2 The First Generation: 1950–1959

In 1950 there were about 20 automatic calculators and computers in the United States, with a total value of around $ 1 million. Every one of these machines was different from all the others, and each could be looked upon as a singular point on the curve of technological progress. However, from 1950 onward an increasing number of in­dustrialists took the plunge into the computer adventure, and under their influence there developed new ideas, experiments, and successes but also failures. So strong was this influence that by 1964, which with the appearance of the IBM 360 series of computers marked the end of this historical period, most of the principal concepts of computer science as it now is had already been formulated.