Browsing by Subject "Dataproducts Corporation"
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Item Oral history interview with Adelle Tomash(Charles Babbage Institute, 2000-12-07) Tomash, AdelleTomash discusses her early life in St. Paul, Minnesota, and her attendance at the University of Minnesota. She describes her marriage to Erwin Tomash and their early life together while he was in the U. S. Army during World War II. Much of the interview focuses on their life in California from 1953, during which Erwin served with several companies before starting Dataproducts Corporation. Adelle describes her role in helping him to build the company and raising their two daughters. She describes her activities outside the home, her worldwide travels, involvement in founding the Charles Babbage Institute, and her interest in and collecting of contemporary art.Item Oral history interview with Arnold J. Ryden(Charles Babbage Institute, 1995-04-05) Ryden, Arnold J.After briefly discussing his educational background, Ryden explains his role as treasurer for Engineering Research Associates (ERA), the formation of Midwest Technical Development Corporation to supply venture capital to start up high tech companies, and his later role in the formation of Control Data Corporation. He relates the circumstances surrounding his purchase of Telex and the spinoff of the data products division as DataProducts Corporation. Ryden discusses his involvement in arranging financing for start up companies and concludes the interview with an explanation of his research on entrepreneurship.Item Oral history interview with Chester Irwin Lappen(Charles Babbage Institute, 1993-06-10) Lappen, Chester IrwinAfter briefly describing his educational background and activities prior to the 1950s, Lappen discusses his association with Telemeter, Telemeter Magnetics, and DataProducts. Through his work with Mitchell, Silberberg and Knupp, Lappen became involved in the management of Telemeter, a Paramount company that developed a precursor to pay and cable TV. He discusses Telemeter's research and development work including: pay TV; a development contract with the Bank of America for a check sorter; a machine for language translation; the construction of ERMA for the Bank of America. Lappen describes the separation of Telemeter Magnetics which manufactured core memories for computer companies from the pay TV operation. He discusses the growth of Telemeter Magnetics and the addition of disk files, buffers, and line printers to their product line. Lappen describes the decision by Paramount to sell Telemeter Magnetics to Ampex and recalls the decision by Erv Tomash, Bill Drake and Lappen to found DataProducts in 1962. He describes the initial capitalization of DataProducts and Cliff Helms' development of a line printer superior to any on the market. Lappen concludes the interview with an assessment of the innovations made by DataProducts and the challenges associated with forming a high technology company.Item Oral history interview with Erwin Tomash(Charles Babbage Institute, 1973) Tomash, ErwinTomash discusses his work with Engineering Research Associates (ERA). Topics include: the firm's management, the roles of William Norris, Frank Mullaney, and Arnold Cohen in ERA, Tomash's development of West Coast marketing for ERA after it became a part of Remington Rand, competition with International Business Machines, the development of Williams tube storage devices and core memories, and the ERA 1103 computer. He also recounts his move from Remington Rand to Telemeter Magnetics, later Ampex Computer Products, the formation of Dataproducts Corporation and its subsidiary, Informatics Inc., headed by Walter Bauer.Item Oral history interview with Erwin Tomash(Charles Babbage Institute, 1983-05-15) Tomash, ErwinTomash 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.