully choreographed progression. Data on the cards could be added, subtracted and compared with other data and, later, multiplied as well. This progression, or flow, from machine to machine was often planned and documented with detailed flowcharts . All but the earliest machines had high-speed mechanical feeders to process cards at rates from around 100 to 2,000 per minute, sensing punched holes with mechanical, electrical, or, later, optical sensors. The operation of many machines
180-593: A duration of two or three years, the proposal was rejected. Zuse decided to implement the next design based on relays. The realization of the Z2 was helped financially by Kurt Pannke , who manufactured small calculating machines. The Z2 was completed and presented to an audience of the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt ("German Laboratory for Aviation") in 1940 in Berlin-Adlershof. Zuse
225-465: A one-item-per-card basis. Unit record machines came to be as ubiquitous in industry and government in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century as computers became in the last third. They allowed large volume, sophisticated data-processing tasks to be accomplished before electronic computers were invented and while they were still in their infancy. This data processing was accomplished by processing punched cards through various unit record machines in
270-468: A program would load the contents of a memory location into R1; the next load operation would load the contents of a memory location into R2. Arithmetic instructions would operate on the contents of R1 and R2, leaving the result in R1, and clearing R2; the next load operation would load into R2. A store operation would store the contents of R1 into a memory location, and clear R1; the next load operation would load
315-549: A result, early successes in aircraft development progressed only slowly and erratically during World War II . The Ministry was formed on 27 April 1933 from the Reich Commissariat for Aviation ( German : Reichskommissariat für die Luftfahrt ), which had been established two months earlier with Göring at its head. In this early phase the Ministry was little more than Göring's personal staff. One of its first actions
360-462: A square of bright red silk. The flag was similar to some extent to that used before. The differences of the obverse were that now there was placed in the centre a gold swastika and instead of the four black swastikas four golden Luftwaffe eagles were added. The wings were left out. Moreover, the flag was edged on all four sides with a gold-braided border, which incorporated a row of 76 small gold swastikas all standing on their points. The reverse displayed
405-585: A square root instruction. The Z3, like its predecessors, stored its program on an external punched tape, thus no rewiring was necessary to change programs. However, it did not have conditional branching found in later universal computers. On 12 May 1941, the Z3 was presented to an audience of scientists including the professors Alfred Teichmann and Curt Schmieden of the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt ("German Laboratory for Aviation") in Berlin , today known as
450-413: A universal Turing machine on the Z3 was shown in 1998 by Raúl Rojas . He proposed that the tape program would have to be long enough to execute every possible path through both sides of every branch. It would compute all possible answers, but the unneeded results would be canceled out (a kind of speculative execution ). Rojas concludes, "We can therefore say that, from an abstract theoretical perspective,
495-566: Is frequently (but erroneously) attributed to a 1945 paper by John von Neumann and colleagues. Von Neumann is said to have given due credit to Alan Turing , and the concept had actually been mentioned earlier by Konrad Zuse himself, in a 1936 patent application (that was rejected). Konrad Zuse himself remembered in his memoirs: "During the war it would have barely been possible to build efficient stored program devices anyway." Friedrich L. Bauer later wrote: "His visionary ideas (live programs) which were only to be published years afterwards aimed at
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#1732782927759540-476: Is now on permanent display at Deutsches Museum in Munich . The Z3 was demonstrated in 1998 to be, in principle, Turing-complete . However, because it lacked conditional branching , the Z3 only meets this definition by speculatively computing all possible outcomes of a calculation. Thanks to this machine and its predecessors, Konrad Zuse has often been suggested as the inventor of the computer. Zuse designed
585-752: The German Aerospace Center in Cologne . Zuse moved on to the Z4 design, which he completed in a bunker in the Harz mountains, alongside Wernher von Braun 's ballistic missile development. When World War II ended, Zuse retreated to Hinterstein in the Alps with the Z4, where he remained for several years. The Z3 operated as a stack machine with a stack of two registers, R1 and R2. The first load operation in
