COMIC: An Analog Computer in the Colorant Industry

Abstract

In 1958, Davidson & Hemmendinger, a small company that made color measurements and standards, introduced the COMIC (Colorant MIxture Computer), the first practical computer for determining a mixture of dyes or paints to match a given sample. An analog computer that solved a set of simultaneous equations, it was replaced within a decade by digital computer programs; nonetheless, it helped bring automation to the colorant industry. This short history-which describes the COMIC and its effect on the colorant industry, and identifies some of its successors-gives context to the COMIC while adding to historians' knowledge of technology and computing.