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2016 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

There and Back Again – Andrew Booth, a British Computer Pioneer, and his Interactions with US and Other Contemporaries

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Abstract

This paper explores the interchanges between Andrew Booth, an early British computer pioneer and contemporary US and other pioneers. The paper records how funding from the US Rockefeller Foundation supported Andrew Booth’s research work in the UK and allowed him to refine his ideas on computer design by visiting US pioneers each year from 1946 to 1948. This led to the construction of an electronic drum, the world’s first successful demonstration of a rotating storage device connected to a computer, to his pioneering work on natural language processing and finally and most notably to his invention of the Booth hardware multiplier which is the basis of the multiplier used in billions of chips each year.

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Literature
1.
go back to reference Evans, C.: Pioneers of Computing. Audio interview with A D Booth, Pioneers of Computing No 9. Science Museum, London (1975) (Unpublished) Evans, C.: Pioneers of Computing. Audio interview with A D Booth, Pioneers of Computing No 9. Science Museum, London (1975) (Unpublished)
2.
go back to reference Booth, A.D.: Fourier Technique in X-ray Organic Structure Analysis. Cambridge University Press, New York (1948)MATH Booth, A.D.: Fourier Technique in X-ray Organic Structure Analysis. Cambridge University Press, New York (1948)MATH
3.
go back to reference Memo of meeting between Weaver and Booth dated June 20th 1946. Rockefeller Foundation Group 1.1, Series 401D, Box 34, Folder 434 Memo of meeting between Weaver and Booth dated June 20th 1946. Rockefeller Foundation Group 1.1, Series 401D, Box 34, Folder 434
4.
go back to reference Memo of meeting between Weaver and Booth dated July 3rd 1946. Rockefeller Foundation Group 1.1, Series 401D, Box 34, Folder 434 Memo of meeting between Weaver and Booth dated July 3rd 1946. Rockefeller Foundation Group 1.1, Series 401D, Box 34, Folder 434
5.
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6.
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go back to reference Hutchins, W.J.: From first conception to first demonstration: the nascent years of machine translation, 1947–1954. Mach. Transl. 12(3), 195–252 (1997)CrossRef Hutchins, W.J.: From first conception to first demonstration: the nascent years of machine translation, 1947–1954. Mach. Transl. 12(3), 195–252 (1997)CrossRef
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Metadata
Title
There and Back Again – Andrew Booth, a British Computer Pioneer, and his Interactions with US and Other Contemporaries
Author
Roger G. Johnson
Copyright Year
2016
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49463-0_4

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