George Stibitz

George Robert Stibitz (April 20, 1904 – January 31, 1995) is internationally recognized as a father of the modern digital computer. He was a Bell Labs researcher known for his 1930s and 1940s work on the realization of Boolean logic digital circuits using electromechanical relays as the switching element. Image File history File links Stibitz3_lg. ... Image File history File links Stibitz3_lg. ... is the 110th day of the year (111th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ... is the 31st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... Bell Laboratories (also known as Bell Labs and formerly known as AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Telephone Laboratories) was the main research and development arm of the United States Bell System. ... Boolean logic is a complete system for logical operations. ... Automotive style miniature relay A relay is an electrical switch that opens and closes under the control of another electrical circuit. ...

Born in York, Pennsylvania, he received his bachelor's degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, his master's degree from Union College in 1927, and his Ph.D. in mathematical physics in 1930 from Cornell University. Nickname: Coordinates: , Country United States State Pennsylvania County York Incorporated  - Borough September 24, 1787  - City January 11, 1887 Government  - Mayor John Brenner Area  - City  5. ... A bachelors degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts for three, four, or in some cases and countries, five or six years. ... Denison University is a private liberal arts and sciences college in Granville, Ohio, approximately 30 miles (50 km) east of Columbus. ... Granville is a village in Licking County, Ohio, founded by settlers from Granville, Massachusetts, a town of which it now has three times the population. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The architectural centerpiece of the Union campus, the Nott Memorial, is named after the colleges president from 1804-1866, Eliphalet Nott. ... Year 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Cornell University is a university located in Ithaca, New York, USA. Its two medical campuses are in New York City and Education City, Qatar. ...

Computer

George Stibitz with his model K

In November of 1937, George Stibitz, then working at Bell Labs, completed a relay-based computer he dubbed the "Model K" (for "kitchen table", on which he had assembled it), which calculated using binary addition. Bell Labs subsequently authorized a full research program in late 1938 with Stibitz at the helm. Their Complex Number Calculator, completed January 8, 1940, was able to calculate complex numbers. In a demonstration to the American Mathematical Society conference at Dartmouth College on September 11, 1940, Stibitz used a teletype to send commands to the Complex Number Calculator in New York over telephone lines. It was the first computing machine ever used remotely over a phone line. Image File history File links Stibitz4_lg. ... Image File history File links Stibitz4_lg. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Bell Laboratories (also known as Bell Labs and formerly known as AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Telephone Laboratories) was the main research and development arm of the United States Bell System. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The complex numbers are an extension of the real numbers, in which all non-constant polynomials have roots. ... The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and education, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards to mathematicians. ... Dartmouth College is a private, coeducational university located in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States. ... September 11 is the 254th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (255th in leap years). ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is a now largely obsolete electro-mechanical typewriter which can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point through a simple electrical communications channel, often just a pair of wires. ...

Stibitz held 38 patents, in addition to those he earned at Bell Labs. He became a member of the faculty at Dartmouth College in 1964 to build bridges between the fields of computing and medicine, and retired from research in 1983. Replicas of the "Model K" reside in both the Smithsonian Institution and the William Howard Doane Library at Denison University. Dartmouth College is a private, coeducational university located in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... The Smithsonian Institution Building or Castle on the National Mall serves as the Institutions headquarters. ...

Awards

• Harry H. Goode Memorial Award in 1965 (together with Konrad Zuse)

Statue in Bad Hersfeld Konrad Zuse (June 22, 1910 Berlin - December 18, 1995 Hünfeld) was a German engineer, who developed one of the first computers (Rechner). His greatest achievement was a functional program-controlled computer, the Z3, in 1941 (the program was stored on a tape). ...

Computer art

In his later years, George "turned to non-verbal uses of the computer". Specifically, he used an Amiga to create computer art. The original Amiga 1000 (1985) with various peripherals The Amiga 500 (1987) was the most popular variant of the Amiga. ...

In a 1990 letter written to the department chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science department of Denison University he said:

I have turned to non-verbal uses of the computer, and have made a display of computer "art". The quotes are obligatory, for the result of my efforts is not to create important art but to show that this activity is fun, much as the creation of computers was fifty years ago.

The Mathematics and Computer Science department at Denison University has enlarged and displayed some of his artwork.

See also

• John Vincent Atanasoff
• Charles Babbage Institute

John Vincent Atanasoff (October 4, 1903 – June 15, 1995) was an American physicist of Bulgarian descent. ... The Charles Babbage Institute (also titled the Center for the History of Information Technology) is a research center specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the post-World War II history of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking. ...

External links

Patents

• U.S. Patent 2,668,661  "Complex Computer" filed April 1941, issued February 1954 (102 pages)

Other

• Obituary by Kip Crosby of the Computing History Association of California
• George R. Stibitz website at Denison University
• Biography of Stibitz on the Pioneers website – By Kerry Redshaw, Brisbane, Australia

References

• Melina Hill, Valley News Correspondent, A Tinkerer Gets a Place in History, Valley News West Lebanon NH, Thursday March 31, 1983, page 13.

• Andrew Hodges (1983), Alan Turing: The Enigma, Simon and Schuster, New York, ISBN 0-671-49207-1. Stibitz is mentioned briefly on pages 299 and 326. Hodges refers to Stibitz's machine as one of two "big relay calculators" (Aiken's being the other one, p.326).

"The second American project [Aiken's being the first] was underway at Bell Laboratories. Here the engineer G. Stibiz had first only thought of designing relay machines to perform decimal arithmetic with complex numbers, but after the outbreak of war had incorporated the facility to carry out a fixed sequence of aithmetical operations. His 'Model III' [sic] was under way in the New York building at the time of [[Alan Turing]'s stay there, but it had not drawn his attention." (p. 299)

Stibitz's work with binary addition has a peculiar (i.e. apparently simultaneous) overlap with some experimenting Alan Turing did in 1937 while a PhD student at Princeton. The following is according to a Dr. Malcolm McPhail "who became involved in a sideline that Alan took up" (p. 137)); Turing built his own relays and "actually designed an electric multiplier and built the first three or four stages to see if it could be made to work" (p. 138). It is unknown whether Stibitz and/or McPhail had any influence on this work of Turing's; McPhail's implication is that Turing's "[alarm]about a possible war with Germany" (p. 138) caused him to become interested in crytanalysis, and this interest led to discussions with McPhail, and these discussions led to the relay-multiplier experiments (the pertainent part of McPhail's letter to Hodges is quoted in Hodges p. 138).