Call Number: OH 75
Interviewee: Burks, Arthur W. (Arthur Walter), 1915-
Interviewee: Burks, Alice R., 1920-
Interviewer: Nancy B. Stern
Repository: Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Description: Transcript, 127 pp.
Abstract: Arthur Burks describes his work on the ENIAC and Institute for Advanced Study computers. He reviews his upbringing, education, and work experiences (mainly teaching) before joining the University of Pennsylvania Moore School of Electrical Engineering in 1941. He then discusses his associations with J. Presper Eckert, John Mauchly, John Brainerd, Herman Goldstine, and others and their work at the Moore School. Various aspects of the ENIAC project are discussed in detail: interactions of project members, division of tasks, decision making processes, patenting issues, initial operation, and von Neumann's association with the Moore School and the ENIAC and EDVAC projects. There is a general discussion concerning the classification of general versus special purpose computers and computers versus calculators. Patenting issues concerning the ENIAC project are given particular attention. The Burks discuss the dispersion of ENIAC and EDVAC personnel at the end of World War II. Burks recounts his move to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, his experiences there, and his consulting work with Burroughs prior to accepting a faculty position at the University of Michigan.
Subject(s):
Von Neumann, John, 1903-1957 ; Moore School of Electrical Engineering ; Mauchly, John W. (John William), 1907-1980 ; Institute for Advanced Study computer ; Goldstine, Herman Heine, 1913- ; ENIAC (Computer) ; Electronic data processing consultants ; EDVAC (Computer) ; Eckert, J. Presper (John Presper), 1919- ; Computers -- Patents ; Computers -- History ; Calculators ; Burks, Arthur W. (Arthur Walter), 1915- ; Burks, Alice R., 1920- ; Brainerd, John G. (John Grist), 1904-1988
Citation: Arthur W. Burks and Alice R. Burks, OH 75. Oral history interview by Nancy B. Stern, 20 June 1980, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Copyright: Copyright to this oral history is held by the Charles Babbage Institute. Distribution in any format of the transcript in its entirety is prohibited. Permission to quote from the transcript under the fair use provision of the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) is granted provided that this source is cited.
Transcript: Link to transcript