“A Calculating Machine with a ‘Memory” [cover title]. “A Marvel of Our Time: The ‘Memory’ Machine Which Can Solve the Most Complex Mathematical Problems” [internal title] [Earliest Known Photos of the “First Operational General Purpose Computer”] [PLACEHOLDER] MODEPROBLEM

London: Illustrated London News, 1949. First Printing. Staplebound. Very Good+. First Printing. Staplebound. The University of Manchester’s SSEM (Small-Scale Experimental Machine), nicknamed “Baby,” first ran a stored program on June 21, 1948, “thus claiming to be the first operational general-purpose computer.” Burton, Christopher P., “Rebuilding the First Manchester Computer,” in Rojas & Hashagen, The First Computers – History and Architecture (1950), p. 379. During the summer and fall of 1948, the Manchester team worked to develop a more practical version of the SSEM, the Mark I, eventually with the assistance of Ferranti which hoped to produce a commercial version. This article features five detailed photographs, including a remarkable two-page center spread with a numbered key to 33 separately identified elements, from “Power Supply Meters” to “Storage C/R Tube,’’ “Multiplying Units” and “Interconnecting Wires.” The photos were taken on December 15, 1948, and were of great use in the reconstruction of Baby in 1997. Ibid. 383. Not in OOC. Creasing, toning, general edgewear, spliting, else tight bright and unmarred. Aggregated set.