George Stibitz

George Robert Stibitz (April 30, 1904 – January 31, 1995) was an American researcher at Bell Labs. He is known for helping create modern digital computers.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Stibitz worked with special electrical parts called relays to build digital circuits. These circuits used rules called Boolean logic, which are important for how computers work today. His work helped shape the computers we use now.

Early life and education

George Stibitz was born in York, Pennsylvania. His mother, Mildred Murphy, taught math, and his father was a German Reformed minister and teacher. From a young age, Stibitz liked to build things. He used toys like a Meccano set or the electrical wiring in his home.

He studied math at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Later, he earned a master's degree in physics from Union College. He finished his education at Cornell University in 1930, where he got a Ph.D. in mathematical physics.

Computer

George Stibitz started working at Bell Labs after he finished his studies. He stayed there until 1941. In November 1937, he built a simple machine called the "Model K" on his kitchen table. This machine could add numbers using a special method called binary addition. Copies of the "Model K" are kept in famous places, like the Computer History Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the William Howard Doane Library, and the American Computer & Robotics Museum in Bozeman, Montana.

Later, Bell Labs let Stibitz lead a big research project. He helped create a more advanced machine called the Complex Number Calculator (CNC). It was finished in November 1939 and started working in 1940. In September 1940, Stibitz showed how this machine could be controlled from far away. He used a special device called a teletype to send commands over telegraph lines to the machine in New York. This was the first time a computer could be used from a distance in real time.

Wartime activities and subsequent Bell Labs computers

When the United States joined World War II in 1941, Bell Labs began creating tools to help guide weapons for the military. One famous tool was the M-9 Gun Director, which helped aim anti-aircraft guns accurately. George Stibitz worked with the National Defense Research Committee, which advised the government, but he stayed closely tied to Bell Labs.

From 1941 to 1945, Bell Labs built computers using telephone relays. These computers became more advanced over time. The first one tested the M-9 Gun Director. Later versions, named "Model II" and "Model III", improved even more. The "Model V", finished in 1946, could handle many tasks but worked slowly because it used relays instead of newer electronic parts.

After the war, Stibitz left Bell Labs to work on his own. From 1964 until he retired in 1974, he worked at the medical school of Dartmouth College studying physiology.

Use of the term "digital"

In April 1942, George Stibitz went to a meeting about tools to help during World War II. He noticed that ideas were split into two groups: "analog" and "pulse." After the meeting, he wrote a note suggesting using the word digital instead of "pulse" because "pulse" didn’t clearly explain what was happening. He also thought that separating analog and digital wasn’t very useful, since most computers then used both types of mechanisms.

Awards

George Stibitz got many awards for his important work. In 1965, he received the Harry H. Goode Memorial Award with Konrad Zuse. In 1977, he was given the IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award for his early work on computers. He also got IEEE's Computer Pioneer Award in 1982.

Stibitz was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1981 and to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1985. He held 38 patents and joined Dartmouth College in 1964 to help connect computers with medicine. He stopped research work in 1983.

Computer art

In his later years, Stibitz used a Commodore-Amiga to make computer art. He wrote that he did this not to create important art, but to show that using computers for fun could be enjoyable. This was similar to how people used computers when they were first made, fifty years before. Some of his artwork was shown at the Mathematics and Computer Science department at Denison University.

Publications

George Stibitz wrote important papers and books about computers. In 1943, he got a patent for a "Binary counter." In 1954, he received another patent called "Complex Computer." In 1957, he and Jules A. Larrivee wrote a book named Mathematics and Computers.