630-589: The Norden , as well as the similar devices for ship computations such as the US Torpedo Data Computer or British Admiralty Fire Control Table . Noteworthy are mechanical flight instruments for early spacecraft, which provided their computed output not in the form of digits, but through the displacements of indicator surfaces. From Yuri Gagarin 's first spaceflight until 2002, every crewed Soviet and Russian spacecraft Vostok , Voskhod and Soyuz
675-599: The Z1 in 1935 to 1936 and built it from 1936 to 1938. The Z1 was wholly mechanical and only worked for a few minutes at a time at most. Helmut Schreyer advised Zuse to use a different technology. As a doctoral student at the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg (now Technische Universität Berlin ) in 1937 he worked on the implementation of Boolean operations and (in today's terminology) flip-flops on
720-400: The "Pour le Mérite". Extending from the left and right side of the wreath were a pair of stylised wings each consisting of four ascending "feathers". Also extending from the wreath towards the four corners of the flag were four black-edged white inactive wedges, a feature that was to be incorporated in the design of the future unit Colours of the new Luftwaffe. In each of the four corners was set
765-647: The Luftwaffe during the war years, to improve their aviation and weapons technology as a "technical-tactical" department would do in other nations' military aviation bureaus, the Luftwaffenverwaltungsamt (LD) for construction, Luftwaffenpersonalamt (LP) for training and staffing, and the Zentralabteilung (ZA), central command. In 1934, an additional department was added, the Luftzeugmeister (LZM) in charge of logistics . With
810-454: The Ministry. This is often considered the birth of the Luftwaffe. The Ministry was now much larger, consisting of two large departments: the military Luftschutzamt (LA) and the civilian Allgemeines Luftamt (LB). Erhard Milch , the former head of Deutsche Luft Hansa , was placed in direct control of the LA, in his function as Secretary of State for Aviation. In September 1933, a reorganization
855-433: The advent of electronic computers , data processing was performed using electromechanical machines collectively referred to as unit record equipment , electric accounting machines ( EAM ) or tabulating machines . By 1887, Herman Hollerith had worked out the basis for a mechanical system of recording, compiling and tabulating census facts. "Unit record" data processing equipment uses punchcards to carry information on
900-550: The basis of vacuum tubes . In 1938, Schreyer demonstrated a circuit on this basis to a small audience, and explained his vision of an electronic computing machine – but since the largest operational electronic devices contained far fewer tubes this was considered practically infeasible. In that year when presenting the plan for a computer with 2,000 electron tubes, Zuse and Schreyer, who was an assistant at Wilhelm Stäblein's [ de ] Telecommunication Institute at Technische Universität Berlin , were discouraged by members of
945-425: The computing model of the Z3 is equivalent to the computing model of today's computers. From a practical perspective, and in the way the Z3 was really programmed, it was not equivalent to modern computers." This seeming limitation belies the fact that the Z3 provided a practical instruction set for the typical engineering applications of the 1940s. Mindful of the existing hardware restrictions, Zuse's main goal at
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#1732782927759990-407: The contents of a memory location into R1. A read keyboard operation would read a number from the keyboard into R1 and clear R2. A display instruction would display the contents of R1 and clear R2; the next load instruction would load into R2. It was possible to construct loops on the Z3, but there was no conditional branch instruction. Nevertheless, the Z3 was Turing-complete – how to implement
1035-470: The development of vacuum-tube computers, where their slower speed was compensated for by good reliability. Some models were built as duplicate processors to detect errors, or could detect errors and retry the instruction. A few models were sold commercially with multiple units produced, but many designs were experimental one-off productions. Air Ministry (Germany) The Ministry of Aviation ( German : Reichsluftfahrtministerium , abbreviated RLM )
1080-434: The evolution occurred in the 1970s, with the introduction of inexpensive handheld electronic calculators. The use of mechanical computers declined in the 1970s and was rare by the 1980s. In 2016, NASA announced that its Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments program would use a mechanical computer to operate in the harsh environmental conditions found on Venus . Starting at the end of the nineteenth century, well before
