Vannevar Bush

• Born: March 11, 1890
• Birthplace: Everett, Massachusetts
• Died: June 28, 1974
• Place of death: Belmont, Massachusetts

Electrical engineer and developer of analog computers

Born: March 11, 1890; Everett, Massachusetts

Died: June 28, 1974; Belmont, Massachusetts

Primary Field: Computer science

Specialty: Computer hardware

Primary Company/Organization: U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development

Introduction

American scientific researcher and electrical engineer Vannevar Bush is known for his pioneering work in the fields of analog computing, automated human memory, and information storage and retrieval. Bush served as dean of engineering and vice president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), president of the Carnegie Institution, and director of the U.S. government's Office of Scientific Research and Development during his lengthy career. He is known for his foresight in predicting the commercial and personal household uses of electronic devices. Bush's differential analyzer was one of the most powerful analog computers. During World War II, he emerged as a leading force behind the mobilization of the partnership between the government, scientific, and business communities, making him an architect of what came to be known as the military-industrial complex. His groundbreaking 1945 Atlantic Monthly article “As We May Think” introduced the hypothetical information storage and retrieval machine known as the memex, which facilitated information retrieval through the use of associative linking—a theoretical forerunner of the Internet and hypertext.

Early Life

Vannevar Bush was born March 11, 1890, in Everett, Massachusetts, to a Universalist minister, the Reverend Richard Perry Bush, formerly of Provincetown, Rhode Island, and Emma Linwood Paine. He had two sisters. He endured numerous childhood illnesses but excelled in his school, with a particularly strong aptitude for mathematics. Bush's strong-willed, self-confident personality emerged at an early age and would become a recognized character trait throughout his life and career. He came from a long line of sea captains, which he sometimes credited for his leadership abilities.

Bush attended Tufts College in Massachusetts on a partial scholarship, working as a mathematics tutor and assistant to cover the remainder of his educational expenses. He earned both his bachelor of science and master of science degrees in engineering by 1913. Bush was credited with his first invention while pursuing his master's at Tufts. The “profile tracer” was a land-surveying device that could automatically calculate and map land elevations and measure distances on uneven terrain. Bush believed that the profile tracer's commercial failure taught him the importance of the political side of the scientific and business worlds.

Bush was first employed in the test department at General Electric. He was laid off shortly after beginning work, however, because of a plant fire. In 1914, he briefly taught mathematics at Clark University in Massachusetts, where he was offered a 1915 doctoral fellowship to study acoustics with renowned professor Arthur Webster. He instead left for the MIT, where he was free to choose his field of specialization. He was awarded Ph.D.s in engineering from both Harvard and MIT in 1916.

Life's Work

Bush returned to Tufts as an assistant professor of electrical engineering after earning his Ph.D.s, remaining until 1919. He became interested in the role of the scientific community in the national war effort after the United States entered World War I in 1917. Like-minded scientists had formed the National Research Council (NRC) in 1916 to further the development of military technology. Bush presented the NRC with an initially well-received plan for a magnetic field-based submarine detector. The U.S. Navy successfully tested Bush's submarine detector, but its failure in actual use, combined with Bush's controlling personality and lack of political skills, ultimately led to the abandonment of the project. During his early career, Bush also helped found what became Raytheon Corporation in 1922.

Bush left his teaching position at Tufts after a short stay to join the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering at MIT in 1919, rising to dean of engineering and vice president in 1932. He would remain at MIT for twenty-five years. While there, he developed and built one of the most successful differential analyzers, a machine capable of solving differential equations, by 1931. The prestigious Rockefeller Foundation had provided the funding. He patented the Rockefeller differential analyzer in 1935, and the U.S. military would later use it to calculate its ballistics tables during World War II.

Bush's most pioneering work at MIT involved analog computers. These large machines, the forerunners of electronic digital computers, relied on mechanical parts to perform calculations. While at MIT, Bush also became interested in the potential for machines to process and store large amounts of information. He envisioned a machine called a rapid selector that could store, quickly retrieve, and project information on microfilm. Although several rapid selectors were built at MIT in the mid- to late 1930s, technical problems prevented their successful use. The digital computers developed in the 1940s would replace analog computers.

Bush left MIT to become president of the Carnegie Institution, a position he held from 1939 to 1955. The position provided him with prestige, funding, and an informal scientific advisory role with the U.S. government. In 1940, Bush won approval from President Franklin Roosevelt to form the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC). The NDRC was a cooperative measure between science, government, military, and business leaders on an unprecedented scale. Bush served as NDRC chairman. He then became director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) in 1941, which absorbed the NDRC. Both organizations sought to increase U.S. military preparedness after the outbreak of World War II.

MIT established its prominent role in government-funded scientific research through Bush's association with both MIT and the OSRD, a connection that would continue long after Bush's leadership. The OSRD introduced improved microwave-based radar systems, the proximity fuse, and new tactics deployed against submarines; it was also involved in the secret Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb.

Bush presented his position in favor of permanent government involvement in scientific research in a 1944 report entitled Science, the Endless Frontier. His report is credited as one of the primary motivations for the 1950 establishment of the National Science Foundation. Bush would later be recognized as one of the creators of the modern military-industrial complex that emerged in the postwar period, although he had personally become concerned with the militarization of science.

Bush's best-known publication was the article “As We May Think,” which originally appeared in the Atlantic Monthly magazine in 1945 but has been reprinted numerous times. The article contained a description of a hypothetical machine, called a memex, that would allow rapid processing of large amounts of information. The automation of human memory was a field Bush felt was being overlooked by the scientists of his day. Other devices described in the article included a Cyclops Camera, worn on the forehead; a Vocoder, which would type the spoken word; and a thinking machine, which worked in a way similar to the modern calculator.

Bush's theoretical memex represented the potential next step to follow his earlier work with the differential analyzer, an early version of a computer designed to augment human memory. It included a desk, keyboard, and microfilm storage unit and was operated with buttons and levers. It had the capacity to store documents on microfilm and easily retrieve them later through the utilization of associative links, which Bush termed associative trails. The retrieved information was then displayed on screens. Many later pioneers of the digital computer and information age cited Bush as one of the main influences on their work, including Ted Nelson, who coined the word hypertext.

Personal Life

Bush served on the board of directors of several companies in his later career, including AT&T. He also served as chairman of the MIT Corporation from 1957 to 1959 and as honorary chairman from 1959 to 1971. He was granted numerous honorary degrees from universities, including Columbia, Princeton, Yale, and Johns Hopkins. He held honorary degrees from Cambridge and Trinity College and was dubbed a Knight Commander of the civilian division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1948.

In addition to these honors, Bush received numerous awards, including the Franklin Institute's Louis Edward Levy Medal (1928), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Holley Medal (1943), the Roosevelt Memorial Association's Distinguished Service Medal (1945), the National Academy of Sciences' Marcellus Hartley Public Welfare Medal (1945), the Hoover Medal (1946), the National Medal of Merit (1948), the Medal of the Industrial Research Institute (1949), and the National Medal of Science (1964).

Bush married Phoebe Davis on September 5, 1916. The couple had two sons, Richard Davis Bush and John Hathaway Bush. Vannevar Bush died on June 28, 1974. Technological developments since his death, including the global popularization of the Internet, have solidified his place as a visionary in computer science and information technology.

Bibliography

Bush, Vannevar. Science: The Endless Frontier. Washington, DC: US GPO, 1945. Charleston: NABU, 2011. E-book. Bush's classic treatise detailing his belief in the need for continued federal government funding of scientific research in the post–World War II era.

Bush, Vannevar, James M. Nyce, and Paul Kahn. From Memex to Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind's Machine. Boston: Academic, 1991. Print. A collection of Bush's lifetime writings on the memex as well as discussions from leading historians and computer science researchers tracing the development and impact of his work.

Greenberg, Daniel S. “Vannevar Bush and the Myth of Creation.” In Science, Money, and Politics: Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2001. Print. Greenberg discusses Bush's role in U.S. government funding of scientific research within a larger discussion of the influence of politics and special interests on the field.

Mahoney, Matt. “77 Years Ago in TR Future Perfect Vannevar Bush Gave Depression-Era Readers a Preview of Future Technologies.” Technology Review Dec. 2010: 96. Print. Discusses Bush's writings of future technology and their relation to the technological developments of the decades that followed his work.

Zachary, G. Pascal. Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century. Cambridge: MIT, 1999. Print. Classic biography that covers Bush's life, education, career, writings, and impact, including his 1945 Atlantic Monthly article “As We May Think.”