The Analog Brain Of
VANNEVAR BUSH
The late nineteenth and early twentieth century gave witness to an upheaval of technological advances that altered the very fabric of everyday life, and Vannevar Bush was very much a product of this revolution. Throughout the course of his life, Bush would obtain dozens of patents, contribute to two World Wars, and become the most politically powerful American inventor since Benjamin Franklin, only to slip into relative obscurity in the waning years of his life (Zachary, 1997).
Born in Everett, Massachusetts in 1890, Bush grew up experiencing the marvel of electricity, the motion picture, the radio, the telephone, and the heroic portrayal of the young inventor by dime novelists. From an early age, Bush displayed a knack for both science and mathematics, as well as a love for invention.
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The Education of Vannevar Bush
When it came time to send Vannevar Bush off to university, Tufts College was an easy choice. The education of his older sisters had placed a strain on the family’s limited resources so Bush opted to take additional classes to obtain both his Bachelor's degree and his Masters degree in just four years (Nyce & Khan, 1991).
While at Tufts, Bush received his first patent for a mechanical device that could map terrain with passable accuracy. Bush (1970) described his device as “consist[ing] of an instrument box slung between two small bicycle wheels, [which the] surveyor pushed over a road or across a field, and it automatically drew a profile” (p.155). Convinced that his invention could increase the speed and efficiency in which land could be surveyed Bush attempted to sell his invention. He was however, repeatedly met with disappointment, emphasizing his understanding of the need to attain a practical career (Zachary, 1997).
After graduating from Tufts at age 23, Bush set off to sample what a job in industry could offer him. General Electric, which had grown rapidly to meet the demand for electricity, hired Bush as a test man in 1913 at the company’s primary facility in Schenectady, New York. Bush eventually moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts for the opportunity to test high-voltage transformers only to experience a two-week layoff as punishment for being involved in a fire that destroyed the plant’s main cables (Bush, 1967).
After spending just over a year at General Electric, Bush left the industry. He returned to Tufts and the comforting arms of academia. However, at the time there was only one available position at Tufts as a math teacher to the female students at Tuft’s sister school, Jackson College for Women. Bush immediately accepted the position (Bush, 1967).
Teaching basic math was by no means challenging to Bush, it did offer him time to consider his future, and gather the funds he would need to pursue a PhD. After a brief moment at Clark University, Bush settled at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1915 with the promise that pending the completion of a thesis he could complete the program in a single year. To the astonishment of his advisor, Bush produced a thesis ahead of schedule awarded his PhD in early 1916 (Burke, 1994).
Bush's mechanical surveyor, the profile tracer.
Vannevar Bush demonstrating his profile tracer surveying invention.
Vannevar Bush and World War I
By the end of 1916, Bush had married his college sweetheart, taken a position in the Electrical Engineering Department at Tufts, and obtained a corporate patron in the American Radio and Research Corporation (AMRAD). AMRAD was located on the Tufts campus and produced the radio parts and sets for amateur operators. His position as a researcher allowed him to probe the mysteries of the radio, which he did with great enthusiasm (Burke, 1994).
While life was comfortable in the United States, the First World War raged across the countries of Europe and the waters of the Atlantic. Although America was not officially involved in the war effort, American lives had been lost. The sinking of the luxury liner RMS Lusitania by German submarines (U-boats) had resulted in a cease-fire on all ships traveling to and from America. However, in January 1917 Germany announced that U-boats would resume bombing any ships headed to Britain as part of their strategy to blockade the island. By April 6, several American ships lay at the bottom of the Atlantic due to U-boat attacks, and America could no longer resist the call to arms .
Unlike famous inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong, Bush “was not prone to intense displays of patriotism… but he was no pacifist either” (Zachary, 1997 p. 36). Fellow scientists had begun to pool research to attack the persistent problems of the war. One such problem was the Navy’s submarine detection system, which was worthless at a range of more than 200 yards.
Following the declaration of war, Bush traveled to Washington to meet with the director of the National Research Council, Robert Millikan, to discuss a new method of submarine detection using a magnetic field. Bush very quickly developed a prototype that when tested detected many submarines as promised. However, the Navy insisted that it was of no use on its wooden ship and wanted to place it on the iron battleships. Bush (1970) stated that he had little choice in the matter and that the “decision to use a destroyer had been made by some senior officers who knew even less physics than I did, and so I went to work and wasted six months trying to adapt the equipment” (p. 73). However, the end of the war would come sooner than Bush could finish and so his early detection unit failed to detect a single submarine in combat.
AMRAD Headquarters in North Hall at Tufts College.
Front page of The Daily Missourian announcing US entry into World War I
Vannevar Bush and the Radio
During the war, not only had AMRAD been responsible for the production of Bush’s submarine detection device, but they had also received large orders from the Army Signal Corp. for radios. However, with the war at an end, the Army Signal Corp. backed out of their orders leaving AMRAD in financial straits. In 1919, Bush left Tufts for a position in the electrical engineering department at MIT, but continued his research with AMRAD because he believed in the potential of radio discoveries to benefit all forms of communication. Despite his belief, AMRAD floundered but not before Bush saved the most important piece of the company, Charles G. Smith.
Bush hired Charles Smith, a physicist from Texas, in 1919 to take over some of the research projects at AMRAD. During his time at AMRAD under Bush’s tutelage, Smith developed a revolutionary tube known as the S-tube. Radios at the time required two separate batteries to run. Smith’s S-Tube replaced one battery with electrical current from a wall socket and eliminated the need for the second battery all-together. Bush thought this tube was remarkable and often boasted that he and Smith had accomplished more than AT&T’s entire research department, which at the time included some twenty-five hundred men (Zachary, 1997).
Bush introduced Smith to Laurence Marshall, who had trusted Bush’s instincts on a thermostatic switch, which had garnered the two over a million dollars in licensing fees. By 1924, Bush and Smith had made dramatic improvements to the S-Tube and with Marshall formed Raytheon. As luck would have it, 1924 was the boom year of radio and the S-Tube not only brought down the prices, but also made the radio much easier to use. The success of the S-Tube however, drew the consternation of the larger established radio producers such as the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), Westinghouse, and General Electric. In an underhanded move, the four companies pooled their various tube patents and licensed them jointly to radio manufacturers under the stipulation that the manufacturer buy all their tubes exclusively from the pool. The terms of the licensing agreement effectively shut Raytheon out of the market. While a clear violation of the antitrust laws of the time, any court litigations would inevitably result in the death of Raytheon.
Marshall decided, therefore, to violate the patent rights of the allied monopoly by manufacturing and selling their tubes. The resulting lawsuits would require almost a decade of litigation in the courts, but allowed Raytheon to survive.
Raytheon Packaging for their Radio Tube.
References
Burke, C. (1994). Information and secrecy. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Bush, V. (1967) Science is not enough. New York, NY: William Morrow & Company, Inc.
Bush, V. (1970) Pieces of the actions. New York, NY: William Morrow & Company, Inc.
Bush, V. (1991a) The inscrutable thirties. In J.M, Nyce, & P. Kahn, From memex to hypertext (pp. 67 – 79). San Diego, CA: Academic Press, Inc.
Nyce, J.M. & Kahn, P. (1991) A machine for the mind: Vannevar Bush’s memex. In J.M, Nyce, & P. Kahn, From memex to hypertext (pp. 39 – 66). San Diego, CA: Academic Press, Inc.
Royde-Smith, J. G., & Showalter, D. E. (2020). World War I. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I
Zachary, G.P. (1997). Endless frontier. New York, NY: The Free Press