From chemistry-request@server.ccl.net Mon Feb 28 09:20:23 2000 Received: from judy.ic.ac.uk (judy.ic.ac.uk [155.198.5.28]) by server.ccl.net (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id JAA17172 for ; Mon, 28 Feb 2000 09:20:21 -0500 Received: from juliet.ic.ac.uk ([155.198.5.4]) by judy.ic.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 2.12 #1) id 12PR1k-00050m-00 for CHEMISTRY@ccl.net; Mon, 28 Feb 2000 14:20:00 +0000 Received: from origin.ch.ic.ac.uk ([155.198.224.252] helo=chcmga.ch.ic.ac.uk) by juliet.ic.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 2.12 #1) id 12PR1i-00043H-00 for CHEMISTRY@ccl.net; Mon, 28 Feb 2000 14:19:58 +0000 Received: from rzepa.ch.ic.ac.uk ([155.198.224.86]) by chcmga.ch.ic.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 2.02 #1) id 12PR1j-0012cI-00; Mon, 28 Feb 2000 14:19:59 +0000 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: rzepa@argon.ch.ic.ac.uk Message-Id: In-Reply-To: References: Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 14:15:42 +0000 To: CHEMISTRY@ccl.net From: "Rzepa, Henry" Subject: Re: CCL:The "birth-year" of computational chemistry? Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >.. The worlds first electronic, digital computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numeric Integrating Automatic Computer), was constructed at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945, this sets an early limit for the birth of Computational Chemistry. A rather US centric claim. There was certainly a computer built by Turing well before 1945 at Bletchley park, to decode the German Enigma ciphers which probably qualifies. Turing was also associated with Manchester University, that I believe also has a prior claim to ENIAC. No doubt reference to the textbooks (mine are at home and I write this from work) will clarify this issue. Apologies for being slightly off topic! -- Henry Rzepa. +44 (0)20 7594 5774 (Office) +44 (0)20 7594 5804 (Fax) Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, London, SW7 2AY, UK. http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/