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101 Pascal, Blaise
SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology[br]b. 19 June 1623 Clermont Ferrand, Franced. 19 August 1662 Paris, France[br]French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher.[br]Pascal was the son of Etienne Pascal, President of the Court of Aids. His mother died when he was 3 years old and he was brought up largely by his two sisters, one of whom was a nun at Port Royal. They moved to Paris in 1631 and again to Rouen ten years later. He received no formal education. In 1654 he was involved in a carriage accident in which he saw a mystical vision of God and from then on confined himself to philosophical rather than scientific matters. In the field of mathematics he is best known for his work on conic sections and on the laws of probability. As a youth he designed a calculating machine of which, it is said, some seventy were made. His main contribution to technology was his elucidation of the laws of hydrostatics which formed the basis of all hydrostatic machines in subsequent years. Pascal, however, did not put these laws to any practical use: that was left to the English cabinet-maker and engineer Joseph Bramah more than a century later. Suffering from indifferent health, Pascal persuaded his brother-in-law Périer to repeat the experiments of Evangelista Torricelli on the pressure of the atmosphere. This involved climbing the 4,000 ft (1,220 m) of the Puy de Dôme, a mountain close to Clermont, with a heavy mercury-in-glass barometer. The experiment was reported in the 1647 pamphlet "Expériences nouvelles touchant le vide". The Hydrostatic Law was laid down by Pascal in Traité de l'équilibre des liqueurs, published a year after his death. In this he established the fact that in a fluid at rest the pressure is transmitted equally in all directions.[br]Bibliography1647, "Expériences nouvelles touchant le vide". 1663, Traité de l'équilibre des liqueurs.Further ReadingJ.Mesnard, 1951, Pascal, His Life and Works.I.McNeil, 1972, Hydraulic Power, London: Longmans.IMcN -
102 Sarnoff, David
[br]b. 27 February 1891 Uzlian, Minsk (now in Belarus)d. 12 December 1971 New York City, New York, USA[br]Russian/American engineer who made a major contribution to the commercial development of radio and television.[br]As a Jewish boy in Russia, Sarnoff spent several years preparing to be a Talmudic Scholar, but in 1900 the family emigrated to the USA and settled in Albany, New York. While at public school and at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, he helped the family finances by running errands, selling newspapers and singing the liturgy in the synagogue. After a short period as a messenger boy with the Commercial Cable Company, in 1906 he became an office boy with the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America (see G. Marconi). Having bought a telegraph instrument with his first earnings, he taught himself Morse code and was made a junior telegraph operator in 1907. The following year he became a wireless operator at Nantucket Island, then in 1909 he became Manager of the Marconi station at Sea Gate, New York. After two years at sea he returned to a shore job as wireless operator at the world's most powerful station at Wanamaker's store in Manhattan. There, on 14 April 1912, he picked up the distress signals from the sinking iner Titanic, remaining at his post for three days.Rewarded by rapid promotion (Chief Radio Inspector 1913, Contract Manager 1914, Assistant Traffic Manager 1915, Commercial Manager 1917) he proposed the introduction of commercial radio broadcasting, but this received little response. Consequently, in 1919 he took the job of Commercial Manager of the newly formed Radio Corporation of America (RCA), becoming General Manager in 1921, Vice- President in 1922, Executive Vice-President in 1929 and President in 1930. In 1921 he was responsible for the broadcasting of the Dempsey-Carpentier title-fight, as a result of which RCA sold $80 million worth of radio receivers in the following three years. In 1926 he formed the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). Rightly anticipating the development of television, in 1928 he inaugurated an experimental NBC television station and in 1939 demonstrated television at the New York World Fair. Because of his involvement with the provision of radio equipment for the armed services, he was made a lieutenant-colonel in the US Signal Corps Reserves in 1924, a full colonel in 1931 and, while serving as a communications consultant to General Eisenhower during the Second World War, Brigadier General in 1944.With the end of the war, RCA became a major manufacturer of television receivers and then invested greatly in the ultimately successful development of shadowmask tubes and receivers for colour television. Chairman and Chief Executive from 1934, Sarnoff held the former post until his retirement in 1970.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFrench Croix de Chevalier d'honneur 1935, Croix d'Officier 1940, Croix de Commandant 1947. Luxembourg Order of the Oaken Crown 1960. Japanese Order of the Rising Sun 1960. US Legion of Merit 1946. UN Citation 1949. French Union of Inventors Gold Medal 1954.KFSee also: Zworykin, Vladimir Kosma -
