© Mark Ollig
Nov. 18, 1951, CBS television in New York began broadcasting the Sunday documentary series, “See It Now,” hosted by CBS journalist and news reporter Edward R. Murrow.
During
1951, approximately 14 million television sets were inside American households,
with most receiving three or four television stations.
Murrow
began the Sunday, Dec. 16 “See It Now” broadcast, saying, “These are the days
of mechanical and electronic marvels. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
has developed a new one for the Navy. It’s a Whirlwind electronic computer.”
Murrow,
seated at his desk, picked up a telephone handset and spoke with Jay Forrester,
who is in charge of the Whirlwind computer project, located at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Digital Computer Lab in Cambridge,
MA.
The
CBS studio’s remote Line Monitor 2 television monitor (located on the wall
behind Murrow) showed Forrester standing near a large mainframe computer.
A
piece of electronics equipment with a 16-inch round CRT (cathode-ray tube)
display screen called an oscilloscope is connected to the computer and sits on
a test bench next to Forrester.
“Hello
New York. This is Cambridge, and this is the oscilloscope of the Whirlwind
electronic computer,” announced Forrester into the CBS microphone.
Television
viewers saw a flashing white text message on the CRT displaying: HELLO MR.
MURROW.
Forrester
was seated next to tall, metal frames containing the electronic components,
which was the Whirlwind digital computer.
The
CBS remote television camera provided viewers with a close look at the Whirlwind
with its flashing lights and hardware, while Forrester explained the digital
computer’s operation.
He
described electronic “storage tubes” used for the Whirlwind’s memory.
Forrester
told Murrow the computer could access information kept inside the storage tubes
within 25 microseconds.
Whirlwind
was the first computer able to process data in real-time at a rate of 50,000
operations a second.
It
was also the first to use a physical magnetic-core memory to store the ones and
zeros of binary data – allowing the computer instant access to its internal
information and programming codes.
The
Whirlwind computer is programmed using mechanical switches and inserting strips
of perforated paper control tape with precisely-placed holes representing the
bits and bytes of binary data the Whirlwind would read.
The
computer used an electric typewriter that acted as a paper printer to read the
computer’s output information, along with its CRT.
Admiral
Calvin Bolster, chief of Naval Research for the US Navy, seen on the CBS Line
Monitor 1 television screen, asked the Whirlwind computer a question regarding
a military Viking rocket launch.
Admiral
Bolster wanted to see the Whirlwind computer trace the rocket’s flight path
from liftoff based on the standard fuel consumption rate.
He
also wanted the computer to determine after 40 seconds had elapsed, the amount
of fuel remaining, and the rocket’s velocity.
The
Viking rocket at liftoff weighed 1,100 pounds, held 8,500 pounds of fuel, and
would reach a maximum altitude of 135 miles.
The
Whirlwind computer worked the problem, and the results were graphically
presented on its CRT display screen using white dots.
On
the right side of the screen, a white dot represented the Viking rocket.
The
screen’s left side showed television viewers a vertical line of white dots
representing fuel.
A
vertical scale of white dots on the screen’s far-right-hand side represented
the rocket’s velocity.
The
CRT display shows, as the rocket rises, its remaining fuel lowers.
The
rocket’s velocity noticeably drops when reaching the height of its trajectory.
Its
velocity then quickly rises while falling to the ground.
Forrester
then read the answers Whirlwind had computed for the questions asked by the
admiral.
“How’s
that?” a smiling Forrester said to Admiral Bolster.
“It
looks very good to me,” replied the admiral.
Murrow
then challenged the Whirlwind to calculate what $24 deposited in the year 1626
would be worth today [1951] if it earned a 6 percent yearly interest rate.
Forrester
grinned as he entered the problem into the Whirlwind computer via a paper
control tape.
The
digital computer quickly solved the problem and printed the answer on the paper
of the electric typewriter.
Forrester
read the computer’s answer to Murrow, saying the $24 initial investment at the
end of 325 years (1626 to 1951) would be worth “Four-billion, twenty-seven
million, seven-hundred and twenty-thousand dollars, and some odd cents.”
“Do
you think that would be a good investment?” asked Forrester.
“Thank
you, sir. Very much indeed,” Murrow replied. “Someday, I’ll ask you to figure
out whether that is before or after taxes,” he added with a smile.
In
keeping with the holiday spirit, at the end of the interview, the Whirlwind
digital computer electronically played the song, “Jingle Bells.”
In
a 2011 New York Times interview, Forrester said, “More happened in percentage
improvements in digital computers from 1946, when they didn’t exist, to 1956,
when they came into the modern era. I might not have envisioned how much
smaller and faster they’d be, but the fundamental logic hasn’t changed.”
Jay
Wright Forrester died Nov. 16, 2016, at the age of 98.
Edward
R. Murrow, born Egbert Roscoe Murrow, passed away April 27, 1965. He was 57.
Watch the Dec. 16, 1951, “See It Now,” six-minute Whirlwind digital computer segment, on MIT’s YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/31sXSXG.
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| Jay Forrester, in charge of the Whirlwind computer project. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. |