1125-642: The existence of the Third Reich, overseeing all matters concerning both military and civilian designs – it handled military aviation matters as its top priority, particularly for the Luftwaffe . As was characteristic of government departments in the Nazi era, the Ministry was personality-driven and formal procedures were often ignored in favour of the whims of the Minister, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring . As
1170-404: The idea of mapping Boolean algebra onto electronic relays in a seminal work on digital circuit design. Zuse, however, did not know of Shannon's work and developed the groundwork independently for his first computer Z1 , which he designed and built from 1935 to 1938. Zuse's coworker Helmut Schreyer built an electronic digital experimental model of a computer using 100 vacuum tubes in 1942, but it
1215-513: The institute who knew about the problems with electron tube technology. Zuse later recalled: "They smiled at us in 1939, when we wanted to build electronic machines ... We said: The electronic machine is great, but first the components have to be developed." In 1940, Zuse and Schreyer managed to arrange a meeting at the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) to discuss a potential project for developing an electronic computer, but when they estimated
1260-635: The ministry to Zuse's company ZUSE Apparatebau . A further intermediary between Zuse and the Reich Air Ministry was the aerodynamicist Herbert A. Wagner . The Z3 was completed in 1941 and was faster and far more reliable than the Z1 and Z2. The Z3 floating-point arithmetic was improved over that of the Z1 in that it implemented exception handling "using just a few relays", the exceptional values (plus infinity, minus infinity and undefined) could be generated and passed through operations. It further added
1305-498: The rapid growth of the Luftwaffe following the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Ministry grew so large that Göring was no longer able to maintain control. This period was marked by an increasing inability to deliver the new aircraft designs that were desperately needed, as well as continued shortages of aircraft and engines. In 1943 Albert Speer took over from Milch, and things immediately improved. Production reached their highest levels in 1943 and 1944, and though Speer introduced
1350-541: The right practical direction but were never implemented by him." A modern reconstruction directed by Raúl Rojas and Horst Zuse started in 1997 and finished in 2003. It is now in the Konrad Zuse Museum in Hünfeld, Germany. Memory was halved to 32 words. Power consumption is about 400 W, and weight is about 30 kilograms (66 lb). In 2008, Horst Zuse started a reconstruction of the Z3 by himself. It
1395-511: The same measures of self-regulation that he had introduced in other areas of industry, and tried to take credit for the so-called Armaments Miracle , contemporary German statistics show that the real reason for increased production were measures and investments made by Milch and his staff in 1941 and 1942. Though German aircraft production had briefly caught up with that of the Soviet Union in 1944, it collapsed in 1945. The RLM never overcame
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1440-499: The shortage of raw materials and fuel supply, lack of experienced pilots and deficits in technology and know-how that had handicapped it since the beginning of the war. The Ministry building was one of the few public edifices in central Berlin to survive the severe Allied bombings in 1944–45. On 5 May 1933 the German Air Ministry, with Hermann Göring as Reich Minister for Aviation ( German : Reichsluftfahrtminister )
1485-466: The time was to have a workable device to facilitate his work as a civil engineer . The success of Zuse's Z3 is often attributed to its use of the simple binary system. This was invented roughly three centuries earlier by Gottfried Leibniz ; Boole later used it to develop his Boolean algebra . Zuse was inspired by Hilbert 's and Ackermann 's book on elementary mathematical logic Principles of Mathematical Logic . In 1937, Claude Shannon introduced
1530-491: The war, used vacuum tubes to implement switches and used decimal representation for numbers. Until 1948 programming was, as with Colossus, by patch leads and switches. The Manchester Baby of 1948 along with the Manchester Mark 1 and EDSAC both of 1949 were the world's earliest working computers that stored program instructions and data in the same space. In this they implemented the stored-program concept which