103 Shockley, William Bradford
[br]b. 13 February 1910 London, Englandd. 12 August 1989, Palo Alto, California, USA.[br]American physicist who developed the junction transistor from the point contact transistor and was joint winner (with John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain) of the 1956 Nobel Prize for physics.[br]The son of a mining engineer, Shockley graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 1932 and in 1936 obtained his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In that year, he joined the staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories.Since the early days of radio, crystals of silicon or similar materials had been used to rectify alternating current supply until these were displaced by thermionic valves or tubes. Shockley, with Bardeen and Brattain, found that crystals of germanium containing traces of certain impurities formed far better rectifiers than crystals of the material in its pure form. The resulting device, the transistor, could also be used to amplify the current; its name is derived from its ability to transfer current across a resistor. The transistor, being so much smaller than the thermionic valve which it replaced, led to the miniaturization of electronic appliances. Another advantage was that a transistorized device needed no period of warming up, such as was necessary with a thermionic valve before it would operate. The dispersal of the heat generated by a multiplicity of thermionic valves such as were present in early computers was another problem obviated by the advent of the transistor.Shockley was responsible for much development in the field of semiconductors. He was Deputy Director of the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group of the US Department of Defense (1954–5), and in 1963 he was appointed the first Poniatoff Professor of Engineering Science at Stanford University, California. During the late 1960s Shockley became a controversial figure for expressing his unorthodox views on genetics, such as that black people were inherently less intelligent than white people, and that the population explosion spread "bad" genes at the expense of "good" genes; he supported the idea of a sperm bank from Nobel Prize winners, voluntary sterilization and the restriction of interracial marriages.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsNobel Prize for Physics 1956.Further ReadingI.Asimov (ed.), 1982, Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, New York: Doubleday \& Co.IMcNBiographical history of technology > Shockley, William Bradford
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104 Smith, Oberlin
[br]b. 22 March 1840 Cincinnati, Ohio, USAd. 18 July 1926[br]American mechanical engineer, pioneer in experiments with magnetic recording.[br]Of English descent, Smith embarked on an education in mechanical engineering, graduating from West Jersey Academy, Bridgeton, New Jersey, in 1859. In 1863 he established a machine shop in Bridgeton, New Jersey, that became the Ferracute Machine Company in 1877, eventually specializing in the manufacture of presses for metalworking. He seems to have subscribed to design principles considered modern even in the 1990s, "always giving attention to the development of artistic form in combination with simplicity, and with massive strength where required" (bibliographic reference below). He was successful in his business, and developed and patented a large number of mechanical constructions.Inspired by the advent of the phonograph of Edison, in 1878 Smith obtained the tin-foil mechanical phonograph, analysed its shortcomings and performed some experiments in magnetic recording. He filed a caveat in the US Patent Office in order to be protected while he "reduced the invention to practice". However, he did not follow this trail. When there was renewed interest in practical sound recording and reproduction in 1888 (the constructions of Berliner and Bell \& Tainter), Smith published an account of his experiments in the journal Electrical World. In a corrective letter three weeks later it is clear that he was aware of the physical requirements for the interaction between magnetic coil and magnetic medium, but his publications also indicate that he did not as such obtain reproduction of recorded sound.Smith did not try to develop magnetic recording, but he felt it imperative that he be given credit for conceiving the idea of it. When accounts of Valdemar Poulsen's work were published in 1900, Smith attempted to prove some rights in the invention in the US Patent Office, but to no avail.He was a highly respected member of both his community and engineering societies, and in later life became interested in the anti-slavery cause that had also been close to the heart of his parents, as well as in the YMCA movement and in women's suffrage.