Oral history interview with Sidney Michel Rubens

Abstract

Rubens 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.