It was sad to hear recently of the passing of Willis Ware. If you follow that link to his NYT obituary, you might think there is a misprint when you notice the sentence that begins, "Mr. Ware, who worked at the RAND Corporation for more than 55 years..." The Obituary doesn't begin to give proper credit to Ware.
He didn't have the flair and gusto that Herb Grosch or Edmund Berkeley possessed as evangelists of the Computer Era in the 1950s but I suspect that Ware was the final checkpoint before a purchase decision by a great many organizations.
Willis Ware traveled everywhere there was to go in the computer industry from just about day one starting with von Neumann at Princeton's IAS and then heading West. And, he took notes. The Charles Babbage Institute holds seventeen boxes of Willis' notes and collected brochures. If you think you know everything about some obscure computer from the 1950s, you had better check this source before jumping to conclusions. Willis Ware probably visited the manufacturer, evaluated their management as well as their computer and assessed their likelihood of success.
Did Willis Ware stop at ElectroData and evaluate the Datatron? O yes. He wasn't quite there at conception but he made several visits before birth, beginning in 1952. He thought that putting L. P. Robinson in charge of the machine development "is sparking the whole project" and gave it a feeling of well-being and good health." Later, in 1954, when it was clear that ElectroData had a winner, Ware was the one who suggested that ElectroData write up an article for the IEEE Tranactions detailing the machine. The result was John Alrich's, "Engineering Description of the ElectroData Computer," in March of 1955. This is arguably the most elegant description of a first generation computer that was ever produced.
With 55 years at Rand under his belt (Wikipedia only credits him with 50) it was only appropriate that Ware write the definitive book on RAND's role in Information Technology. He did just that in 2008 at the age of 88. The book is RAND and the Information Evolution. I highly recommend that you buy a copy.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Open Thread - 10/15/13
This post is for you!
Click on the COMMENTS word just below this line. Feel free to post anything that you would like to correct, clarify or add to the Datatron website.
You will need a Google ID (If you have a G-mail account, you have one) or Blogger ID to post a comment.
Click on the COMMENTS word just below this line. Feel free to post anything that you would like to correct, clarify or add to the Datatron website.
You will need a Google ID (If you have a G-mail account, you have one) or Blogger ID to post a comment.
It's Time to Update the Datatron Website
It's hard to believe that I haven't updated this blog or my Datatron website for the past three years, but that appears to be the case.
What's been going on? Well, I have continued to do weekly research over at the Charles Babbage Institute and follow lots of interesting leads into the depths of Burroughs literature. And I included more than a few "computer history" stops into our schedule as Linda and I traveled the country.
Several years ago, I had expected to write a history of ElectroData and the Datatron and include a short summary of the Burroughs Corporation along the way. I soon discovered that there is a dearth of good accurate information on Burroughs available in published literature. I expanded my scope. The story of Burroughs is fascinating in its own right.
I also realized that the simple Datatron website that I had set up back in 2008 and stretched out with links to a half dozen additional pages wasn't going to cut it. So I have embarked on a program to replace it with a more modern web-page structure. Here is a sample page. The site will evolve and begin to take its new shape over the next few weeks.
In the meantime, here are a few pages (with pictures) from my Travel Blog that touch on the edges of the Datatron story and other events in the history of computing.
What's been going on? Well, I have continued to do weekly research over at the Charles Babbage Institute and follow lots of interesting leads into the depths of Burroughs literature. And I included more than a few "computer history" stops into our schedule as Linda and I traveled the country.
Several years ago, I had expected to write a history of ElectroData and the Datatron and include a short summary of the Burroughs Corporation along the way. I soon discovered that there is a dearth of good accurate information on Burroughs available in published literature. I expanded my scope. The story of Burroughs is fascinating in its own right.
I also realized that the simple Datatron website that I had set up back in 2008 and stretched out with links to a half dozen additional pages wasn't going to cut it. So I have embarked on a program to replace it with a more modern web-page structure. Here is a sample page. The site will evolve and begin to take its new shape over the next few weeks.
In the meantime, here are a few pages (with pictures) from my Travel Blog that touch on the edges of the Datatron story and other events in the history of computing.
- The Burroughs Adding Machine Company in Detroit
- Ed McCollister's family home in Iowa City
- Cliff Berry's family home in Marengo, Iowa
- Site of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer on the Iowa State Campus
- Site of the ENIAC computer in Philadelphia
- The ERMA museum in Concord, California
- U of Cal., Berkeley where Datatron engineers Alrich and Foster got their E.E. degrees under the direction of Paul Morton.
- The Computer History Museum in Mountainview, CA., where the reproduction of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer now resides
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)