Browsing by Subject "Sperry Rand Corporation"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Oral history interview with Arnold A. Cohen
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1983) Cohen, Arnold A.
    Cohen provides information about relations of Engineering Research Associates with the Navy, and with Remington Rand management after their acquisition of ERA. He also describes ERA projects in detail. Specific topics include: early research on magnetic drum storage systems, reports to the National Bureau of Standards, the Atlas I project and the commercial by-product (the 1101), the Atlas II project and the commercial by-product (the 1103), the 1102 built for Arnold Engineering Development Center, the 1104 built for Westinghouse/BOMARC, the Remington Rand Tape-to-Card Converter, the File Computer, ERA non-computer projects, ERA's design contract with IBM and its relation to the IBM 650, UNIVAC II, and patents and their defensive use in litigation.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Oral history interview with Carl Hammer
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1983-04-15) Hammer, Carl, 1914-2004
    Hammer reviews his career in the computing industry, including his work for RCA, Sperry, and Sylvania. He begins with his entry into data processing at the Columbia University T. J. Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory and his work under Paul Lazarsfeld as a research associate at the Bureau of Applied Social Research. He turns next to his employment beginning in l950 at the Franklin Institute. He discusses the industrial applications of computers, and collaborations between the Franklin Institute and the government. From 1955 through 1957 Hammer headed the European Univac Computing Center. He discusses interactions with U.S. computer professionals, the peculiarities of installing computers in Europe, and the differing effect of computers on institutions in Europe and the U.S. He reviews Sperry's merger with Remington Rand and the changes in marketing and other operations after the merger. He cites these changes as his reason for leaving Sperry to work for Sylvania on his return from Europe in 1957. Sylvania's MOBIDIC computer and the ballistic missile early warning system are described in detail. In 1959 Hammer joined the Surface Communication Division of RCA. He discusses the in-fighting at RCA after John L. Hammer became president in 1960, the resulting demise of RCA's computer operations, and his own return to Univac in 1962.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Oral history interview with J. Presper Eckert, Kathleen Mauchly, William Cleaver, and James McNulty
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1980-01-23) Cleaver, William; Eckert, J. Presper (John Presper), 1919-; Mauchly, Kathleen; McNulty, James
    The interviewees describe their experiences at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering in the 1940s. Eckert outlines disputes he and John Mauchly had with the University administration over the assignment of patent rights to the ENIAC, and disputes over other issues with John G. Brainerd, the first director of the ENIAC project. Eckert and McNulty share their views on John von Neumann's influence on the ENIAC and EDVAC projects. The group discusses the Honeywell vs. Sperry Rand litigation and the judgement against Eckert and Mauchly's patent claim to the electronic digital computer. They uniformly dispute the court's finding in favor of John V. Atanasoff's contribution. Other topics include: the use of the ENIAC in atomic bomb tests, and the programming and memory systems of the ENIAC, EDVAC, and UNIVAC.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Oral history interview with Robert Emmett McDonald
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1982-12-16) McDonald, Robert Emmett
    McDonald focuses on early computing activities at Remington Rand after discussing his own career: his undergraduate education in electrical engineering and business at the University of Minnesota and his graduate work at Iowa State and the University of Chicago; his years during the Second World War in the Navy; and his employment with Northwest and Braniff airlines before joining Remington Rand's computer operations in 1953. McDonald discusses at length the Remington Rand organization: business strategies, upper level management, marketing, allocation of resources, product development, and the decentralized nature of operations. The differences between commercial and government projects and the tensions between two divisions of the Remington Rand, Eckert-Mauchly and Engineering Research Associates, are also discussed. McDonald mentions the efforts of Charles Green of Sperry, who tried to integrate ERA into the Sperry-Rand organization after the Sperry merger with Remington Rand. He mentions the influence of outside consultants on Remington Rand and IBM, and the influence of ex-IBMers on the Sperry Rand organization. He concludes by contrasting Remington Rand and IBM.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Oral history interview with Robert Emmett McDonald
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1983-05-04) McDonald, Robert Emmett
    McDonald discusses the early years of Remington Rand in the computer business, including the management of Engineering Research Associates and Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company (acquisitions of Remington Rand), the rivalry between the two, their competition for funds, and their relations to the parent company. Other topics include the departure of ERA personnel to form Control Data Corporation; successful products; financial structure of Sperry Rand; collaboration with Bell Laboratories, Western Electric, and MIT on defense projects; Sperry's role in the 1969 IBM anti-trust case; and UNIVAC's involvement in the international market.