Today in Technology History

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December 18

Chances are, you've never heard of Konrad Zuse. He was born in Berlin in 1910, and always had a knack for tinkering. He studied civil engineering, then became a structural engineer in a German aircraft company. That job required tedious calculations, so Zuse -- "out of laziness," he later said -- decided to build a calculating machine to do the work.

By the time he was 28, working alone, Zuse had built a mechanical calculating machine in his parents' living room. He called it the "Z1."

For the Z2 (completed 1939), Zuse replaced some mechanical parts with electric relays like those used in phone switches. That machine was followed by the Z3 (completed 1941), a computer that used vacuum tubes and was automatic, programmable, binary, general-purpose -- and, most important, it worked.

Unfortunately, there was a world war going on. Zuse was drafted into the German military in 1939, and he struggled to convince the authorities that his work could be valuable. When he proposed a two-year project to build the Z4, an electronic computer that could help with anti-aircraft defenses, the Nazis rejected him, believing they were close to winning the war.

Still, Zuse managed to build the powerful Z4. It was the only of Zuse's computers to survive the Allied bombing, since it was hidden in southern Germany.

In large part because of Germany's defeat, Zuse's pioneering work on computers was eclipsed by the later achievements of British and American mathematicians and engineers. He started a computer company, but sold it in 1967 for lack of capital. He spent his later years painting and engaged in theoretical research. Zuse died on December 18, 1995.

Related links:

• Click here to read a biography of Zuse, written by his son, with lots of pictures.

• Click here to read from Zuse's autobiography.

• Click here to read much more about Zuse and his computers.

• Click here to read about an innovative programming language Zuse devised.

 

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