Giant Calculator to be Installed in New Math Computation Structure

A new building is rising near the Peabody Museum to house the University's gigantic automatic calculator. This machine, which did invaluable secret war work, is at present located in the basement of the Physics Research Laboratory, and is in constant use 24 hours a day, 20 by the Navy, and four by the University for its own research projects.

Given to the University in August, 1944 by the International Business Machines Corporation, the calculator is an extremely elaborate machine and is capable of carrying out solutions accurate to 23 significant figures. It will be moved to its new location at Oxford and Jarvis streets in October, and the structure will be known as the Computation Laboratory of the University.

Many Use Machine

The calculator is at present being operated under the direction of Howard H. Aiken, associate professor of Applied Mathematics, and one of the inventors who worked on it originally. Aiken, and other members of the calculator staff, served with the Navy during the war, when the work of the machine was entirely devoted to the war effort. Wider civilian use is expected in the future in several branches of physics and astronomy. With the facilities of the new building, the instruction of graduate students in the theory and use of the machine will be increased.

The new structure, for which the floor is already laid, will be two stories high and in addition to the hugh calculator, will have several class and lecture rooms, laboratories, and a gallery from which visitors may observe the machine in action. Two thousand visitors have already seen it, including foreign scientists from all over the world.

Measures 51 Feet

The calculator, which is 51 feet long, is made up of constantly moving gears, counters, switches, shafts, and control circuits, with 500 miles of wire, and 2,000,000 wire connections. Problems are introduced into the machine on a coded tape which is prepared in advance. Its mathematical limitations have not as yet been determined.

With the new facilities it is expected that the exploitation of the possibilities of the machine will be pushed to greater heights of scientific research. Absolute accuracy and tremendous speed are the particular advantages which the machine brings about. It is capable of solving problems which no scientist could live long enough to finish.