This work divides rather naturally into three parts. There is the pre–World War II era; the war period, particularly at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania; and the postwar years at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, through 1957. I was concerned as a principal in the last two periods, and the reader will undoubtedly notice the stylistic differences that this has occasioned. It seemed to me in writing the text quite natural to record events as I viewed them then.
Of course, the writing of a history by a participant in the events is at best a tricky business since it may bring into the account some measure of personal bias. In mitigation it may be said, though, that it does provide a detailed, precise understanding of the people and of the events that actually took place. Such an understanding is very difficult for a non-participant. I therefore decided it was worthwhile to write this account with all the objectivity I could, with occasional warnings to the reader about possible traps awaiting him on his peregrination through the period.
There are, of course, at least two basic ways in which the history of apparatus can be written: by concentrating on the equipment or on the ideas and the people who conceived them. I have chosen rather arbitrarily to give the ideas and the people first place, perhaps because I find that approach more interesting personally. In any event, I have also tried to say enough about the apparatus to make it intelligible without becoming overly technical. The reader will find ever so often that the chronological narrative is interrupted by excursi in which I have attempted to explain some technical point so as not to leave the reader uninformed as to its nature. It is to be hoped that these interpolations do not unduly retard the account.
Rather fortuitously, I came out of the war with an extraordinarily large set of personal files covering the period 1942–1946, so that the documentation for these years is extremely complete. To a somewhat lesser extent, I kept files for the period 1946–1957 and have been fortunate in having had access to other files for the period at the Institute for Advanced Study. Thus the account given here is based soundly on the relevant documents of the times and does not depend merely on the memories of an individual All this documentary material—letters, reports, etc.—is being turned over by me to the library of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, so that future scholars may have full access to these papers.
In this connection I wish to acknowledge the many courtesies extended as well as documents furnished me by Prof. Arthur W. Burks of the University of Michigan, by Mr. Henry Halliday, Esq. of Minneapolis, and by Dr. Carl Kaysen, the Director of the Institute for Advanced Study, who made the Institute’s files available to me, I also wish to acknowledge the patient, tireless, and good-natured help of my secretary, Mrs. Doris Crowell. I further wish to make suitable mention of all the help given me by Mr. Richard Luxner, reference librarian of the Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York. He was invaluable to me in procuring books, journal articles, etc. Finally, I wish most of all to thank Mr. Thomas J. Watson, Jr. for appointing me an IBM Fellow so that I have had the freedom to work on this history for the last several years.
I must acknowledge many valuable conversations with friends and with members of my family who patiently listened to me and gave freely of their advice and opinion. Equally, I wish to express my thanks to Princeton University Press for all its efforts in making this book possible and stylistically attractive.
H. H. G.
Yorktown Heights, N.Y.
January 1972