EXPLORE THE COLLECTION

A Sampling of Objects from the Museum’s Five Collections

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CPM Network Analyzer Indicator Circuit and Project Network Analyzer

CHM#: X5248.2009

Date: 1962 | 1964-1966 | Donor: Doris-Jane Fondahl

Human civilizations have embarked on large-scale projects for thousands of years. But it wasn't until the 1950s that the scientifically founded discipline of project management emerged.

Beginning in 1956, the DuPont chemical company—with Remington Rand UNIVAC—devised the Critical Path Method (CPM) to solve construction scheduling problems. cpm and related methods essentially represent project tasks and their relationships as a network. The extensive calculations necessary for the technique at DuPont were performed by their UNIVAC computer.

In 1958, the U.S. Navy awarded a contract to Stanford University civil engineering professor John Fondahl to investigate the feasibility of performing CPM calculations by hand instead of by expensive electronic computers. He published an influential book on the subject in 1961, which was widely read in the construction industry.

Realizing that some of the manual calculations were quite repetitive, Fondahl constructed a device to aid him in this task in 1962. He wired up an IBM accounting machine plugboard to create the electrical analogy of a project schedule. The Indicator Circuit was used to probe the plugboard, entries were made into a worksheet, and the schedule was then manually recalculated. With the help of Stanford’s Electronics Lab, Fondahl constructed the more sophisticated Project Network Analyzer in 1964.

John Fondahl intended to commercialize his inventions but decided against it when smaller, cheaper computers arrived and his interests shifted toward more complex resource-scheduling problems. He continued to use the one-of-a-kind devices in his home and office, though, and preserved both units until his passing in 2008.

_Alex Bochannek

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Ellis D. Kropotechev And Zeus, A Marvelous Time-Sharing Device Movie

CHM#: 102651555

Date: ca. 1967 | Donor: Stanford University, Department of Computer Science

The film Ellis D. Kropotechev and Zeus features Zeus, a time-sharing system developed by the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University. Written and acted by programmers and faculty, the film mixes physical comedy with a touch of surrealism and a clever soundtrack featuring the Rolling Stones and Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries,” an engaging look at the culture of computer programming in the 1960s. The story is a race against time: Ellis D. Kropotechev is a computer scientist attempting to run and debug a program before departing to meet his girlfriend. The five hour wait time and error-riddled output of his program cause Kropotechev to lose hope, and he envisions his girlfriend leaving him. As he lights a cigarette and considers giving up, a nearby computer terminal speaks to him and invites him to try a time-sharing device instead. Using Zeus, Kropotechev is able to correct the errors in his program quickly, and the film ends with a shot of Kropotechev and his girlfriend walking arm-in-arm into the sunset.

From the start of the modern computer era in the mid-1950s, programming was a time-consuming process involving punching one’s programs onto cards, submitting the cards to a computer operator, then waiting (sometimes a day or more) for results. This film captures the technical importance of the late 1960s transition from this so-called “batch” method to timesharing, an interactive method in which the programmer used a video display terminal to directly interact with the computer himself. Other users also shared part of the computer’s time, giving each user the appearance that the computer was responding only to them.

_Heather Yeager

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Electrons And Holes In Semiconductors book By William Shockley

CHM#: 102704591

Date: 1950 | Donor: Harry Sello

Harry Sello generously donated his copy of William Shockley's magnum opus “Electrons and Holes” to the Museum collection for exhibit in the Silicon Engine artifact display. Sello's copy of the book is unique in that when he was working at Shockley Semiconductor Labs in Mountain View he came up with an improved design for a diffusion furnace.

Shockley asked him what he was working on. Impressed with the approach, he asked Harry if he understood all the thermal and mechanical considerations involved. As Harry says, “When the boss asks you a question like that what else can you say but ‘Yes.’ Several minutes later Shockley returned with a copy of his book signed on the title page with the message, “To Harry Sello. A man with a big red hot idea. W=Shockley, 26 Mar 58.”

_David Laws