[SIGCIS-Members] Bush's rapid selector--photo documentation?

[Brian Berg]

Dear Bernard,

The *Endless Frontier* book recently discussed on the list (in the lengthy
biographies thread, and which I just received from a used book outlet)
notes an article that Bush published in *Technology Review* (not dated, but
written apparently in the early 1930s "from the vantage point of the
future" looking back "on the crude technologies of the 1930s") in which he
"outlined a device, housed n a desk drawer, that would store and reproduce
on a screen thousands of books."

Clearly it was all a "pipe dream" at that time - hence, there would be no
"incarnation at MIT in the 1930s" of this device, which is discussed in the
above cited section of the book, as well as in 2 other sections from later
in time.

Brian Berg

On Mon, Sep 21, 2020 at 6:34 AM Bernard Geoghegan <
bernardgeoghegan2010 at u.northwestern.edu> wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
>
>
> I hope you are all well in these challenging times.
>
>
>
> I’m writing with a brief research question: Does anyone know of where I
> might find visual documentation of Vannevar Bush’s 1930s “rapid selector,”
> which I don’t think got much beyond prototype stage? A 1949 article by John
> C. Green, “The Rapid Selector—An Automatic Library,” depicts a version
> improved and updated by others (that article states “After the war a
> number of interested persons again took up the problem of the Rapid
> Selector. Among them were Ralph Shaw, Librarian of the Department of
> Agriculture, and a group of persons who had originally worked with Dr.
> Bush, and were now independently organized as Engineering Research
> Associates, with headquarters in St. Paul). However, I’m wondering if
> anyone has come across photos, diagrams, etc., from its incarnation at MIT
> in the 1930s.
>
>
>
> Thanks for any feedback, stay safe.
>
>
>
> Bernard
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan
>
> Senior Lecturer in the History and Theory of Digital Media
>
> Chair of the UG Assessment Board, Digital Culture
>
> www.bernardg.com
>
>
>
> Department of Digital Humanities
>
> King's College London
>
> The Strand Building
>
> Room S3.08
>
> WC2R 2LS
>
>
>
> Office: +44 (0)20 7848 4750Dear Colleagues,
>
>
>
> I hope you are all well in these challenging times.
>
>
>
> I’m writing with a brief research question: Does anyone know of any visual
> documentation of Vannevar Bush’s 1930s “rapid selector,” which I don’t
> think ever got much beyond prototype stage? A 1949 article by John C.
> Green, “The Rapid Selector—An Automatic Library,” depicts an apparently
> improved and updated version. However, I’m wondering if anyone has come
> across photos, diagrams, etc., from its incarnation at MIT in the 1930s.
>
>
>
> Thanks for any feedback, stay well.
>
>
>
>
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