[br]BibliographyApart from numerous technical papers, he wrote the book Press Working of Metals, 1896. His accounts on the magnetic recording experiments were "Some possible forms of phonograph", Electrical World (8 September 1888): 161 ff, and "Letter to the Editor", Electrical World (29 September 1888): 179.Further ReadingF.K.Engel, 1990, Documents on the Invention of Magnetic Recording in 1878, New York: Audio Engineering Society, Reprint no. 2,914 (G2) (a good overview of the material collected by the Oberlin Smith Society, Bridgeton, New Jersey, in particular as regards the recording experiments; it is here that it is doubted that Valdemar Poulsen developed his ideas independently).GB-N -
105 Strachey, Christopher
SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology[br]b. 16 November 1916 Englandd. 18 May 1975 Oxford, England[br]English physicist and computer engineer who proposed time-sharing as a more efficient means of using a mainframe computer.[br]After education at Gresham's School, London, Strachey went to King's College, Cambridge, where he completed an MA. In 1937 he took up a post as a physicist at the Standard Telephone and Cable Company, then during the Second World War he was involved in radar research. In 1944 he became an assistant master at St Edmunds School, Canterbury, moving to Harrow School in 1948. Another change of career in 1951 saw him working as a Technical Officer with the National Research and Development Corporation, where he was involved in computer software and hardware design. From 1958 until 1962 he was an independent consultant in computer design, and during this time (1959) he realized that as mainframe computers were by then much faster than their human operators, their efficiency could be significantly increased by "time-sharing" the tasks of several operators in rapid succession. Strachey made many contributions to computer technology, being variously involved in the design of the Manchester University MkI, Elliot and Ferranti Pegasus computers. In 1962 he joined Cambridge University Mathematics Laboratory as a senior research fellow at Churchill College and helped to develop the programming language CPL. After a brief period as Visiting Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he returned to the UK in 1966 as Reader in Computation and Fellow of Wolfeon College, Oxford, to establish a programming research group. He remained there until his death.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsDistinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society 1972.Bibliography1961, with M.R.Wilkes, "Some proposals for improving the efficiency of Algol 60", Communications of the ACM 4:488.1966, "Systems analysis and programming", Scientific American 25:112. 1976, with R.E.Milne, A Theory of Programming Language Semantics.Further ReadingJ.Alton, 1980, Catalogue of the Papers of C. Strachey 1916–1975.M.Campbell-Kelly, 1985, "Christopher Strachey 1916–1975. A biographical note", Annals of the History of Computing 7:19.M.R.Williams, 1985, A History of Computing Technology, London: Prentice-Hall.KF -
106 Tesla, Nikola
SUBJECT AREA: Electricity[br]b. 9 July 1856 Smiljan, Croatiad. 7 January 1943 New York, USA[br]Serbian (naturalized American) engineer and inventor of polyphase electrical power systems.[br]While at the technical institute in Graz, Austria, Tesla's attention was drawn to the desirability of constructing a motor without a commutator. He considered the sparking between the commutator and brushes of the Gramme machine when run as a motor a serious defect. In 1881 he went to Budapest to work on the telegraph system and while there conceived the principle of the rotating magnetic field, upon which all polyphase induction motors are based. In 1882 Tesla moved to Paris and joined the Continental Edison Company. After building a prototype of his motor he emigrated to the United States in 1884, becoming an American citizen in 1889. He left Edison and founded an independent concern, the Tesla Electric Company, to develop his inventions.The importance of Tesla's first patents, granted in 1888 for alternating-current machines, cannot be over-emphasized. They covered a complete polyphase system including an alternator and induction motor. Other patents included the polyphase transformer, synchronous motor and the star connection of three-phase machines. These were to become the basis of the whole of the modern electric power industry. The Westinghouse company purchased the patents and marketed Tesla motors, obtaining in 1893 the contract for the Niagara Falls two-phase alternators driven by 5,000 hp (3,700 kW) water turbines.After a short period with Westinghouse, Tesla resigned to continue his research into high-frequency and high-voltage phenomena using the Tesla coil, an air-cored transformer. He lectured in America and Europe on his high-frequency devices, enjoying a considerable international reputation. The name "tesla" has been given to the SI unit of magnetic-flux density. The induction motor became one of the greatest advances in the industrial application of electricity. A claim for priority of invention of the induction motor was made by protagonists of Galileo Ferraris (1847–1897), whose discovery of rotating magnetic fields produced by alternating currents was made independently of Tesla's. Ferraris demonstrated the phenomenon but neglected its exploitation to produce a practical motor. Tesla himself failed to reap more than a small return on his work and later became more interested in scientific achievement than commercial success, with his patents being infringed on a wide scale.