1575-685: Was a government department during the period of Nazi Germany (1933–45). It is also the original name of the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus building on the Wilhelmstrasse in central Berlin , Germany , which today houses the German Finance Ministry ( German : Bundesministerium der Finanzen ). The Ministry was in charge of development and production of all aircraft developed, designed, and built in Germany during
1620-532: Was completed in Berlin in 1941. It was not considered vital, so it was never put into everyday operation. Based on the work of the German aerodynamics engineer Hans Georg Küssner (known for the Küssner effect ), a "Program to Compute a Complex Matrix" was written and used to solve wing flutter problems. Zuse asked the German government for funding to replace the relays with fully electronic switches, but funding
1665-418: Was denied during World War II since such development was deemed "not war-important". The original Z3 was destroyed on 21 December 1943 during an Allied bombardment of Berlin . That Z3 was originally called V3 ( Versuchsmodell 3 or Experimental Model 3) but was renamed so that it would not be confused with Germany's V-weapons . A fully functioning replica was built in 1961 by Zuse's company, Zuse KG , which
1710-500: Was directed by the use of a removable plugboard , control panel , or connection box . Early electrically powered computers constructed from switches and relay logic rather than vacuum tubes (thermionic valves) or transistors (from which later electronic computers were constructed) are classified as electro-mechanical computers. These varied greatly in design and capabilities, with some units capable of floating point arithmetic. Some relay-based computers remained in service after
1755-511: Was equipped with a Globus instrument showing the apparent movement of the Earth under the spacecraft through the displacement of a miniature terrestrial globe , plus latitude and longitude indicators. Mechanical computers continued to be used into the 1960s, but had steadily been losing ground to digital computers since their advent. By the mid-1960s dedicated electronic calculators with cathode-ray tube output emerged. The next step in
1800-420: Was founded. This event came along with the introduction of a command flag that was produced in different sizes, ranging from 200 to 30 cm (79 to 12 in). The flag consisted of bright red material on which was placed in the centre of the obverse a wreath of silver coloured laurel leaves. In the centre of the leaves was a black eagle. Suspended from the base of the wreath was a true-coloured representation of
1845-622: Was lost at the end of the war. An analog computer was built by the rocket scientist Helmut Hölzer in 1942 at the Peenemünde Army Research Center to simulate V-2 rocket trajectories. The Colossus (1943), built by Tommy Flowers , and the Atanasoff–Berry computer (1942) used thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) and binary representation of numbers. Programming was by means of re-plugging patch panels and setting switches. The ENIAC computer, completed after
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1890-594: Was lucky – this presentation was one of the few instances where the Z2 actually worked and could convince the DVL to partly finance the next design. In 1941, improving on the basic Z2 machine, he built the Z3 in a highly secret project of the German government. Joseph Jennissen (1905–1977), member of the "Research-Leadership" ( Forschungsführung ) in the Reich Air Ministry acted as a government supervisor for orders of
1935-438: Was presented in 2010 in the Konrad Zuse Museum in Hünfeld. Electromechanical computer Mechanical computers can be either analog , using continuous or smooth mechanisms such as curved plates or slide rules for computations; or discrete , which use mechanisms like pinwheels and gears. Mechanical computers reached their zenith during World War II, when they formed the basis of complex bombsights including
1980-611: Was to requisition control of all patents and companies of Hugo Junkers , the German aeronautical engineer. These included all rights to the Junkers Ju 52 aircraft. Defence Minister General Werner von Blomberg decided that the importance of aviation was such that it should no longer be subordinate to the German Army ( Heer ). In May 1933 he transferred the army's Department of Military Aviation (the Luftschutzamt ), to
2025-607: Was undertaken to reduce duplication of effort between departments. The primary changes were to move the staffing and technical development organizations out of the LB, and make them full departments on their own. The result was a collection of six: Luftkommandoamt (LA), Allgemeines Luftamt (LB), Technisches Amt (LC, but more often referred to as the C-amt ) in charge of all research and development, but having no clear way of receiving and acting on requests from front-line combat personnel of
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