COMPUTER MEMORIES, Chapter 02

COMPUTER HISTORY — INTRODUCTION
These stories are just about as they were written, then often edited, for the “Humberd Chronicles,” a several hundred page document that includes autobiographies of my brothers and sisters (that I insisted they write), and a few hundred pages of stories of my working days, and of more interest to me, my traveling days.

Some of these stories have not been thought about for 50 years, but I have tried to be very careful, and not include stories that I do not remember clearly. My story is different from most such stories. It’s a yarn from down in the pits, doing the actual work of making computers useful, not just elegant comments by/about the educational elite, in their penthouse facilities.

Just for the record (and mentioned here and there in this manuscript), I spent at least a little time on three of the VERY early, hand-built computers. In no way was I an expert in any of them, but since I had the opportunity to see them, and watch them, and was involved in projects that made use of them, I did spend a little time finding out how they worked, and how they were programmed. But don’t ask me any questions, ask Google.

Not that it's important in any way — except for bragging rights and trivia — not many people have actually seen all three of these computers, let alone spent any time watching them in operation, or being involved in any way with them. Does that help prove that I am a computer pioneer?

WHIRLWIND, at MIT
The Whirlwind computer, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, went on-line in 1951, and it was in use until the early 1970s, when parts were given to the Smithsonian Institution. I visited that museum years later, and saw the Whirlwind computer exhibition.

I spent two or three weeks at MIT, learning about the SAGE system, the Air-Defense system that was somewhat modeled on, and whose concept was originally tested on the Whirlwind.

My MIT visit is told at Chapter 18, Chapter 19 and Chapter 20

SWAC, at UCLA
The SWAC (Standards Western Automatic Computer) was built for the National Bureau of Standards, then installed at UCLA. The SWAC began operation on August 17, 1950 and continued in service for 17 years, finally being retired in December 1967. When it was put into service in 1950, it was the fastest computer in the world. I visited the SWAC installation at UCLA several times, while working on various projects at the RAND Corp.

The story of my visit to UCLA and the SWAC is seen at Chapter 23

JOHNNIAC, at RAND CORP.
The Johnniac went on the air at the RAND Corp. in 1953, and was decommissioned on February 11, 1966. It had been in service for 13 years and logged over 50,000 operational hours. A portion of the computer was placed in a museum near downtown Los Angeles. I saw it once, but the last time I visited, I didn’t find it in the museum, so don’t know what happened to it.

A short story about the Johnniac is found at Chapter 22