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsAmerican Institute of Electrical Engineers Edison Medal 1917. Tesla received doctorates from fourteen universities.Bibliography1 May 1888, American patent no. 381,968 (initial patent for the three-phase induction motor).1956, Nikola Tesla, 1856–1943, Lectures, Patents, Articles, ed. L.I.Anderson, Belgrade (selected works, in English).1977, My Inventions, repub. Zagreb (autobiography).Further ReadingM.Cheney, 1981, Tesla: Man Out of Time, New Jersey (a full biography). C.Mackechnie Jarvis, 1969, in IEE Electronics and Power 15:436–40 (a brief treatment).T.C.Martin, 1894, The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla, New York (covers his early work on polyphase systems).GW -
107 Varian, Sigurd Fergus
[br]b. 4 May 1901 Syracuse, New York, USAd. 18 October 1961 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico[br]American electrical engineer who, with his brother Russell, developed the klystron microwave tube.[br]Sigurd Varian left school in 1920 and entered California Polytechnic to study engineering, but he soon dropped out and trained as an electrician, taking up employment with the Southern Californian Edison Company. As a result of working on an airfield he developed an interest in flying. He took lessons and in 1924 bought a First World War biplane and became a "barnstorming" pilot, giving flying displays and joy-rides, etc., to earn his living. Beset by several prolonged bouts of tuberculosis, he used his periods of recuperation to study aerial navigation and to devise navigation instruments. In 1929 he took a permanent job as a pilot for Pan American in Mexico, but in 1935 he went to California to work on electron tubes with his younger brother, Eric. They were soon joined by Russell, and with William Hansen they developed the klystron. For details of this part of his life and the founding of Varian Associates, see under Russell Varian. In later years, his health increasingly poor, he lived in semi-retirement in Mexico, where he died in a plane crash while flying himself home.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFranklin Institute Medal.Bibliography1939, with R.S.Varian, "High frequency oscillator and amplifier", Journal of Applied Physics 10:321 (describes the klystron).Further ReadingJ.R.Pierce, 1962, "History of the microwave tube art", Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 979 (provides background to development of the klystron).D.Varian, 1983, The Inventor and the Pilot (biographies of the brothers).KF -
108 Wozniak, Stephen G.
SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology[br]b. 1950 Sunnyvale, California, USA[br]American computer engineer who with Steven Jobs built the first home computer.[br]Bored by school at Sunnyvale, the young Wozniak became interested in computers and at the age of only 13 years he constructed a transistorized calculator that won a prize at the Bay Area Science Fair. After high school, he went to the University of Colorado, but he left the following year to study at the De Anza College in Cupertino, California, finally dropping out of formal education altogether and working as a programmer for a small computer company. In 1971 he made another attempt at studying for a degree in engineering, this time at the University of California at Berkeley, but he again dropped out and went to work for Hewlett-Packard, where he met 16-year-old Steve Jobs. Joining the Homebrew Computer Club, and with Jobs's help, he built a home computer based on the MOS Technology 8-bit, 6502 microprocessor chip. With 4 K of random access memory (RAM) and the first BASIC interpreter written by Wozniak himself, he demonstrated the computer to Hewlett-Packard management, but they showed little interest in taking it up. With Jobs he therefore founded Apple Company, and with assembly in Jobs's home they found an interested buyer in the shape of Paul Terrill, owner of the newly established Byte Shop chain store, who ordered 100 boards at US$500 each. As a result, with the support of a backer, Mike Markkula, Wozniak in 1976 designed a second computer, the Apple II, which had 16 K of RAM and was offered for sale (without a monitor) at $1195. This was an immediate success and sales rose from $775,000 in 1977 to $335 million in 1981 and $983 million in 1983. In the meantime, however, Wozniak was seriously injured in a plane crash in 1980. He recovered slowly from his injuries and in 1982 returned to college to complete his degree course, after which he spent much of his time with his family. Eventually he became increasingly unhappy with the chaotic management at Apple, and he left the company in 1985, subsequently forming his own computer company, Cloud 9.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFirst National Technology Medal (with Jobs) 1985.Further ReadingM.Moritz, 1984, The Little Kingdom. The Private Story of Apple Computers.J.S.Young, 1988, Steve Jobs: The Journey is the Reward: Scott Foreman \& Co.KF -
