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#967 From: "relayer" <relayer@...>
Date: Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:06 pm
Subject: MCMI in History....Re: Re: Highlights of tonight's chat relayer
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Those first two seem pretty significant enough to get my vote to carry

the MCMI/1901 relationship

#965 From: Dan <ragooman@...>
Date: Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:43 pm
Subject: MCMI in History....Re: Re: Highlights of tonight's chat ragoo_sauce
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Some other Historical significance are engineers/scientists who were born in 1901, there's plenty more of them
<>You can search for them here Today in Science History

Charles Draper, born 1901, developed the Apollo guidance computer. In August 1961, NASA contracted the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory (later called the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory) to develop the Apollo guidance, navigation and control system. Eldon Hall (shown above) was selected to lead the development team, and astronaut David Scott was chosen as the interface between the designers and the users.

Arthur Lee Samuel, born in 1901 in Emporia, Kansas, died July 29, 1990, in Menlo Park, California. In 1946, Samuel became professor of electrical engineering at the University of Illinois and participated in designing one of the first electronic computers. There he conceived the idea of a checkers program capable of beating the world champion and demonstrating the power of electronic computers. (It was never tested against the world champion, however.) Later, at IBM, he completed the first checkers program-apparently the world's first self-learning program-on the IBM 701. Just before the demonstration, Thomas J. Watson Sr., IBM founder and president, remarked that the demonstration would raise the price of IBM stock 15 points. He was right. Samuel received an IEEE Computer Society Pioneer Award in 1987 for his work on adaptive non-numeric processing.

Allen Balcom DuMont was born on January 29, 1901. He was a pioneer in the television business. DuMont was born in Brooklyn, but he lived most of his life in New Jersey. As a young man, he was stricken with polio; during his convalescence, he experimented with electronics and built a radio transmitter and receiver. In the 1920s, after studying electrical engineering, he took a job with a company that was manufacturing cathode-ray tubes. (A "cathode ray" is a stream of electrons. Basically, a cathode-ray tube is a glass tube that emits electrons; when these electrons hit a screen coated with phosphor, light is emitted.) It can be argued that DuMont built the first practical cathode-ray tubes, since he improved their design and durability, and made them much easier to assemble. He opened Allen B. DuMont Laboratories in 1931 to manufacture his superior cathode-ray tubes. Since cathode-ray tubes are a central component of television technology, DuMont's company became the first manufacturer of home television sets. Not only was DuMont involved in making TV hardware, but he also got involved in TV "software": programming. He bought and built several TV stations, beginning the world's first commercial television network. Eventually, the DuMont network failed, due to competition from TV networks funded by radio broadcasters like NBC and CBS. (Most of the DuMont stations became part of Metromedia, eventually becoming the core of the Fox TV network.) Despite the failure of his network, DuMont was the first person to become a millionaire thanks to television. He died in 1965

Ernst Weber was born 1901 in Vienna. He was an engineer who helped develop radar. Weber was interested in both the practical and theoretical aspects of science and technology, so while he studied engineering at one university, he simultaneously studied physics at another. He earned Ph.D. degrees in both fields. During the 1920s, Weber worked as an electrical engineer for the Siemens company in Austria and Germany, mostly trying to design industrial machines that wasted less electricity. In 1930, he moved to the U.S. and began lecturing and researching at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. Weber became interested in microwaves -- electromagnetic waves with very short wavelengths and high frequencies. Much of Weber's work in the late 1930s was helpful to scientists trying to build a practical radar system, since radar involves bouncing microwaves off an object to detect its location. Dr. Weber worked on refining radar equipment during World War II, when it was vital. He also started a company to manufacture components needed for radar, and he obtained more than 30 patents related to microwaves. In 1945, he founded a microwave research lab at the Polytechnic Institute. In 1957, he took over as president of the Institute, which he led during a period of tremendous growth. He remained active in his profession, too: Weber became the first president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1963. He received various honors and was decorated by presidents Truman and Reagan. Weber died in 1996 at the age of 94.

Enrico Fermi, Born 29 Sep 1901; died 29 Nov 1954
Italian-born American physicist who was one of the chief architects of the nuclear age. He developed the mathematical statistics required to clarify a large class of subatomic phenomena, discovered neutron-induced radioactivity, and directed the first controlled chain reaction involving nuclear fission.
Died 21 Jan 1901 (born 2 Aug 1835)

Ernest Lawrence, Born 8 Aug 1901; died 27 Aug 1958.
Ernest Orlando Lawrence was an American physicist, winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention of the cyclotron, the first particle accelerator to achieve high energies.

Robert Jemison Van de Graaff, Died 16 Jan 1967 (born 20 Dec 1901)
American physicist and inventor of the Van de Graaff generator, a type of high-voltage electrostatic generator that can be used as a particle accelerator in atomic research. The potential differences achieved in modern Van de Graaff generators can be up to 5 MV. It is a principle of electric fields that charges on a surface can leap off at points where the curvature is great, that is, where the radius is small. Thus, a dome of great radius will inhibit the electric discharge and added charge can reach a high voltage. This generator has been used in medical (such as high-energy X-ray production) and industrial applications (sterilization of food). In the 1950s, Van de Graaff invented the insulating core transformer able to produce high voltage direct current.

Edward Thomas Copson, Born 21 Aug 1901; died 16 Feb 1980.
Scottish mathematician known for his contributions to analysis and partial differential equations, especially as they apply to mathematical physics.

Dan This Date in Technology History

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Evan wrote:

Well, the match is that 1901 implies computers that aren't Y2K-compliant, and thus OLD.

LOL, anyway, I was thinking that we'd use MCMI and the spelled-out version interchangeably, and tell the 1901 thing more as a joke whenever an interested party or reporter is near. We can certainly explain that on our web site, too.

From: midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com [mailto:midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of John Allain
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 11:12 AM
To: midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [midatlanticretro] Re: Highlights of tonight's chat

Until a 'killer' match for our MCMI's 1901 to another 1901 of real histotric value, maybe we shouldn't obsess about that number. I find no matches yet. "1201" was the computer error code from Apollo 11, "601" the error code from "Andromeda Strain", "801" the project credited with the invention of RISC computing.... Nothing yet. Besides that would make for Three giant leaps of explanation. What's 1901? It's MCMI. So What's MCMI? It's MARCH Computer Museum... What's a MARCH?... John A.
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