Colleagues, Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum- seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!). Thanks, Debbie Douglas Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. Curator of Science and Technology MIT Museum, N51-209 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 ddouglas@mit.edu • 617-253-1766 phone • 617-253-8994 fax http://web.mit.edu/museum • http://webmuseum.mit.edu • http://museum.mit.edu/150
Debbie, The oil industry has been instrumental in advancing 4-d imaging which is real heavy data crunching. I can't give you specifics, but I would not be surprised that it was the largest user in the pre-Google era. I know (and can give a secondary cite) that in the 1970s the oil industry used encryption to fax logging data from ships and rigs to research labs and their computers. Jonathan ----- Original Message ----- From: Deborah Douglas <ddouglas@MIT.EDU> To: members@sigcis.org Sent: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:47:25 -0500 (CDT) Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers Colleagues, Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum- seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!). Thanks, Debbie Douglas Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. Curator of Science and Technology MIT Museum, N51-209 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 ddouglas@mit.edu • 617-253-1766 phone • 617-253-8994 fax http://web.mit.edu/museum • http://webmuseum.mit.edu • http://museum.mit.edu/150 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members -- Jonathan CoopersmithAssociate Professor Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4326 979.845.8584 979.862.4314 fax http://aggiegaijin.blogspot.com/ ; Secretary Section L, History & Philosophy of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)www.aaas.org
Hi folks, I don't know about the largest, but certainly at the forefront. I'd look to Schlumberger and their and my nemesis Halliburton. Schlumberger produced the first real intelligent system (Prospector) and were big on analogue computers when the latter were in their prime. There is a huge amount of number crunching in seismic and electric subsurface computing. I doubt that they'd exceed the insurance industry (which everyone forgets coz it's so prosaic). I wrote a book lo these many years called Science on the Run which was about the first 20 years of Schlumberger; there is also a more generic history (mine is quirky) which goes longer, but have forgotten the title. take care, geof On 9/13/2010 11:27 PM, Coopersmith, Jonathan wrote:
Debbie, The oil industry has been instrumental in advancing 4-d imaging which is real heavy data crunching. I can't give you specifics, but I would not be surprised that it was the largest user in the pre-Google era. I know (and can give a secondary cite) that in the 1970s the oil industry used encryption to fax logging data from ships and rigs to research labs and their computers.
Jonathan
----- Original Message ----- From: Deborah Douglas<ddouglas@MIT.EDU> To: members@sigcis.org Sent: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:47:25 -0500 (CDT) Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers
Colleagues,
Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum- seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!).
Thanks,
Debbie Douglas
Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. Curator of Science and Technology MIT Museum, N51-209 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 ddouglas@mit.edu • 617-253-1766 phone • 617-253-8994 fax http://web.mit.edu/museum • http://webmuseum.mit.edu • http://museum.mit.edu/150
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I tend to agree that it was a big consumer of computer cycles but I also have my doubts. After I wrote a Column in Computer in December 2006 on the Univac Service Center for the Petroleum Industry in Dallas, which famously lost money and closed in the early 60s, I received a a small torrent of emails from retired petroleum engineers who felt that they were finally receiving their due. As Jonathon noted, they were doing high dimensional fourier transforms and lots of linear programming, which consumes lots of cycles. I received emails from an Esso engineer, who noted that they took delivery of the first Univac 1103 in '56 and had von Neumann as a consultant. I also got a note from a Chevron engineer who told me about the work he did in the early 60s. At the same time, if you look at the companies buying large machines in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s you find that aerospace firms out number petroleum firms. Unless other evidence is out there, I tend to accept the thesis that the aerospace industry was the lead consumer of computers with petroleum behind it. David ---------------------------------------- David Alan Grier Vice President of Publications, IEEE Computer Society Associate Professor of International Science and Technology Policy Center for International Science and Technology Policy Elliott School Of International Affairs George Washington University grier@computer.org On Sep 13, 2010, at 6:47 PM, Deborah Douglas wrote:
Colleagues,
Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum- seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!).
