A fun thing about this computer is that you see it (for free) every time you're in the Science Center at Harvard. You don't have to go to some special museum.
If only WW2 lasted another 5yrs I'm curious what else would have been accomplished in that timeframe. They were all just starting to perfect some advanced technology.<p>The motivation from people dying and patrotic goals, combined with budget (but a constrained one) and every person in the country attempting to contribute to the effort seems like a good recipe for new technology development. Especially for finding the stuff that will actually do something useful today and not in 10yrs, since it was already needed yesterday.<p>Obviously the costs of the war outplay the value from this but it's interesting to think about.
TIL "patch" and "loop" didn't used to be metaphorical -- they did it physically with punch card tape!<p>Also, that has to be the classiest enclosure ever made. Check out some of the designer's other work: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Bel_Geddes" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Bel_Geddes</a>
> After two rejections,[4] he was shown a demonstration set that Charles Babbage’s son had given to Harvard University 70 years earlier. This led him to study Babbage and to add references of the Analytical Engine to his proposal<p>It's amazing how old rediscovering old ideas can create scientific/technology revolutions.
This was in the lobby of the old Aiken Computing Center my undergrad years, but moved out when they built the new "cheese wedge" Gates/Ballmer building on the same spot.<p>Always entertaining to walk by and see the "bugs" (moths) in the (then already defunct) relays...