The 1939 Desch/Mumma Calculator

As described in Desch/Mumma interview with the Smithsonian
filed 1940, awarded 1952

As written Patent 2,595,045:

This invention relates to calculating machines and more particularly relates to an electrical calculating machine that functions to differentially accumulate items solely by the flow of electric energy and without mechanical movement of any parts.

In this novel calculating machine, selected numerical data is entered by means of the differential action of electronic devices into an accumulator comprising a plurality of denominationally grouped electronic devices, the selective operation of which devices during a plurality of data-entering operations causes the accumulation of data.

Calculator Front

Seen from rear, tubes are 885 thyratrons

Page from Desch copy of patent

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    WHO worked during the war? Find the Personnel section. Also, Joseph R. Desch
    WHAT were their goals? By the Numbers. Also, The US Bombe
    WHY? History of the Bombe Project A contemporary account of the reasons and the plans for their project for the Director of Naval Communications, 1944.
    WHERE was the project: In Dayton, it was in Building 26. In Washington, it was housed at the Naval Communications Annex

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      …And a most important factor in that perspective is a realization that codebreaking and intelligence alone do not win wars. … You can have the best intelligence in the world, but if you don’t have a powerful army, it’s useless. That’s why it’s wrong to say that codebreaking won the war, or even that it decided the war. Physical and moral elements did that … Ultra itself became useful only when we had the power to exploit it.

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