Item Details

Description

The William H. Meek collection contains manuals, publications, promotional material, correspondence, and programming projects from 1944 through 1983 that document Meek's interests in computers, mechanical engineering, and the interlocking six-piece Burr puzzle. Meek was an instrumentation specialist at Dow Chemical Company into the mid-1960s, but he spent most of his life researching, evaluating, and acquiring early computer systems. He was greatly interested in analyzing the mechanics behind Burr puzzles and wrote his own computer programs to aid in his analysis. This collection is made up largely of manuals and technical information regarding the IBM System/3, and programming source code and tests in various early programming languages.

Biographical/Historical Note

William H. Meek was born in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, on June 2, 1917. He received his BA from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and a master's degree from the University of Michigan. Meek first worked as a paint chemist for Ditzler Paints in Ann Arbor, Michigan. During World War II he joined the United States Navy and worked as a radar technician on the USS Newcomb from 1941 through 1945. After the war, Meek began a long career at Dow Chemical Company as an instrumentation specialist — designing, building, and repairing equipment for testing products sold by the company. He worked in the Technical Service & Development (TS&D) department at Dow's office in Midland, Michigan, for over 25 years, retiring in the mid 1960s.

Meek's main interests included computers, mechanical engineering, and puzzles. He was especially interested in the mathematics and design behind six-piece Burr puzzles, interlocking structures made up of six notched sticks that combined to make three-dimensional shapes. In order to analyze the mechanics of all of the different combinations and assemblies of these puzzles, Meek wrote his own programs in Fortran, BASIC, and various IBM programming languages and used early computing technologies to run these programs — including the computer used for payroll at Dow. After retiring, Meek collected and used other computers. He bought one of the initial models of Radio Shack's TRS-80 Micro Computer Systems, a series of IBM and IBM-compatible micro-computers, and when he received word from his old colleagues at Dow that the company was retiring its IBM System/3 computers, he arranged to acquire those as well. Meek passed away on June 10, 2005.

Level of description

Folder

Date

1944-1983 (Made)

Publisher

Computer History Museum (Publisher)

Extent

5.34 linear feet

Subject

Computer Programming, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)

Collection title

William H. Meek collection

Credit

Gift of Phyllis Meek

Catalogue number

102733947

Lot number

X4708.2008