bush, vannevar

Vannevar Bush
Bush, Vannevar

   <person> Dr. Vannevar Bush, 1890-1974.  The man who invented
   {hypertext}, which he called {memex}, in the 1930s.

   Bush did his undergraduate work at Tufts College, where he
   later taught.  His masters thesis (1913) included the
   invention of the Profile Tracer, used in surveying work to
   measure distances over uneven ground.  In 1919, he joined
   {MIT}'s Department of Electrical Engineering, where he stayed
   for twenty-five years.  In 1932, he was appointed
   vice-president and dean.  At this time, Bush worked on optical
   and photocomposition devices, as well as a machine for rapid
   selection from banks of microfilm.

   Further positions followed: president of the Carnegie
   Institute in Washington, DC (1939); chair of National Advisory
   Committee for Aeronautics (1939); director of Office of
   Scientific Research and Development.  This last role was as
   presidential science advisor, which made him personally
   responsible for the 6,000 scientists involved in the war
   effort.  During World War II, Bush worked on radar antenna
   profiles and the calculation of artillery firing tables.  He
   proposed the development of an {analogue computer}, which
   later became the {Rockefeller Differential Analyser}.

   Bush is the pivotal figure in hypertext research.  His
   ground-breaking 1945 paper, "As We May Think," speculated on
   how a machine might be created to assist human reasoning, and
   introduced the idea of an easily accessible, individually
   configurable storehouse of knowledge.  This machine, which he
   dubbed "memex," in various ways anticipated {hypermedia} and
   the {World Wide Web} by nearly half a century.

   Electronic Labyrinth article
   (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0034.html).

   Bush's famous article, "As We May Think"
   (http://theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm).

   (2001-06-17)