Thanks,
Debbie Douglas
Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. Curator of Science and Technology MIT Museum, N51-209 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 ddouglas@mit.edu • 617-253-1766 phone • 617-253-8994 fax http://web.mit.edu/museum • http://webmuseum.mit.edu • http://museum.mit.edu/150
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
Seems to me that this is a complicated question. How do we measure consumers of computers? By who buys the largest number? That seems to be easy to adjudicate (sales records of the small number of producers would net this), but that approach leaves out quite a bit. Maybe we need to know that as a starting point, but then we have to ask about usage within the organizations that purchase them, both in terms of operations and in terms of how demanding those operations were. Also the question of use brings in university researchers. I know from my own work that aerospace engineers at Berkeley were early adopters but they didn't have their own mainframe in the 50s, so they wouldn't be trackable as 701-2 'owner.' But the research was funded by Boeing, so needs to be counted in the column of aero/defense consumers. Ann From: members-bounces@sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of David Alan Grier Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 8:19 AM To: Deborah Douglas Cc: members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers I tend to agree that it was a big consumer of computer cycles but I also have my doubts. After I wrote a Column in Computer in December 2006 on the Univac Service Center for the Petroleum Industry in Dallas, which famously lost money and closed in the early 60s, I received a a small torrent of emails from retired petroleum engineers who felt that they were finally receiving their due. As Jonathon noted, they were doing high dimensional fourier transforms and lots of linear programming, which consumes lots of cycles. I received emails from an Esso engineer, who noted that they took delivery of the first Univac 1103 in '56 and had von Neumann as a consultant. I also got a note from a Chevron engineer who told me about the work he did in the early 60s. At the same time, if you look at the companies buying large machines in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s you find that aerospace firms out number petroleum firms. Unless other evidence is out there, I tend to accept the thesis that the aerospace industry was the lead consumer of computers with petroleum behind it. David ---------------------------------------- David Alan Grier Vice President of Publications, IEEE Computer Society Associate Professor of International Science and Technology Policy Center for International Science and Technology Policy Elliott School Of International Affairs George Washington University grier@computer.org On Sep 13, 2010, at 6:47 PM, Deborah Douglas wrote: Colleagues, Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum-seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!). Thanks, Debbie Douglas Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. Curator of Science and Technology MIT Museum, N51-209 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 ddouglas@mit.edu * 617-253-1766 phone * 617-253-8994 fax http://web.mit.edu/museum * http://webmuseum.mit.edu * http://museum.mit.edu/150 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
I would disagree in the sense that it depends which geography you are looking at. I have some evidence to suggest that banking and financial services in general, were large purchasers. Saludos / Kind regards, Bernardo University of Leicester (UK) ================== Technological Innovation in Retail Finance: International Historical Perspectives Edited by Bernado Batiz-Lazo, J. Carles Maixé-Altés, Paul Thomes http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415880671/ On 14 September 2010 13:18, David Alan Grier <grier@gwu.edu> wrote:
I tend to agree that it was a big consumer of computer cycles but I also have my doubts. After I wrote a Column in Computer in December 2006 on the Univac Service Center for the Petroleum Industry in Dallas, which famously lost money and closed in the early 60s, I received a a small torrent of emails from retired petroleum engineers who felt that they were finally receiving their due. As Jonathon noted, they were doing high dimensional fourier transforms and lots of linear programming, which consumes lots of cycles. I received emails from an Esso engineer, who noted that they took delivery of the first Univac 1103 in '56 and had von Neumann as a consultant. I also got a note from a Chevron engineer who told me about the work he did in the early 60s. At the same time, if you look at the companies buying large machines in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s you find that aerospace firms out number petroleum firms. Unless other evidence is out there, I tend to accept the thesis that the aerospace industry was the lead consumer of computers with petroleum behind it. David ---------------------------------------- David Alan Grier Vice President of Publications, IEEE Computer Society Associate Professor of International Science and Technology Policy Center for International Science and Technology Policy Elliott School Of International Affairs George Washington University grier@computer.org On Sep 13, 2010, at 6:47 PM, Deborah Douglas wrote:
Colleagues,
Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum-seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!).
Thanks,
Debbie Douglas
Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. Curator of Science and Technology MIT Museum, N51-209 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 ddouglas@mit.edu • 617-253-1766 phone • 617-253-8994 fax http://web.mit.edu/museum • http://webmuseum.mit.edu • http://museum.mit.edu/150
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I also have data that reinforces Bernardo's point that financial services (including insurance firms) are major computer purchasers in the 1950s and 1960s. JoAnne Yates MIT Sloan School of Management On 9/14/2010 9:47 AM, Bernardo Batiz-Lazo wrote:
I would disagree in the sense that it depends which geography you are looking at. I have some evidence to suggest that banking and financial services in general, were large purchasers.
