Oral history interview with James T. Pendergrass, 1985 Mar. 28.

ArchivalResource

Oral history interview with James T. Pendergrass, 1985 Mar. 28.

Pendergrass discusses his work in the Navy and its early use of computers. He discusses his decoding and production work during World War II, particularly on the Enigma project in which he used International Business Machines (IBM), Kodak, and NCR equipment. After the war Pendergrass remained with the Navy and worked with Leonard Winger and others in the Naval Security Group. Pendergrass reviews his computer training in 1946 at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering and his subsequent work with Engineering Research Associates, the Institute for Advanced Study, and IBM. He concludes with a discussion of his Navy work on the Atlas project and advances in computer technology in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

computer data (1 file : 60K)

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7885104

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

Related Entities

There are 8 Entities related to this resource.

International Business Machines Corporation

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6330m1p (corporateBody)

International Business Machines Corporation was incorporated in New York State on June 16, 1911 under the name Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. In 1922, Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. purchased all of the shares of Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft. In 1924 the official name of the company was changed to International Business Machines Corporation. In 1933, IBM CEO Thomas Watson ordered the merger of IBM subsidiaries in Germany (Optima, Degemag, Holgemag, Dehomag) under the name De...

Winger, Leonard.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kw7s07 (person)

Pendergrass, James T.,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mh0011 (person)

Electronics engineer. From the description of Oral history interview with James T. Pendergrass, 1985 Mar. 28. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). WorldCat record id: 63283840 ...

United States. Navy

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68m0zj8 (corporateBody)

Built and launched at New York Navy Yard; commissioned Nov. 12, 1944; scraped in 1993. Served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. From the description of USS Bon Homme Richard (CV/CVA-31) photograph collection 1944-1971. (The Mariners' Museum Library). WorldCat record id: 41657866 The federal government decided in 1941 to send Supply Corps personnel to Harvard Business School for training in the business of equipping the Navy. This was effected by a transfer...

Engineering research associates

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kt0r48 (corporateBody)

Early computer manufacturing firm. From the description of Engineering Research Associates records, 1945-1956. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). WorldCat record id: 62435921 During the Second World War, the Navy recognized that the computer, with its ability to rapidly manipulate data streams, was a natural tool for encoding and decoding enemy messages. In 1944 and 1945 it sponsored a number of research projects in this area. Its most successful unit was l...

Institute for advanced study Princeton, N.J.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gx82t3 (corporateBody)

Moore School of Electrical Engineering

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6t76h79 (corporateBody)

The catalyst which advanced electrical engineering and the computer beyond the differential analyzer and to the ENIAC was the demands of the Army during the 1930s and particularly the Second World War. The practical need which the differential analyzer could not solve effectively was the preparation of firing tables and charts which showed how to aim artillery accurately. Too many people and too much time were required to prepare these tables. The federal government was willing to f...

Aspray, William,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ws99bf (person)