Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 1073

ORDVAC
6 manuals and reports:

25 October 2022, 14:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$2,040 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

ORDVAC

6 manuals and reports:
1. ORDVAC Manual. University of Illinois for Balistic Research Laboratories, 1952. Publisher's printed wrappers. Light soiling.
2. WOODWARD, VIOLA. Memorandum Report No. 634: Coding of Problem for the ORDVAC. Aberdeen, MD: Ballistic Research Laboratories, 1952. Publisher's printed wrappers, bound with staples. Light soiling and creasing to wrappers.
3. BETZ, B. KEITH. Memorandum Report No. 733: An ORDVAC Floating Binary System. Aberdeen, MD: Ballistic Research Laboratories, 1953. Publisher's printed wrappers, bound with staples. Light soiling and wear.
4. CAMPBELL, LLOYD W. Memorandum Report No. 823: An ORDVAC Floating Binary Code Checker. Aberdeen, MD: Ballistic Research Laboratories, 1954. Publisher's printed wrappers, bound with staples. Light soiling and wear.
5. LESER, TADEUSZ. and MICHAEL ROMANELLI. Programming and Coding for ORDVAC. Aberdeen, MD: Ballistic Research Laboratories, 1955. Quarter cloth and brown stiff paper report covers, bound with metal report fastener. Rubbed, some creasing, page edges a bit frayed, light soiling.
6. CAMPBELL, LLOYD W. and GLENN A. BECK. Formula and Assembly Translator Program for ORDVAC (FORAST). Self wrappers, bound with staples, 3-hole punched. Light soiling.
Provenance: Winifred S. Jonas, ENIAC/EDVAC/ORDVAC programmer at BRL, with her penciled ownership signature on two volumes.

The ORDVAC (Ordnance Discrete Variable Automatic Computer), based on John von Neumann-developed IAS (Institute for Advanced Study) architecture, was a successor to the ENIAC and EDVAC. It was built by the University of Illinois along with the ILIAC, with which it was compatible, and began being used at BRL in 1952. ORDVAC publications were produced expressly for those at BRL and are rarely seen on the market.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

ADVERTISING POSTERfor 'The Suffragette' newspaper, [c.1913-1914]

ARCHITECTURE - STUART (JAMES) AND NICHOLAS REVETT The Antiquities of Athens, 4 vol. bound in 2, 1825-1830

ILLUMINATED ADDRESS – CLARA CODD Illuminated printed address signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, [1909]

ARMENIAN - HISTORY, THEOLOGY AND PRINTING. Group of books/a map in Armenian, c.1825-1901 (12)

MUSIC & RECORDINGS – ETHEL SMYTH Collection of printed music, song sheets and records, [c.1911-1912]

BANK NOTES - MANUFACTURING BRADBURY (HENRY) On the Security and Manufacture of Bank Notes, FIRST EDITION, Bradbury and Evans, 1856