Title
Comstock, George E. oral history
Catalog Number
102702288
Type
Moving image
Description
Engineer and entrepreneur George Comstock begins the interview by discussing his early years, including the influence of his childhood friend Al Howell on his decision to pursue mechanical engineering as a profession. Comstock worked for a number of companies once graduating from WPI in 1945, beginning at Grumman Aircraft. His first company was Diablo Systems, founded in 1969, which manufactured hard disk drives for minicomputers. A few years later, he and his colleague Dr Andrew Gabor co-developed the daisywheel print element in which alphabetic characters are arranged circumferentially around a print wheel. The result was a new market for printers that offered better print quality than competing systems. Diablo was eventually sold to Xerox. Comstock worked at Xerox for a few years then left to form a new company company, Durango Systems. Their product failed in the marketplace because of less expensive competitive machines. Finally, he discusses his work at networking start-up Network General and his current interests and hobbies.
Date
2003-08-13
Participants
|
Comstock, George E., Interviewee
|
|
Hendrie, Gardner, Interviewer; Cameraperson
|
Publisher
Computer History Museum
Place of Publication
Saratoga, California
Duration
03:10:04
Format
DVCAM
Category
Oral history
Subject
Comstock, George; WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute); Grumman Aircraft; Norton Company; Potter Instrument Company; Potter Model 905 Tape Handler; Gabor, Andrew; Friden 130 Electronic Calculator; Flexowriter; Computyper; Singer System 10; Diablo Systems Inc.; Diablo 630 daisywheel printer; Itel Corporation; Durango Systems; Durango F85
Collection Title
Oral history collection