109 Yagi, Hidetsugu
[br]b. 28 January 1886 Osaka, Japand. January 1976 Osaka, Japan[br]Japanese engineer who, with his student Shintaro Uda, developed the directional ultra-high frequency (UHF) aerial array that bears his name.[br]Yagi studied engineering at Tokyo Imperial University (now Tokyo University), graduating in 1910. For the next four years he taught at Engineering High School in Sendai, Honshu, then in 1914 he was sent to study resonance phenomena under Barkhausen at Dresden University. When the First World War broke out he was touring Europe, so he travelled to London to study under Ambrose Fleming at University College, London. Continuing his travels, he then visited the USA, studying at Harvard under G.W. Pierce, before returning to his teaching post at Sendai Engineering High School, which in 1919 was absorbed into Tohoku University. There, in 1921, he obtained his doctorate, and some years later he was appointed Professor of Electrical Engineering. Having heard of the invention of the magnetron, he worked with a student, Kinjiro Okabe; in 1927 they produced microwave energy at a wavelength of a few tens of centimetres. However, he is best known for his development with another student, Shintaro Uda, of a directional, multi-element ultrahigh frequency aerial, which he demonstrated during a tour of the USA in 1928. During the Second World War Yagi worked on radar systems. After his retirement he became Professor Emeritus at Tohoku and Osaka universities and formed the Yagi Antenna Company.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsYagi received various honours, including the Japanese Cultural Order of Merit 1976, and the Valdemar Poulsen Gold Medal.Bibliography1928, "Beam transmission of ultra-short waves", Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 6:715 (describes the Yagi-Uda aerial).Further ReadingF.E.Terman, 1943, Radio Engineers' Handbook, New York: McGraw-Hill (provides a review of aerials, including the Yagi system).KF -
110 Zuse, Konrad
SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology[br]b. 22 June 1910 Berlin, Germany[br]German civil engineer who developed a series of computers before, during and after the Second World War.[br]Zuse grew up in Braunsberg, then in East Prussia, and attended the Technische Hochschule at Berlin-Charlottenburg to study civil engineering. In 1934 he became interested in calculatingmachines and the pursuit of a career in aeronautical engineering. Two years later, having taken a post as a statistician, in his spare time he built a mechanical computer, which he called Z1; for this he used two-state mechanical switches and punched-tape for the program input. This was followed by the design for Z2, which used electromechanical relays.Called to military service in 1939, he was soon sent to the Henschel aircraft factory, where he completed Z2. Between 1939 and 1941 the German Aeronautical Research Institute supported his development of Z3, which used 2,600 relays and a keyboard input. Taken into immediate use by the aircraft industry, both it and its predecessors were destroyed in air raids. Z4, completed towards the end of the war and using mechanical memory, survived, and with improvements was used in Switzerland until 1960. Other achievements by Zuse included a machine to perform logical calculations (LI) and his Plankalkul, one of the first computer languages. In 1950, with two friends, he formed the Zuse KG company near Bad Hersfeld, Essen, and his first Z5 relay computer was sold to Leitz in 1952. A series of machines followed, a milestone in 1958 being the first transistorized machine, Z22, of which over 200 were made. Finally, in 1969, the company was absorbed by Siemens AG and Zuse returned to scientific research.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsHonorary Doctorate Berlin Technical University 1960. Honorary Professor Göttingen University 1960.Bibliography11 April 1936, German patent no. Z23 1391X/42M. 16 June 1941, German patent no. Z391.1 August 1949, German patent no. 50,746.1993, The Computer: My Life, Berlin: SpringerVerlag (autobiography).Further ReadingP.E.Ceruzzi, 1981, "The early computers of Konrad Zuse 1935–45", Annals of the History of Computing 3:241.M.R.Williams, 1985, A History of Computing Technology, London: Prentice-Hall.See also: Stibitz, George R.KF
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