Giant brains

Episode number 1 of Series “The dream machine”.
This program traces the early development of the computer and introduces the pioneers who foresaw the universal application of these versatile machines capable of more than accurate calculations. Included is the work of Charles Babbage who invented the first computer in the 1800’s which mechanically compiled tables; Konrad Zuse’s use of electronic relays in the early 1930’s to represent information using the binary numbering system; John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert who launched the ENIAC (Electronic Numeric Integrator and Computer) in the US in 1946 which used valves to carry out calculations; Freddie Williams who designed the first ‘Stored Programmed Computer’ using the Cathode Ray Tube to hold electronic information in 1949; the visionary work of Alan Turing who realised that computers could perform any logical task, on the basis of manipulating symbols according to rules, capable of simulating human thought.