Bush, Vannevar

Bush, Vannevar

(1890–1974) American

Engineer and Inventor

Vannevar Bush, grandson of two sea captains and son of a clergyman, was born in Everett, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. Bush earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in engineer-ing at Tufts University, and received a joint doctorate from Harvard and MIT in 1916. He went on to full professorship at MIT and became dean of its Engineering School in 1932.

Bush combined an interest in mathematics with the design of mechanical devices to automate calculations. During his undergraduate years he invented an automatic surveying machine using two bicycle wheels and a record-ing instrument. His most important invention was the dif-ferential analyzer, a special type of computer that used combinations of rotating shafts and cams to incrementally add or subtract the differences needed to arrive at a solution to the equation (see also analog computer). His improved model (Rockefeller Differential Analyzer, or RDA2) replaced the shafts and gears with an electrically-driven system, but the actual integrators were still mechanical. Several of these machines were built in time for World War II, when they served for such purposes as calculating tables of ballistic trajectories for artillery.

Later, Bush turned his attention to problems of infor-mation processing. Together with John H. Howard (also of MIT), he invented the Rapid Selector, a device that could retrieve specific information from a roll of microfilm by scanning for special binary codes on the edges of the film. His most far-reaching idea, however, was what he called the “Memex”—a device that would link or associate pieces of information with one another in a way similar to the asso-ciations made in the human brain. Bush visualized this as a desktop workstation that would enable its user to explore the world’s information resources by following links, the basic principle of what would later become known as hyper-text (see hypertext and hypermedia).

In his later years, Bush wrote books that became influen-tial as scientists struggled to create large-scale research teams and to define their roles and responsibilities in the cold war era. He played the key role in establishing the National Sci-ence Foundation in 1950, and served on its advisory board from 1953 to 1956. He then became CEO of the drug company Merck (1955–1962) as well as serving as chairman (and then honorary chairman) of the MIT Corporation (1957–1974).

Bush would receive numerous honorary degrees and awards that testified to the broad range of his interests and achievements not only in electrical and mechanical engi-neering, but also in social science. In 1964, he received the National Medal of Science. Bush died on June 28, 1974, in Belmont, Massachusetts.