Created in 1946 as part of a 1,000 page Report on the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), this ENIAC Operating Manual provides a fascinating glimpse into the technology behind the world s first electronic, general-purpose computer. Designed and built during WWII at the University of Pennsylvania, ENIAC was conceived by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. It was financed by the Ordnance Department of the U.S. Army. The Army s intent was to use it to calculate artillery firing tables but ENIAC s digital, Turing-complete design meant that it could solve a wide range of problems. Eventually it was even used to compute data for the design of the hydrogen bomb. ENIAC represented a remarkable advance in technology. Its speed was 1000x faster than the electro-mechanical machines that preceded it, and it relied on no moving parts to produce calculations. Famously, the ENIAC contained almost 17,500 vacuum tubes, 7,200 crystal diodes, 1,500 relays, 70,000 resistors and 10,000 capacitors, and took up nearly 1800 square feet while consuming 150 kW of power. While vacuum tube technology was not the most reliable owing to frequent burn-outs, the ENIAC operated roughly 50% of the time it was in service. ENIAC was composed of individual panels that performed different functions, with numbers passed between the units by buses. It could be programmed to perform a variety of now-familiar operations including loops, branches and subroutines, and could hold a ten-digit decimal number in memory. It even had the ability to branch triggering different operations depending on the sign of a computed result and could print results to an IBM punch card. Programming the ENIAC was not easy and often took weeks of work, some of it spent mapping out the problem and much of it spent setting up the computer s numerous switches and cables. Created by the University of Pennsylvania in fulfillment of their contract, this ENIAC Operating Manual was originally restricted, and its publication limited to just 25 copies. Within its pages you ll find a complete set of instructions for the operation of the computer, primarily in the form of diagrams that explain the functionality of various panels. While it includes very little explanatory material concerning the circuits of the machine (this being the topic of another portion of the report, the Technical Description of the ENIAC ), it nevertheless provides a unique insight into the operation of one of history s most important computers.

The first six volumes of "the Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce" included Peirce's main writings in general philosophy, logic (deductive, inductive, and symbolic), pragmatism, and metaphysics. Volumes VII and VIII are a continuation of this series. Originally published as two separate volumes, they now appear in one book as part of the Belknap Press edition. Volume VII contains papers on experimental science, scientific method, and philosophy of mind. Volume VIII contains selections from Peirce's reviews and correspondence and a bibliography of his published works, speeches and correspondence, and works by other authors which quote or describe manuscripts by Peirce which are not included in Volumes I-VIII of "Collected Papers,"

As is true of the series as a whole, the material in these volumes is not readily accessible elsewhere. Many of the manuscripts have never been published before, and the previously published material which is included is widely scattered in a number of journals.

Peirce's work in experimental science played an important role in his life and in the formation of his philosophy, and Volume VII is designed to show how the principal focus of his attention shifted from this sphere to the methods of science and finally to speculative metaphysics. Thus it includes his only published article in experimental psychology and two short pieces on gravity as well as the most important part of "The Logic of 1873" (in which pragmatism was first formulated in writing); "The Logic of Drawing History from Ancient Documents," discussion of the historical method; "Economy of Research" (1879), containing many pertinent reflections on scientific methodology ofinterest to research directors today; and much more.

America's first original philosopher and logician, and the founder of the philosophy of pragmatism, Peirce was also influential in shaping the thinking of such figures as William James and John Dewey. The reviews and correspondence contained in Volume VIII show his attitude toward these philosophies and illustrate the nature of his relationships with the great thinkers of his day.

The bibliography in Volume VIII lists chronologically all of Peirce's known published works, giving a clear picture of the development of his thought from 1860 through 1911. It is more complete than any published so far in that many new items are included and items previously listed in different sources are here brought together.

These volumes will be of great value to all persons interested in philosophy, scientific method, psychology, the methodology of history, and American studies in general.