AT&T Archives: Invention of the First Electric Computer

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The "father of binary" made the first binary machine at his kitchen table. Which is why George Stibitz called his first computer "the Model K". The Model K was an incredibly simple setup—a few telephone relays that could add only binary digits with lamps which glowed for "1" and were dark for "0". This film explores this "computer" and its early descendants. His Model I, built with the help of S.B. Williams, was the computer used in the long-distance computing test, as shown in the next film. Stibitz left Bell Labs in 1941, because the company, with the country"s entrance into the war, had limited use for his devices at the time. Soon they would come to realize their value (and their wartime value) and continue the research Stibitz initiated.

The original Model K computer was disassembled. However, Stibitz recreated his computer for models that reside in the Smithsonian and at Denison University.

Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