The following is the text of a December
2, 1954 IBM press release regarding the first public demonstration
of NORC and its official "delivery" to the U.S.
Navy.
The first public demonstration of NORC (Naval Ordnance
Research Calculator), fastest and largest capacity electronic
calculator in existence, which has been built by International
Business Machines Corporation for the Bureau of Ordnance,
U.S. Navy, was conducted today at the Watson Scientific
Computing Laboratory at Columbia University in the presence
of approximately 150 representatives of the U.S. Navy
and other Government departments, education and scientific
research institutions and industrial companies. The machine
was accepted on behalf of the Bureau of Ordnance by Captain
C. K. Bergin, USN, Assistant Chief of research and development
of the Bureau, from Thomas J. Watson, Jr., president of
IBM.
At a luncheon following the demonstration, Professor
John Von Neumann, of the Institute for Advanced Study,
Princeton University, and an appointee to the Atomic Energy
Commission, discussed possible uses for the NORC other
than for the immediate problems of the Bureau of Ordnance,
instancing the field of geophysics as having great possibilities.
It is now "practical and feasible" to forecast,
with the NORC, the weather for an entire hemisphere thirty
or sixty days ahead, by calculations occupying perhaps
24 hours, with results about as good as those obtained
by an experienced subjective weather forecaster, "which
are very good." Calculations similar to those now
made, forecasting weather over the area of the United
States for 24 hours in advance, could be made on the NORC
in perhaps half a minute, he stated.
Complete calculation of the tidal motions of all the
oceans, the marginal movements near the continents as
well as the main motions of the oceans, is now, with the
NORC, a matter of days and therefore feasible. He also
declared that calculation of the hydrodynamics of the
earth's fluid core, the movements of which are responsible
for the main phenomena of terrestrial magnetism, "becomes
probably accessible for the first time."
In the statistical field, dealing with matters which
are not wholly mechanical, such as troop operations and
logistic operations which involve purely accidental factors
like the prevailing weather during the operation, command
decisions which have not yet been officially made can
be stipulated and various solutions for various alternatives
calculated. This has been done before on a minor scale
but it takes too long to do on a large scale. "In
this field the importance of NORC is enormous," Dr.
Von Neumann said.
He concluded by pointing out that the NORC was assembled
less than two months ago and put on test less than two
weeks ago, yet in a test yesterday (Wednesday. Dec. 1)
it ran for four hours without an error, doing in this
period more work than any calculator of ten years ago
has performed in its entire lifetime. He termed this performance "completely
fantastic; I doubt if it has ever been done before."
Dr. Grayson L. Kirk, president of Columbia University,
stated that during the test period the NORC will be available
to the University for important research projects, particularly
in the field of nuclear physics, before it is shipped
to the Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Va. to be installed
in the Computation Laboratory already established there.
Thomas J. Watson, chairman of the board of IBM, declared
that "there is no mystery about these machines. The
mystery is how the human brain has been able to develop
them. These devices are merely small tools which men have
devised to help them do a better job."
Other speakers were: the Reverend John M. Krumm, chaplain
of the University, who pronounced the invocation; Captain
Bergin; Dr. Wallace J. Eckert, director, pure science
department, Watson Laboratory; Prof. B. D. Wood, Columbia
University; and B. L. Havens, IBM development engineer
in charge of the NORC project. |
