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Guide to the Guide to the Edmund C. Berkeley Papers
B1514.01
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Title: Guide to the Edmund C. Berkeley Papers
Dates: 1947-1966
Bulk Dates: 1951-1953
Collection number: B1514.01
Creator:
Berkeley, Edmund Callis
Collection Size:
.417 linear feet
1 box
Repository:
Computer History Museum
Mountain View, CA 94043
Abstract: The Edmund C. Berkeley papers consist of records related to Simon the mechanical brain. There is also a small amount of material
related to robots. Types of material in the collection includes technical notes, specifications, correspondence, wiring diagrams,
drawings, receipts, parts lists, clippings, catalogs, and two photographs. The collection covers the years 1947 to 1966.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection is open for research.
The Computer History Museum can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any
claims of the copyright holder. Permission to copy or publish any portion of the Computer History Museum's collection must
be given by the Computer History Museum.
[Identification of Item], [Date], Edmund C. Berkeley papers, Lot B1514.01, Box [#], Folder [#], Computer History Museum
The Edmund C. Berkeley papers were donated to the Computer History Museum by Gordon Bell sometime between 1979 and 1999.
Biography / Administrative History
Edmund Callis Berkeley was an American computer scientist and social activist. Berkeley was born on February 22, 1909. Berkeley
earned a BA in mathematics and logic from Harvard University in 1930 and went to work for Mutual Life Insurance of New York
as an actuarial clerk. In 1934 he joined Prudential Insurance of America, where he eventually became chief research consultant.
In 1941 Berkeley passed his last professional actuarial examinations. Berkeley joined the Navy in 1942 and worked at Dahlgren
Laboratory as a mathematician. There, he was assigned to the Harvard Computation Laboratory, where he worked on the sequential
calculator project (MARK II).
Berkeley returned to Prudential after leaving the Navy in 1946. In 1947 he helped found the Eastern Association for Computing
Machinery and served as its first secretary. In 1948 the association was renamed the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
Berkeley left Prudential in 1948 and established Edmund C. Berkeley & Associates, actuarial consultants. In 1954 Berkeley
& Associates incorporated as Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
In 1947 Berkeley presented the idea for a very simple model mechanical brain to the Association for Symbolic Logic in New
York. That idea was the focus of the third chapter of Berkeley's book
Giant Brains, or Machines That Think (1949). The purpose of the chapter was to introduce a general audience to the fundamentals of computing circuits used in
very large mechanical brains. Berkeley named his teaching model Simon in honor of the Mother Goose character Simple Simon.
Simon as an actual machine was begun in 1949, and finished in April, 1950. Simon was constructed by the combined efforts of
three men: William A. Porter, a skilled mechanic, and two Columbia University electrical engineering graduate students, Robert
A. Jensen and Andrew Vall,
Berkeley supplemented his income by consulting on the applications, marketing, and uses of automatic machinery for handling
information and computing. He published a quarterly computer magazine, which eventually expanded into the monthly journal
Computers and Automation. Additionally, he became involved in public education in Massachusetts, and set up correspondence courses in general knowledge,
mathematics, computers, and logic systems. He continued to write books on computers, logic, and learning and reviewed books
for the Library of Science series. Berkeley marketed his own books, robots, and teaching machines through self-published mail
order catalogs. Berkeley sometimes wrote and published under the pseudonym Neil D. MacDonald.
Berkeley was active in the peace movement and in 1958 became involved with the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE).
Berkeley had worked against the threat of nuclear war ever since he had been part of a "hazards project" at Prudential. The
"hazards project" was charged with identifying the greatest modern hazards. Berkeley came to the conclusion that nuclear war
was the greatest hazard facing mankind. When Prudential abandoned the project and forbade Berkeley from working on it, even
on his own time, he quit.
Edmund Berkeley died on March 7, 1988 at the age of 79.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Edmund C. Berkeley papers primarily consist of records related to Simon the mechanical, or electric, brain. Included are
numerous working copies of construction plans for Simon, and two final versions that were for sale to the public. There is
also a folder of material related to Simon V, designed by John P. Marchant. The collection contains numerous articles and
press releases about Simon, as well as a technical report by Andrew Vall. Also included is a small amount of material related
to the robots Squee: the Robot Squirrel, Rudy, and Franken. Correspondents of note include Robert A. Jensen, and Robert Sutherland.
The collection covers the years 1947 to 1966, with the bulk of the material being from 1951to 1953. The collection has one
series "Simon mechanical brain."
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Berkeley, Edmund Callis
Electronic data processing
Robotics
Simon mechanical brain
Edmund C. Berkeley Papers, 1923-1988 (CBI 50), Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Physical objects and most photographs were separated from the collection. These include a Simon 1 electric brain and seven
images of Simon. To view catalog records for the physical objects and still images go to the CHM website at http://archive.computerhistory.org/search.