The transition to the computer, 1945 to 1951

Up to 1951, the major activity in design and construction of mathematical devices lay within the CSIR/CSIRO. Two separate groups grew up, each taking its own line of development. The Section of Mathematical Instruments (SMI) was established initially with the Division of Electrotechnology (ET), under its Chief D. M. Myers, in 1948 in response to a proposal made in 1946 by Myers and Cornish (Myers, D. M. and Cornish, E. A., 1946) for the establishment of a Section of Applied Mathematics to research in and develop mathematical methods, devices and instruments, provide mathematical and computational assistance to research workers and advise on requirements for mathematical information and provide it where necessary. The SMI later moved from ET to the Department of Electrical Engineering, when Myers was appointed to the Chair following the retirement of Sir John Madsen in 1948. The second group was established within the RP to exploit its Second World War experience by developing electronic means of digital computation. Both groups were established in response to perceived future need. The SMI first engaged in development of a mechanical ten-integrator differential analyser with electrical stepwise transmission of shaft rotations using M-motors. The integrators were obtained from War-Time predictors. This novel means of torque transmission greatly decreased problem set-up times (Myers, D. M. and Blunden, W. R., 1952). At the same time an electrical device for the solution of polynomial equations with real coefficients (Willoughby, E. O., Rose, G. A. and Forte, W. G., 1952) was being built at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Adelaide.

In the field of digital calculators a system to solve framework problems by Southwell's relaxation techniques, using a specially coupled group of mechanical decimal calculators, had been built at the CSIR'S Aeronautical Research Laboratory (ARL), Melbourne, by J. R. Green. A group of Hollerith punched card machines was installed at RP for performing scientific computations. These had been modified within the division to extend their functions (Pearcey, T., 1951, 1952, 1953). A relay decimal mul-tipler, using PO 3000 relays in a reduced biquinary scale, was also being built to be used to extend the card system. By far the largest user of punched card systems at that time was the Bureau of Census and Statistics (BSC) (Pearcey, T. and Bowen, E. G., 1948).

The Australian entry into the field of automatic electronic computation was to produce one of the earliest of the truly automatic stored program computers, the CSIRO Mk 1, later to be known as the CSIRAC. It was designed and built at RP by T. Pearcey and M. Beard as a logical follow-on to experimental studies in design of electronic logic components. Initial studies by Pearcey in 1946 and 1947 led to its logical design being defined by the end of 1947 (Pearcey, T. and Beard, M., 1948). It performed its first controlled program in 1949.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering