Biographical Memoirs Volume 50 (1979) / Chapter Skim
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Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush
Pages 88-117
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From page 89... ...
The grandson of two sea captains, "Van" Bush manifested his Cape Cod heritage in a salty, independent, forthright personality. He was a man of strong opinions, which he expressed and applied with vigor, yet he stood in awe of the mysteries of nature, had a warm tolerance for human frailty, and was openminded to change and to new solutions to problems.
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From page 90... ...
Bush's father, the Reverend Richard Perry Bush, was also a nonconformist in style and conviction. He started his career as cook on a mackerel smack at Provincetown, Massachusetts at the age of fourteen and worked his way through Tufts College by delivering coal to students' rooms.
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From page 91... ...
That fall he and Miss Davis were married, and he became an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Tufts. His first technical paper, "Oscillating-Current Circuits by the Method of Generalized Angular Velocities," based on his doctoral thesis, was presented before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1917.
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From page 92... ...
Spencer, a staff member. Thermionic tubes for the booming radio industry were developed by another company, which took the name of Raytheon Manufacturing Company in 1925 and became a corporate giant.
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From page 93... ...
thesis, 1926~. The Product Integraph was the first in a series of analog computers which, though not direct ancestors of today's digital computers, led in the opening of the modern field of computation.
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From page 94... ...
Bush was by no means satisfied with the Differential Analyzer. As early as 1937 he wrote memoranda on the possibility of achieving greater speed with an electronic calculator the Rapid Arithmetical Machine, as he called it.
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From page 95... ...
Out of the discussions came a plan for the establishment of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) , which Bush described in four short paragraphs and submitted to President Roosevelt.
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From page 96... ...
In addition, Bush was chairman of the Joint New Weapons Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and, when the Manhattan District was created, chairman of its Military Policy Committee, which functioned as its board of directors. Although a certain organizational complexity was inevitable in so large a program, OSRD and NDRC operations were simplified ~ Pieces of the Action, pp.
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From page 97... ...
You chaps get the hell out of here and get back to work, and I'll look into it.' " ~ His wisclom and integrity were respected. The organization was a remarkable invention, but the most significant innovation was the plan by which, instead of builcling large government laboratories, contracts were made with universities and industrial laboratories for research appropriate to their capabilities.
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From page 98... ...
in London in an argument over the terms of exchanging atomic information. He had the duty, after the death of President Roosevelt, of giving President Truman his first detailed account of the bomb.
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From page 99... ...
Bush explained later: "There were some on Capitol Hill who felt that the real need of the postwar effort would be the support of inventors arid gadgeteers, and to whom science meant just that. When talking matters over with some of these, it was well to avoid the word fundamental and use basic instead."T To provide an organization for the support of basic research, Bush proposed the creation of a National Research Foundation, which would administer fellowships and scholarships and would "place its research contracts or grants not only with those institutions which have a demonstrated research capacity but also with other institutions whose latent talent or creative atmosphere affords promise of research success." ~ Since 1942 Senator Harley Kilgore had been seeking passage of a bill providing for the support of science and technology, and in the spring of 1945 the bill was modified to provide for the establishment of a national science foundation.
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From page 100... ...
But I did so on the basis that he was being given protection, a buffer against those coming to seek favors." t An expectation had been that Bush would be chairman of NSF, but he asked President Truman not to name him to the board, saying, "I have been running about everything scientific during the war, and somewhat since, and I think people are getting tired of seeing this guy Bush run things around here. I think this outfit would be better if it had some new leaclership.
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From page 101... ...
In the formation of the Com# Biographical Memoirs, Year Book of the American Philosophical Sociely (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1974)
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From page 102... ...
The most persistent line of Bush's inventive endeavors involved technology for processing information. The Differential Analyzer was the most important product of such activity, but
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From page 103... ...
Edgerton, was used in the Rapid Selector. It was applied with greater success in Photon, a machine for setting type photographically, which was developed by Graphic Arts Research Foundation, Inc., a Cambridge# Vannevar Bush, Science Is Not Enough (New York: William Morrow, 1967)
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From page 104... ...
He had been "appalled at some of F.D.R.'s political theory and practice," though his views mellowed as he came to revere President Roosevelt, and his loyalty to him was absolute.T "I am all for a welfare state in which a powerful government seeks to protect its citizens against the cruelties of nature and chance, and incidentally against the rapaciousness of their fellow citizens," he said in an essay, "Poverty and Oppor# Otto J Scott, The Creative Ordeal (New York: Atheneum, 1974)
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From page 105... ...
Even so, there has never been a time, or a country, in all history in which barriers that block the indvidual's path to success, material or intellectual, were so broken down as here and now. This is the hallmark of our way of life.t Although Van Bush tract consorted with the powerful and himself had exercised enormous power, although he was a brilliant technologist, although he shared the awesome view of nature disclosed by science, his devotion to individualism and the ideal of a simple life was central to his character.
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From page 106... ...
Botolph Club, Boston Century Association, New York AWARDS Louis Edward Levy Medal, Franklin Institute, 1928 Lamme Medal, American Institute of Electrical Engineers, 1935 Research Corporation Award, Columbia University, 1939 Ballou Medal, Tufts University, 1941 Edison Medal, ATEE, 1943 Holley Medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1943 Solon Scott Award, Philadelphia City Trust, 1943 Gold Medal, National Institute of Social Sciences, 1945 Distinguished Service Medal, Roosevelt Memorial Association, 1945
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From page 107... ...
Carty Medal and Award for the Advancement of Science, National Academy of Sciences, 1954 William Proctor Prize, Scientific Research Society of America, 1954 Officer, Legion of Honor, France, 1955 New England Award, Engineering Societies of New England, 1957 Charles F Kettering Award, George Washington University, 1952 1963 National Medal of Science, President Johnson, 1964 Great Living American Award, Chamber of Commerce of the United States, 1964 Citation, Brotherhood of Temple Ohabei Shalom, Brookline, Massachusetts, 1964 Wisdom Award of Honor, The Wisdom Society, 1965 First Annual Founders Medal, National Academy of Engineers, 1966 Distinguished Service to Science Education Citation, National Science Teachers Association, 1968 Atomic Pioneer Award, President Nixon, 1970 BOARDS Life Member, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation; Chairman, 1957-1959; Honorary Chairman, 1959-1971 Regent, Smithsonian Institution, 1943-1955 Trustee, Tufts College, 1943-1962 (Emeritus)
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From page 108... ...
108 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Director American Telephone and Telegraph Co., 1947-1962 Director, Merck & Co., Inc., 1949-1962; Chairman of Board, 19~71962 Director, Metals and Controls Corporation, 1952-1959 Director and Life Member, Graphic Arts Research Foundation, Inc., 1949-1974
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From page 109... ...
Eng., 36:207-34. The coupled circuit by the method of generalized angular velocities.
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From page 110... ...
x + 392 pp. 1931 The Differential Analyzer: a new machine for solving differential equations.
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From page 111... ...
In: Biographical Memoirs, 22:83-119. N.Y.: Columbia Univ.
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Hearings on Science Legislation (Hearings before a subcommittee of the committee on military affairs, Senate, pursuant to S
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1639, a bill to establish a national air policy board)
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From page 114... ...
In: Biographical Memoirs, 27:1-11. N.Y.: Columbia Univ.
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Gano Sillick Dunn. In: Biographical Memoirs, 28:31-44.
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From page 116... ...
In: Biographical Memoirs, 38:1-16. N.Y.: Columbia Univ.
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From page 117... ...
N.Y.: William Morrow.
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