SHANNON, Claude Elwood (1916-2001) - photo 1
SHANNON, Claude Elwood (1916-2001) - photo 2

SHANNON, Claude Elwood (1916-2001)

Lot 59
13.12.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 50 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1105712
Lot 59 | SHANNON, Claude Elwood (1916-2001)
Estimate value
£ 50 000 – 80 000
SHANNON, Claude Elwood (1916-2001)

'A symbolic analysis of relay and switching circuits.' Offprint from: Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers 57 (1938). New York: American Institute of Electrical Engineers, 1938.

Extremely rare offprint of this landmark paper in the development of the electronic digital computer; ‘possibly the most important, and also the most famous, master's thesis of the century’ (Gardner). Shannon obtained B.S. degrees in mathematics and engineering in 1936 from the University of Michigan, and later that year accepted the post of research assistant at MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering, where he began working toward an advanced degree. While working with the Bush differential analyzer at MIT, Shannon became interested in the theory and design of complicated relay and switching circuits like the ones used in telephone systems. As an undergraduate he had studied symbolic logic and Boolean algebra. Shannon submitted this thesis in 1937 at the age of 21, only one year after Turing published ‘On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem.’ In his thesis Shannon recognized that the true/false values in Boole's two-valued logic were analogous to the open and closed states of electrical circuits. From this it followed that Boolean algebra could be used to describe or to design electrical circuits:



‘It is possible to perform complex mathematical operations by means of relay circuits. Numbers may be represented by the positions of relays or stepping switches, and interconnections between sets of relays can be made to represent various mathematical operations. In fact, any operation that can be completely described in a finite number of steps using the words 'if,' 'or,' 'and,' etc. ... can be done automatically with relays’ (p.10).



Because Boolean algebra, invented by George Boole in his books, The Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847) and The Laws of Thought (1854), makes it possible to devise a procedure or build a device, the state of which can store specific information, once Shannon showed that electrical circuitry can perform logical and mathematical operations, and can also store the result of these operations, the inference could be drawn that it was possible to design calculating machines using electrical switches.



According to the statement to lower left on the first page, Shannon submitted the manuscript on 1 March 1938, and preprints of this paper were available from 27 May 1938. This ‘preprint’ has reset pagination of 1-11 (in the journal vol. it would be paginated 713-723); the final page bears a colophon stating it is a preprint and gives a date of 16 September 1938 for the printing of the whole volume. No copy of the offprint can be traced at auction, and RBH only records 3 copies of the journal issue appearing at auction. From Gutenberg to the Internet 12.1; Origins of Cyberspace 363.



Quarto (280 x 215mm). 11pp., 287-292. Stapled self-wrappers (staples rusting, faint insignificant creasing at top corner and vertical creasefold, otherwise a fresh, clean copy). Provenance: publisher’s offprint stamp to top left-hand corner of first page just overlapping title and author name.

Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
09.12.2023 12:00 – 17:00
10.12.2023 12:00 – 17:00
11.12.2023 09:00 – 18:00
12.12.2023 09:00 – 17:00
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Buyer Premium see on Website
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

Frequently asked questions

First of all, you should register to be able to purchase at auction. After confirming your email address, enter your personal information in your user profile, such as your first name, last name, and mail address. Choose a lot from the upcoming auction and the maximum amount you want to place on it. After confirmation of your choice, we will send your application by e-mail to the appropriate auction house. If the auction house accepts a request, it will participate in the auction. You can view the current status of a bid at any time in your personal account in the "Bids" section.
Auctions are performed by auction houses and each of the auction houses describes their terms of auction. You can see the texts in the section "Auction information".
The results of the auction are published within a few days after the end of the auction. In the top menu of the site, find the tab "Auctions". Click on it and you will be on the auction catalog page, where you can easily find the category "Results". After opening it, select the desired auction from the list, enter and view the current status of the interested lot.
The information about the auction winners is confidential. The auction winner will receive a direct notification from the auction house responsible with instructions for further action: an invoice for payment and the manner in which the goods will be received.
Each of the auction houses has its own payment policy for the won lots. All auction houses accept bank transfers, most of them accept credit card payments. In the near future you will find detailed information for each case in the section "Auction information" on the page of the auction catalog and the lot.
Shipment of the won lot depends on its size. Small items can be delivered by post. Larger lots are sent by courier. Employees of the auction houses will offer you a wide range to choose from.
No. The archive serves as a reference for the study of auction prices, photographs and descriptions of works of art.