Giant Brains or Machines that Think.

BERKELEY, Edmund C.

Item Number: 111716

New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1949.

First edition, second printing of this important work which popularized cognitive images of early computers. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Erwin Tomash with warmest greetings, for more than 20 years together in the computer field, from Ed Berkeley October 11, 1975.” The recipient, Erwin Tomash was an engineer who co-founded Dataproducts Corporation, which specialized in computer technology, specifically printers and core memory units. He is recognized for his early pioneering work with computer equipment peripherals. Tomash led the creation of the Charles Babbage Institute and is responsible for The Adelle and Erwin Tomash Fellowship in the History of Information Technology and The Erwin Tomash Library. With Erwin Tomash’s bookplate to the pastedown, near fine in a very good dust jacket. An exceptional association linking these two pioneers in the field.

Edmund C. Berkeley became famous in 1949 with the publication of his book Giant Brains, or Machines That Think in which he described the principles behind computing machines (called then "mechanical brains", "sequence-controlled calculators", or various other terms), and then gave a technical but accessible survey of the most prominent examples of the time, including machines from MIT, Harvard, the Moore School, Bell Laboratories, and elsewhere. In Giant Brains, Berkeley also outlined a device which some have described as the first "personal computer", Simon. Plans on how to build this computer were published in the journal Radio Electronics in 1950 and 1951. Simon used relay logic and cost about $600 to construct. The first working model was built at Columbia University with the help of two graduate students. Berkeley founded, published and edited Computers and Automation, the first computer magazine. He also created the Geniac and Brainiac toy computers.