Saludos / Kind regards,
Bernardo University of Leicester (UK)
==================
Technological Innovation in Retail Finance: International Historical Perspectives
Edited by Bernado Batiz-Lazo, J. Carles Maixé-Altés, Paul Thomes
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415880671/
On 14 September 2010 13:18, David Alan Grier<grier@gwu.edu> wrote:
I tend to agree that it was a big consumer of computer cycles but I also have my doubts. After I wrote a Column in Computer in December 2006 on the Univac Service Center for the Petroleum Industry in Dallas, which famously lost money and closed in the early 60s, I received a a small torrent of emails from retired petroleum engineers who felt that they were finally receiving their due. As Jonathon noted, they were doing high dimensional fourier transforms and lots of linear programming, which consumes lots of cycles. I received emails from an Esso engineer, who noted that they took delivery of the first Univac 1103 in '56 and had von Neumann as a consultant. I also got a note from a Chevron engineer who told me about the work he did in the early 60s. At the same time, if you look at the companies buying large machines in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s you find that aerospace firms out number petroleum firms. Unless other evidence is out there, I tend to accept the thesis that the aerospace industry was the lead consumer of computers with petroleum behind it. David ---------------------------------------- David Alan Grier Vice President of Publications, IEEE Computer Society Associate Professor of International Science and Technology Policy Center for International Science and Technology Policy Elliott School Of International Affairs George Washington University grier@computer.org On Sep 13, 2010, at 6:47 PM, Deborah Douglas wrote:
Colleagues,
Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum-seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!).
Thanks,
Debbie Douglas
Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. Curator of Science and Technology MIT Museum, N51-209 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 ddouglas@mit.edu • 617-253-1766 phone • 617-253-8994 fax http://web.mit.edu/museum • http://webmuseum.mit.edu • http://museum.mit.edu/150
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-- JoAnne Yates Deputy Dean Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management MIT Sloan School of Management MIT E52-475 50 Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02142-1347 617-253-7157 Administrative Assistant Kathleen Doyle PH: 617-253-5555 email: kdoyle@mit.edu
Debbie: I passed your query on to Eric Weiss, who worked for one of the major oil companies in those days. Eric has been somewhat hard to get hold of, but last I heard he is OK and living comfortably in Hawaii. If anyone on the list has more recent news, perhaps you could let me know (off-list). Paul E. Ceruzzi, MRC 311, National Air and Space Museum, PO Box 37012, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012. phone: 202-633-2414. -----Original Message----- From: members-bounces@sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Deborah Douglas Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 6:47 PM To: members@sigcis.org Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers Colleagues, Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum- seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!). Thanks, Debbie Douglas Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. Curator of Science and Technology MIT Museum, N51-209 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 ddouglas@mit.edu * 617-253-1766 phone * 617-253-8994 fax http://web.mit.edu/museum * http://webmuseum.mit.edu * http://museum.mit.edu/150 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
Oh, one other thing: Texas Instruments, where Jack Kilby worked and where a lot of advanced R&D on solid-state computing was done, started out as a geophysical exploration company, looking for oil deposits based on seismic data. In addition to their well-known pioneering work on silicon transistors, pocket calculators, integrated circuits, and mobile communications devices, they also built a competitive supercomputer, the "ASC," in the mid-1960s. Paul E. Ceruzzi, MRC 311, National Air and Space Museum, PO Box 37012, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012. phone: 202-633-2414. -----Original Message----- From: members-bounces@sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Deborah Douglas Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 6:47 PM To: members@sigcis.org Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers Colleagues, Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum- seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!). Thanks, Debbie Douglas Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. Curator of Science and Technology MIT Museum, N51-209 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 ddouglas@mit.edu * 617-253-1766 phone * 617-253-8994 fax http://web.mit.edu/museum * http://webmuseum.mit.edu * http://museum.mit.edu/150
For what it's worth with regards to the Canadian situation, although the petroleum industry (particularly Imperial Oil) showed very early interest in the 1950s in computing, it was never dominant consumer of computers/computing resources. I don't think the early work was even related to petroleum seeking, but an inventory control system. We certainly didn't have much of an aerospace industry in Canada. Here the power users throughout the 1960s with the big machines were finance (banking and insurance) and to a lesser degree, governments. Scott On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 18:47, Deborah Douglas <ddouglas@mit.edu> wrote:
Colleagues,
Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum-seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!).
Thanks,
Debbie Douglas
Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. Curator of Science and Technology MIT Museum, N51-209 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 ddouglas@mit.edu • 617-253-1766 phone • 617-253-8994 fax http://web.mit.edu/museum • http://webmuseum.mit.edu • http://museum.mit.edu/150
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participants (9)
-
Bernardo Batiz-Lazo -
Ceruzzi, Paul -
Coopersmith, Jonathan -
David Alan Grier -
Deborah Douglas -
Geoffrey C. Bowker -
JoAnne Yates -
JOHNSON, ANN -
Scott Campbell