Episode
Episode 174 - The Bell Model I
- Podcast
- Advent of Computing
- Published
- Jan 12, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3770
- Processing state
not_requested
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Summary
We are getting back to the actual digital family tree. In 1937 George Stibitz built a tiny binary adding circuit on his kitchen table using scraps he "liberated" from his job at Bell Labs. In 1940 he demonstrated a machine he called a computer. That research forms one of the foundations of modern computing. It also forms a weird temporal phenomenon that I have yet to name. Maybe the Curse of '37? Selected Sources: Zeroth Generation by George Stibitz (NOW WITH A 2nd EDITION!) http://www.bitsavers.org/magazines/Datamation/196704.pdf - Stibitz in Datamation