HARTREE, D.R. [Douglas Rayner], 'The Mechanical Integration of Differential Equations' [IN:] The Mathematical Gazette, Vol. XXII, No. 251 (G. Bell and Sons, London), 1938

8vo; pp. xiii, 528 (Hartree pp. 342–364 [whole volume offered].

D.R. Hartree's important account of the 'differential analyser' with photographs of the manchester analyser, and Hartree's pioneering Meccano model. This is the most comprehensive of the early essays on the differential analyser, with diagrams and photographs illustrating the design, accounts of the use and applications of the machine, and a useful bibliography.

The Differential Analyser was invented by Vannevar Bush, and first published in 1931; Bush's invention was the culmination of a line in computer design that goes back to the work of James and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), most famously the latter's tide-predicting machine.

The Differential Analyser was hugely successful, circulating around the world via the unconventional medium of the children's construction-set Meccano.

Very good condition in green cloth; clean and unmarked throughout, noting only very faint and very occasional foxing, barely affecting the Hartree essay.