From Joop van Montfoort
The smartphone would have been an even more impossible invention had Jeff Hecht tried making one using vacuum tubes (15 October, p 39). They were the only option when I started exploring electronics in around 1940. Even if it were possible to replicate a smartphone’s computing capability with them, an aeroplane hangar would have been needed to house them.
Hecht’s mention of personal computers reminded me of the first programmable desktop computer, the Olivetti Programma 101, which I used in the late 1960s. I was in good company – they were also used by NASA to plan the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Croyde, Devon, UK
