Leadership in Computing History: Arthur Norberg and the Charles Babbage Institute

This article describes the Charles Babbage Institute's leadership role in the computing history profession. Much of the article's focus is on Arthur Norberg/ the Institute's director during most of its first quarter century, and on his role in shaping both CBI and the history of computing field more generally.     

Command and control, documentation, and library science: theorigins of information science at the University of Pittsburgh

This article describes the history of the first information science department formed in the United States-at the University of Pittsburgh-and the roles of two of its principal faculty members: Allen Kent and Anthony Debons. In particular, it looks at the origins of the program in command-and-control systems, documentation of scientific literature, and library automation     

The Intel 4004 microprocessor: what constituted invention?

Investigates the context for the development of one of the earliest microprocessors, the Intel 4004. It considers the contributions made by Intel employees, most notably Marcian E. “Ted” Hoff, Jr. and Federico Faggin, and the contributions other people made to this development who are not generally known, most notably Tadashi Sasaki and Masatoshi Shima. This paper represents a case study of how corporate and national cultures affect technological development and of the many aspects of invention, including conceptualization, logical design, engineering, fabrication, capitalization and marketing     

Erwin Tomash: his life and work

Erwin and Adelle Tomash were instrumental in establishing the Charles Babbage Institute, out of which came the highly regarded library, archives, and fellowship program, and, later, the CBI Reprint Series. Before turning his attention to computer history, Erwin played an active role in the computer industry at Engineering Research Associates, Remington Rand, Telemeter Magnetics, Ampex, and especially Dataproducts, which he cofounded. This article describes his career and briefly tells the history of the companies he worked for or cofounded     

Edwin L. Harder and the Anacom: analog computing at Westinghouse

The development of the Anacom, an analog computer that was placed in operations the same year as ENIAC and continued to do valuable work for the electric power field until 1990, in spite of competition from digital computers, is discussed. The career of Edwin L. Harder, who designed and developed the Anacom, among other machines, is reviewed. Although Harder characterized the Anacom as his top achievement, during the 20 years prior to building this machine it is shown that he had already distinguished himself as an engineer and inventor in the electric power industry, and his patents and other technical contributions helped to keep Westinghouse Electric Company solvent during the depths of the Depression. A list of engineering problems suited to the electric analog computer is provided in an appendix     

Arming American scientists: NSF and the provision of scientificcomputing facilities for universities, 1950-1973

This article discusses the role of the US National Science Foundation in the provision of scientific computing facilities for colleges and universities in the period 1950 to 1973. In this period, the NSF played a major role in establishing computing facilities on American campuses for the purposes of scientific research and science education. By the end of this period, most of these programs at NSF had been disbanded, and the foundation was concentrating its support for computing not on the service of other scientific disciplines, but instead on the establishment of a theoretically oriented discipline of computer science. The primary focus here is on NSF institutional history with only a few examples of the impact of NSF programs. But if is an important part of a larger story of the role of the federal government in establishing American hegemony in computing in this era     

The stored program concept

The history and early development of the stored program concept are briefly described. This refers to the ability of a calculating machine to store its instructions in its internal memory and process them in its arithmetic unit, so that in the course of a computation they may be not just executed but also modified at electronic speeds. John von Neumann, a faculty member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, participated in the discussions in which the idea was elaborated, wrote the first report of the concept, placed it in a theoretical context, and built his own computer, which was the early model for a number of others, including the important commercially manufactured IBM 701. J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly perhaps first conceived of the stored program concept and developed most of the plans for implementing it in the Edvac, and later incorporated it in the Univac and other computers produced by their company. Several British computer scientists, notably Maurice Wilkes, were the first to implement the idea in machines initially designed to embody this feature     

Was early entry a competitive advantage? US universities thatentered computing in the 1940s

The author discusses whether early entry was a competitive advantage in academic computing. This is accomplished by examining the first three decades of computing at five universities-MIT, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia and Princeton-that initiated computing programs in the 1940s     

Aerosol and bioaerosol particle size and dynamics from defective sanitary plumbing systems

Aerosols are readily transported on airstreams through building sanitary plumbing and sewer systems, and those containing microbial pathogens (known as bioaerosols) are recognized as contributors to infection spread within buildings. When a defect occurs in the sanitary plumbing system that affects the system integrity, a cross-transmission route is created that can enable the emission of bioaerosols from the system into the building. These emission occurrences are characterized as short-burst events (typically <1 min in duration) which make them difficult to detect and predict. The characterization of these emission events is the focus of this research. Two methods were used to characterize bioaerosol emission events in a full-scale test rig: (a) an Aerodynamic Particle Sizer (APS) for particle size distribution and concentrations; and (b) a slit-to-agar sampler to enumerate the ingress of a viable tracer microorganism (Pseudomonas putida). The APS data confirmed that most particles (>99.5%) were <5 μm and were therefore considered aerosols. Particles generated within the sanitary plumbing system as a result of a toilet flush leads to emissions into the building during system defect conditions with an equivalence of someone talking loudly for over 6 and a half minutes. There were no particles detected of a size >11 μm anywhere in the system. Particle count was influenced by toilet flush volume, but it was not possible to determine if there was any direct influence from airflow rate since both particle and biological data showed no correlation with upward airflow rates and velocities. Typical emissions resulting from a 6 L toilet flush were in the range of 280–400 particles per second at a concentration of typically 9–12 number per cm³ and a total particle count in the region of 3000 to 4000 particles, whereas the peak emissions from a 1.2 L toilet flush were 60–80 particles per second at a concentration of 2.4–3 number per cm³ and a total particle count in the region of 886 to 1045 particles. The reduction in particles is in direct proportion to the reduction in toilet flush volume. The slit-to-agar sampler was able to provide viable time course CFU data and confirmed the origin of the particles to be the tracer microorganism flushed into the system. The time course data also have characteristics consistent with the unsteady nature of a toilet flush.