Zuse, Konrad

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Konrad Zuse

Konrad Zuse (1910-1995) is considered by many to be one of the founders of modern computing because of his work on early stage computers and computing languages.

Early Life

Konrad Zuse was born in 1910 in Berlin, Germany. His family moved to East Prussia shortly after he was born, and Zuse spent most of his life there. At a young age, Zuse showed talent in the arts and engineering, and went from making block prints and drawings to building model trains and railroads. As a boy he attended school in the town of Braunsberg, and received an education in the liberal arts. At 17, Zuse's interest in engineering led him to apply to the Berlin Technical School, where he studied the various facets of modern technical engineering. While at school, Zuse built a vending machine that dispensed food and drink, took money, and gave back exact change. However, during his studies Zuse was constantly frustrated at the numerous calculations involved in the processes of engineering. All of these calculations had to be written out and solved by hand.

Inspired to Create a Computing Machine

Zuse soon got a job at the Henschel Aircraft Company as an engineer, supervising the building of aircraft. One of his jobs was to inspect the wings of the plane, and see how much stress could be placed upon them before they would start to break apart. This job required many and diverse calculations that took up a lot of time. It was frustrating work, and Zuse spent many hours with his calculator and a pen. This inspired him to come up with the idea of a machine that would simplify the work involved in calculating advanced mathematics. However, building such a machine would not be simple. Zuse realized that he had to figure out a way for his machine to record and save the various steps involved in doing complex calculations. This required the calculation machine to be able to recognize and store various stages of the mathematical problem.

The Z1 computing machine

Zuse left his job at the aircraft company, and started to work on his invention. Using his parents' living room as a laboratory, he first figured out what his ideal machine would need. He envisioned an input device where he could define the various parts of the problem, a storage device for saving the various stages of the problem, and an arithmetical module that would work out all the steps of the equation. He would also need some way to link the various parts of the machine together, so they could operate as one. Zuse also planned to add a mechanical keyboard to his device, so he could input the various mathematical problems more efficiently.

With these ideas in mind, Zuse started to work on his project. He was a competent mechanic and draftsman, but his knowledge did not extend into the realm of electrical engineering, a discipline that would have helped him build the machine that he had envisioned. However, this did not dissuade him. Zuse was infinitely more familiar with the two-digit number system of binary arithmetic than he was with the 10-digit number system used by most calculating machines of the time, so Zuse decided that he would program his computing machine to run using binary code. It would be simpler to make a system dependent on only two numbers rather than to keep track of ten. Also, since anything could be expressed through binary code, this would give his machine greater versatility in figuring out complex equations. Zuse's final product consisted of a memory mechanism designed around moving pins in and out of slots, to represent zero or one. Another hidden benefit, Zuse realized, was that because his computing machine was only dealing with two digits, he could keep the space he needed to a minimum, and the resulting machine was very compact. The memory unit that he created took up about a cubic meter of space. Connected to a calculation unit, Zuse's first computing machine, the ZI, was completed around 1938.

Improvements Made to Computing Machines

Shortly after Zuse completed his first computing machine, one of his friends, Helmut Schreyer, who was also an electric engineer, suggested that Zuse replace the mechanical workings of his computing machine with vacuum tubes and telephone relay switches, to speed up the processing time and increase the efficiency of the machine. Zuse rejected the idea of using vacuum tubes, but he did incorporate the relay switches into his designs.

Zuse created the Z2 computing machine using the relay switches suggested by Schreyer. Built with the telephone relays, it was a bit more unstable than the older mechanical system, because the switches were not always reliable. However, by accommodating these new ideas, Zuse was stepping far ahead of his time, anticipating a future techology.

Zuse's work with these new forms of computation attracted the attention of the German Experimental Aircraft Institute. They had been working unsuccessfully to reduce the number of planes that broke apart during flight because of wear and tear at the wings. The Institute's job was to figure out how to overcome this problem, called fluttering. However, the Institute was not equipped to handle the vast number of calculations required to correct the problem. Zuse was contacted, and a deal was worked out where the Institute would give Zuse funding to build a better computing machine, while at the same time he assisted the Institute in building more wind-resistant planes. Zuse received the grant from the Institute and began working on the Z3, while still using his parents' living room as a base of operations. When it was finished, the Z3 could add, subtract, multiply, divide, and extract a square root. This could be done in a matter of seconds, since the number of relays that Zuse had been able to incorporate was much greater than his previous computing machines.

Innovated

Zuse's computing machines were ahead of their time in both size and portability. Zuse's Z3 took up only a closet's worth of space, and could be moved around at will. Zuse had also invented a push button control panel that allowed the user to input various commands. The device recognized conversion, and could convert decimal numbers into binary numbers and back again at the user's command.

Zuse was also the first person to come up with a programming language for his systems. He incorporated two unique symbols, which are used all the time today in mathematical calculations. They are greater than or equal to (?) and less than or equal to (?). Zuse was a technological pioneer even before such terms as hardware or software were commonplace.

World War II

Zuse was recruited by the Third Reich to create computing machines for their forces during World War II. His third computing machine, the Z3, was destroyed when an Allied bomb fell on the house where Zuse and his family lived. Zuse survived, however, and went on to create another computing machine called the S1, similar to the Z3 except that it was not programmable. The S1 computing machines were used to guide unmanned German gliders that carried bombs to targets. These gliders were directed to their targets via remote control, and used the S1 system designed by Zuse to adjust their wings and tail to flying conditions and to the movement of the intended target.

Near the end of the war, Zuse created the Z4, his most advanced system to date. Because his machine was portable, he was able to move it and keep the Allies from discovering and destroying it. He hid the computing machine in a University town by the name of Gottingen, and left it with the Experimental Aircraft Institute, the same institution that he had worked for during the War. His devices were not discovered until much later, when French troops discovered the hidden Z4.

After the French found his machine, word of the new technology spread throughout France and the United States. Members of the scientific community marveled at his computing machine, and they were amazed at how much he had accomplished without any knowledge of similar projects that were being developed at the same time.

Zuse's Later Life

After the war Zuse continued to experiment with computational devices. It took him a long time to release the information about his machines, because even after the war was over he distrusted the Allies and refused to answer their questions about his methods and computing machines.

Zuse soon learned about American scientists that had worked on technological developments during the War. Although the Americans had produced systems that were much larger than Zuse's had been, it was Zuse who brought the science of computing further than anyone had thought possible. He continued designing, and formed his own company, Zuse KG, that continued developing scientific computing systems.

Zuse is still thought to be the true father of modern computing, because of the advanced nature of his inventions.