Computing Primes (1929-1949): Transformations in the Early Days of Digital Computing

In the early days of digital computing (1929-1949), the computation of a list of primes was often used as a test or demonstration problem. The idea to use electronic machinery to produce a list of primes originated with Derrick H. Lehmer, but it was later taken up by Claude E. Shannon and recurred as computations on the ENIAC and EDSAC. The historical sequence of computing prime numbers is marked by a turn from dedicated hardware to writing and debugging software, although special-purpose sieve machinery was still built and used after 1949.