Browsing by Subject "Computer storage device industry -- United States -- History"

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    Oral history interview with Erwin Tomash
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1983-05-15) Tomash, Erwin
    Tomash discusses his career, including employment at Engineering Research Associates (ERA) and the founding of Dataproducts Corporation. He begins with his electrical engineering education at the University of Minnesota in the early 1940s and his subsequent entry into the Army Signal Corps as a radar specialist. He recounts his initial task at ERA, conducting research for High-Speed Computing Devices. He surveys ERA's work with the predecessors of the National Security Agency and other government offices, and the company's expansion and move to the forefront of computer technology in the early 1950s. He describes changes in the company and his own move into management when the company was sold to Remington Rand in 1953. Tomash recalls his departure in l956 from Remington Rand to Telemeter Magnetics, where he soon became president. This company manufactured core memory systems and one of the first successful transistor memory systems. Tomash explains how he used the organization he and others had assembled from Telemeter Magnetics to found Dataproducts Corporation in 1962.
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    Oral history interview with Robert Herr
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1986-05-19) Herr, Robert
    Herr reviews his family background and education at Haverford College, education at the University of Minnesota in the 1930s, wartime activity, and his postwar work. During World War II Herr worked for the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Ordnance, primarily on methods of defending U.S. ships against magnetic mines. The bulk of the interview concerns his work starting in 1946 at Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M) on magnetic tape development. After the introduction of magnetic tape in 1949, Herr started a the Electrical Products Lab in 1952 at 3M, and later was vice-president of the Data Recording Products Division. He also discusses 3M's relationship with Engineering Research Associates and Control Data Corporation.