Babbage and Aiken

Because Howard H. Aiken expressed such an admiration for the ideas of Charles Babbage, the machine he conceived - brought into being through the engineering talents of IBM (the Mark I or ASCC) - is often cited as an example of Babbage´s dream come true. This article explores the depth and extent of Aiken´s knowledge of Babbage´s ideas, the stage of his own thinking when he first encountered Babbage´s writings, and the way in which he found out about Babbage.