The birth of the modern digital computer

On January 8, 1940, American researcher George Stibitz’s Complex Number Calculator was declared functional and put into operation. Stibitz used this device to demonstrate remote computing in September the same year. A.S.Ganesh takes a look at Stibitz, who is seen as one of the fathers of modern digital computing, and his CNC…

The growth of technology has been at breakneck speed. Technology that was latest even a few decades back is in many cases now passé, and has even passed out of existence on some occasions. All this has been the result of heralding in the era of the modern digital computers.

The history of modern digital computers is actually quite short. There have been many people who have had a telling role in its growth and progress. One of them is American researcher George Stibitz, recognised as one of the fathers of the modern digital computer.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1904, Stibitz’s childhood was spent in Dayton, Ohio. This is where his father taught as a professor of theology, while his mother worked as a maths teacher. An experimenter at heart with an inclination towards science and engineering, Stibitz started tinkering with electrical gadgets even as a child. He even nearly set his house on fire on one occasion by overloading the circuits with an electric motor that was given to him by his father.

After earning his bachelor’s degree at Denison University in 1926, he was awarded his M.S. degree in 1927 from the Union College in Schenectady, New York. Following a year working as a technician at General Electric, Stibitz began his doctoral programme at Cornell University and received his Ph.D. in mathematical physics from Cornell in 1930.

Working as a research mathematician at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York City, Stibitz was tasked with helping design and operate an increasingly more complex system of telephones. Stibitz made his breakthrough in 1937 when he came up with the idea of using relays for automated computing, the discovery for which he is best known for.

Relays are mechanical devices that can take one of two positions – open or close – when an electrical current passes through it. With the ability to control the flow of current, the relay thus functioned like a gate and was a common device in regulating telephone circuits.

Stibitz decided to find out if relays could be used to perform simple mathematical functions in November 1937. Using borrowed devices from the Bell stockroom, Stibitz assembled a simple computing system on his kitchen table at home.