How Percy Ludgate’s 1909 Paper (and IBM) Helped Thwart Konrad Zuse’s Computer Patent in 1960

Abstract

This investigation outlines how Percy Ludgate's 1909 paper describing his design for a mechanical computer, his “Analytical Machine”, was used in 1960 by a German patent attorney to thwart Konrad Zuse's computer patent, just in time, as it was about to be granted. This narrative is then followed by analyses of, and discovery of proof of, the role of IBM in preventing Zuse from getting what would have been the premier patent on the concept of a programmable computer, and then by an exploration of how information about Ludgate's 1909 paper was found by (or for) the opposing German patent attorney.

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