Browsing by Subject "Magnetic tapes"
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Item Oral history interview with James W. Birkenstock(Charles Babbage Institute, 1980-08-12) Birkenstock, James W. (James Warren), 1912-From his perspective as advisor to the president and subsequently as Director of Product Planning and Market Analysis at IBM, Birkenstock discusses the metamorphosis of the company from leader of the tabulating machine industry to leader of the data processing industry. He describes his involvement with magnetic tape development in 1947, the involvement of IBM in the Korean War, the development of the Defense Calculator and the 70l computer, and the emergence of magnetic core memory from the SAGE project. He then recounts the entry of IBM into the commercial computer market with the 702. The end of the interview concerns IBM's relationship with other early entrants in the international computer industry, including litigation with Sperry Rand, its cross-licensing agreements, and cooperation with Japanese electronics firms.Item Oral history interview with Robert Herr(Charles Babbage Institute, 1986-05-19) Herr, RobertHerr 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.Item Oral history interview with Sidney Michel Rubens(Charles Babbage Institute, 1986-01) Rubens, Sidney MichelRubens discusses his career through his employment with Engineering Research Associates (ERA). He reviews his education in physics at the University of Washington, his work in ionization techniques, and his teaching position at UCLA beginning in 1937. In 1940, he joined the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, where he developed magnetic mine detection devices. There he met Howard Engstrom, Robert Gutterman, Howard Daniels, and William Norris. In 1945, under the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research, this group formed ERA to continue their war-time work, and Rubens joined them in 1946. He first worked on magnetic techniques for computer storage as part of the Goldberg project, under the direction of John Coombs and C. B. Tompkins. Rubens discusses the magnetic tape equipment he used, some of which was war-time capture from German laboratories. He also discusses his contacts with the University of Minnesota computer center.