Howard Aiken developed one of the first world’s first computers, although since machines like the Colossus became known, his Mark I is no longer regarded as the first computer. I’m not sure that it would count anyway, since it wasn’t electronic and didn’t have any stored program capability. I must say that I struggled with this book. The history of the Mark I was interesting, but I found the book quite dry and academic, and Aiken’s personality irritating — he had a tendency to be very hard and arrogant at times. He was also important for starting one of the very first computing degree programmes in the world as well, at Harvard.
