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From these facilities have come the contributions of W. P. Allis and S. C. Brown in the understanding of the properties of low-pressure gas discharge at very high frequencies; L. J. Chu's contribution to the theory of traveling wave tubes; L. B. Arguimbau's outstanding work on frequency modulation transmission; many important advancements in the knowledge of nuclear and atomic structure contributed by J. R. Zacharias, Francis Bitter, and M. W. P. Standberg; M. A. Herlin's significant low temperature work; a microwave electron accelerator; application of electron techniques to brain-current studies; highvoltage pulse-measuring techniques; communication studies that include the investigation of relative merits of amplitude, frequency, and pulse modulation techniques, and the problems encountered in using these techniques in communication systems; and research studies that resulted in the discovery of new methods of ionospheric propagation. In addition to the activities of the Research Laboratory of Electronics, the Institute has had a large and varied program of electronic study and research. Undergraduate courses in industrial applications of servomechanisms, principles of radar, aircraft electronic equipment, shipboard radio communication equipment, radio navigational systems, principles and application of sonar, microwaves, the theory of matter, have all become a part of the curriculum. Research in the various fields of applied electronics has brought us some outstanding developments. Under J. W. Forrester, the ultrahigh-speed digital computing machine, Whirlwind I, is now in operation. With its ability to remember, act upon, and deliver information at a rate of 2000 times a second, Whirlwind I was the first machine suitable for supplying instantaneous instructions for such applications as controlling aircraft flights. We are just discovering how manifold are its uses in industrial problems of process control, economic analysis, insurance handling, oilpumping techniques, and the like. With the development of the transistor, a new and exceedingly simple device capable of replacing the electron tube in many applications, good understanding of the theory of the solid state has become very important to the industry. A group established by J. C. Slater is working in this field. |
Turning to another side of electronic development, we note that the Servomechanisms Research Laboratory now has in operation a numerically controlled milling machine (believed to be the first of its kind in the world) that represents a pioneering step in the automatic control of machine tools. Here is one of the many instances in which wartime research has been put to peacetime use. The control devices of the machine have been patterned after military fire-control servomechanisms. On another part of the campus an electrostatic generator, designed to operate eventually at 12 million volts, has been built and housed and will be used to bombard the nuclei of atoms at voltages several times higher than those produced by any existing machine of its type. Electronic research at M.I.T. is also contributing to the field of medicine. Our 2-million-volt xray machine, developed by J. G. Trump and his associates from the original design of the Van de Graaff electrostatic generator, is beginning to show dramatic promise in the treatment of cancer that is inaccessible to conventional surgery and x-ray. Hand in hand with our work on machines and theories, the Institute is attempting to further the understanding of the human organism, so that men who will be living in a world that grows more fabulous with each electronic contribution can face the increasingly difficult social and human problems with a sane, scientific approach. The establishment, recently, of the School of Industrial Management and the Center for International Studies represents two important steps in this direction. The last portion of this account, and it is by no means complete, suggests the trend of the electronics story at M.I.T. since World War II. At the moment, we find the Institute again called on by our country for a concerted development effort. Under contract with the armed services the Lincoln Laboratory has been established, and many of our researchers are once more at work on the country's immediate and long-range technological problems. However great our obligation may be in the immediate needs of defense, we shall maintain the Institute's programs of research. For we believe that our facilities, men and equipment, have laid on us the responsibility of continuing efforts in education and in scientific and industrial development. |