Yes, No -- One, Zero: The Language of Electronic Computers

New York: Esso Standard, Humble Oil & Refining Company, 1958.

Staplebound wraps. 10 1/2" X 8". 15pp. Mild wear to staplebound printed wraps, with creasing to corners and light toning to rear wrap. Binding is sound. Pages are musty, but clean and unmarked. A delightful copy of this 1950s guide to computers ("sometimes called 'giant brains,' 'thinking machines,' or 'robots that think'") and the binary system prepared for classroom use by Esso Standard Oil, with a history of numbering systems as well as tricks, problems, and experiments, illustrated throughout in helpful diagrams and charming illustrations. As James Cortada writes in Second Bibliographic Guide to the HIstory of Computing, Computers, and the Information Processing Industry, Volume 2, "Publication of such a booklet as early as 1958 is indicative of the rapid spread of awareness of computers in the 1950s." It's additionally interesting that such a booklet would come to classrooms via an oil company, and that the booklet asks the question, "Will computers replace the human brain?" Very good. Item #3209

Price: $75.00