Robert ''Anthony'' Hyman (1928–2011) was a British historian of computing. Anthony Hyman wrote especially on the early Victorian computer pioneer,

Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...

(1791–1871). He liaised with the

London Science Museum The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

, the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, the Crawford Library, the Oxford Museum of the History of Science, the

Cambridge University Library Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge. It is the largest of over 100 libraries Libraries of the University of Cambridge, within the university. The library is a major scholarly resource for me ...

, the Edinburgh Royal Observatory for source material. Hyman was born in 1928 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He studied at

Dartington Hall Dartington Hall in Dartington, near Totnes, Devon, England, is an historic house and country estate of dating from medieval times. The group of late 14th century buildings are Grade I listed; described in Pevsner's Buildings of England as ...

and then

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

. He worked on

transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...

s in the early 1950s, became a polymer scientist, and then worked as a computer researcher for English Electric LEO, before becoming "a free-lance computer consultant and historian of science", and the Alastair Horne Modern History Fellow at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. In 1962, Hyman married Hon. Laura Alice Boyd (1934–1999), daughter of the 6th Baron Kilmarnock. They had three children, including noted biologist Anthony A. Hyman. Hyman died in 2011.

Selected publications

Hyman published the following books: * * * * * Reviews of '' Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer'': * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

1928 births 2011 deaths 20th-century British non-fiction writers Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British historians of science British historians of mathematics Historians of technology Computer science writers British science writers British technology writers British male writers British male non-fiction writers Academics of the University of Oxford Charles Babbage {{UK-nonfiction-writer-stub