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Bendix G-15 Restoration: Harry Huskey

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stephenbuck

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A sub-thread of Bendix G-15 Restoration

The chief designer of the Bendix G-15 was computer pioneer Harry Huskey who based it on the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) designed by Alan Turing at the National Physical Laboratories in Britain. Huskey had worked with Turing there for a year. Much of this post is taken from the Harry Huskey website. There is also some good information at Wikipedia: Harry Huskey. His obituary is here: Computer pioneer Harry Huskey dies at age 101.



Dr. Harry Huskey was born in the Smoky Mountains region of North Carolina and grew up in Idaho. He gained his master's degree and then his PhD in 1943 from the Ohio State University on Contributions to the Problem of Geocze. Harry Huskey taught mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania and then worked part-time on the early ENIAC computer in 1945.

Harry Huskey designed and managed the construction of the Standards Western Automatic Computer (SWAC) at the National Bureau of Standards in Los Angeles (1949 to 1953). He also designed the G15 computer for Bendix Aviation Corporation, which could perhaps be considered as the first “personal” computer in the world. He had one at his home that is now in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.


SWAC Computer

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Harry Huskey with Bendix G-15 Donated to Smithsonian


Harry Huskey at the wheel of his creation!

I'll add more information about Harry Huskey as I find it.
 
"First Personal Computer"...
Please, let's not start that one. I believe that the LGP-30 was shipping before the G-15 and ran from conventional 115V AC. I'm sure that there other other contenders.
 

Harry D. Huskey

For his seminal work on early and important computing systems and a lifetime of service to computer education
computerhistory.org computerhistory.org

I met Harry in 2013, but he was in fairly poor health.
While he is credited as the designer, he wasn't involved in the construction of the machine.

The G-15 has an unusual peripheral option, a digital differential analyzer, which could be used to simulate portions of an analog computer.
 
Thanks Al! That's an excellent article. I love this line:

Beck: Yeah, so, after that little brief experience at Bendix, we sort of steered clear of transistors for a while to make sure it was not all phony hype.
 
My recollection was that the yield on the germanium alloy-junction transistors used in early IBM gear was terrible. Digital circuits are not quite as forgiving as analog ones. Herei's a display of some early ones used in the IBM 608

It's interesting that the UNIVAC Solid State systems used some transistors, but the logic was all ferractor-diode with a clock generated by high-power vacuum tubes. You use what works...
 
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