National Biomedical Research Foundation. Georgetown University Search this
Extent:
3 Cubic feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuals
Patents
Photographs
Design drawings
Correspondence
Articles
Diagrams
Slides (photographs)
Notes
Motion pictures (visual works)
Albums
Date:
1972-1990
Summary:
The Robert Ledley Papers document the development of the first whole-body diagnostic imaging system, the Automatic Computerized Transverse Axial (ACTA) X-ray Scanner by Ledley in 1973. Also included is material relating to Ledley's company, Digital Science Information Corporation (DISCO), as well as the public and medical communities' reactions to the scanner.
Scope and Contents:
The Robert Ledley Papers document the development of the Automatic Computerized Transverse Axial (ACTA) X-ray Scanner, Ledley's company Digital Science Information Corporation (DISCO), as well as the public and medical communities' reactions to the scanner. The collection is arranged into nine series.
Series 1, ACTA Scanner I Schematics, 1973-1975; Series 2, ACTA Scanner I [Computer and Electronics], 1973; and Series 3, ACTA Scanner Tomograph Mechanics, 1973-1974 document the development and design of the ACTA scanner through drawings, notes, memoranda, and product information. More detailed information about these materials is located in the control file. All oversize drawings have been moved to flat storage for preservation concerns.
Series 4, ACTA Scanner Operating Instructions, 1975, is the operating manual created for the scanner used in Ledley's Georgetown lab.
Series 5, ACTA Articles, Clippings, and Press Releases, 1973-1979, is comprised of the aforementioned materials relating to the ACTA Scanner. Newspaper clippings illuminate the public's perception of the scanner, and scientific pieces highlight the medical community's reaction. Ledley's published articles on the scanner and related topics are included.
Series 6, Digital Information Science Corporation (DISCO) material, 1973-1981, documents Ledley's career and his company. A biographical sketch, list of articles, textbooks, and patents highlight Ledley's achievements. Invoices, receipts, contracts, and correspondence illuminate the financial situation at DISCO and the relationship between the company and Pfizer.
Series 7, Computer manuals, 1972-1975, documents the computer systems and software that were used with the ACTA Scanner.
Series 8, Photographic material, 1973-1978, includes an album of photographs depicting the ACTA Scanner and images of the scans it created. This album was disassembled due to preservation concerns. This series also includes a collection of slides featuring the scanner and related equipment in use and images of the scans it created. A detailed description of each photograph and slide is included in the control file.
Series 9, ACTA Scanner film, [1974?], is a 16mm narrated film describing the creation of the scanner, its components, the way they work, the scanner in use, and images of the scans produced.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into nine series.
Series 1, ACTA Scanner I Schematics, 1973-1975
Series 2, ACTA Scanner I [Computer and Electronics], 1973
Series 3, ACTA Scanner Tomograph Mechanics, 1973-1974
Series 4, ACTA Scanner Operating Instructions, 1975
Series 5, ACTA Articles, Clippings, and Press Releases, 1973-1979
Series 6, Digital Information Science Corporation (DISCO) material, 1973-1981, undated
Series 7, Computer manuals, 1972-1975
Series 8, Photographic material 1973-1978
Subseries 1, Photographs, 19731978
Subseries 2, Slides, 1974
Series 9, ACTA Scanner film [1974?]
Biographical / Historical:
Robert Steven Ledley was born in Flushing Meadows, New York in 1926. He received a D.D.S. degree from New York University College in 1948. While attending dental school, he simultaneously studied at Columbia University; he earned a M.A. in Theoretical Physics in 1949. He volunteered for the army and was sent to the U.S. Army Medical Field Service School in Fort Sam Houston, Texas.1 After completing his service, Ledley held a wide variety of research and academic positions in physics, electrical engineering, and medicine.
Ledley was a physicist within the External Control Group of the Electronic Computer Laboratory of the National Bureau of Standards from 1953-1954. He was an operations research analyst within the Strategic Division of the Operations Research Office at Johns Hopkins University from 1954-1956. Ledley went on to become an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at The George Washington University from 1956-1960 while also serving as a consultant mathematician at the National Bureau of Standards Data Processing Systems Division, 1957-1960. At this time, Ledley also worked part time at the National Research Council's National Academy of Sciences from 1957-1961. Ledley became the president of the National Biomedical Research Foundation in 1960, a position he still holds today. He was an instructor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1960-1963. He returned to The George Washington University's Department of Electrical Engineering in 1968 where he was a professor until 1970. He then became a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1970. In 1974, Ledley also became a professor in the Radiology Department at the Georgetown University Medical Center. In 1975, he became the director of the Medical Computing and Biophysics Division at Georgetown University Medical Center.
In 1972, the British company Electric and Musical Industries Limited (EMI) released a medical imaging machine for use on smaller areas of the body that were positioned under a water tank. In 1973, Ledley developed the Automatic Computerized Transverse Axial (ACTA) X-ray Scanner (US Patent #3,922,552). This machine was a whole-body diagnostic medical imaging system. He was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health for an engineering equipment project, but the money was never received due to budget cuts. Ledley looked elsewhere for funding. He consulted with Georgetown staff and discovered a neurosurgeon had asked to buy a head scanning machine from EMI. Ledley did not think the images in EMI's brochure appeared clear, and he offered to create a similar machine for half the price. Georgetown agreed to fund this project for $250,000. Ledley secured the services of a machinist at a local machine shop, an electronic engineer, and a programmer/mathematician to assist in the project.2 The ACTA Scanner debuted in February, 1974 and did not require the use of a water tank.
Following the creation of the ACTA Scanner, Ledley organized Digital Information Science Corporation (DISCO) in order to manufacture the system. DISCO began producing scanners as orders were received. Due to financial constraints, DISCO was forced to request $100,000 upon receipt of the order, $100,000 when the scanner was halfway completed, and the final $100,000 payment upon delivery3. In 1975, Pfizer purchased the rights to manufacture the ACTA Scanner from DISCO for $1.5 million.
Ledley is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He has earned numerous awards and honors for his work. In 1997, he received the National Medal of Technology from President William Jefferson Clinton for his pioneering work on the whole-body CT diagnostic X-ray scanner. He also founded the Pattern Recognition Society and Computerized Tomography Society.
Sources
1 Ash, J., D. Sittig, and R. Ledley. "The Story Behind the Development of the First Whole-body Computerized Tomography Scanner as Told by Robert S. Ledley." Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2006 Sep-Oct (2006), 465-469, http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1561796. (accessed June 24, 2009).
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
Separated Materials:
An ACTA Scanner and numerous accessories were donated to the Museum in 1984.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Robert S. Ledley on September 18, 1984.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection open for research on site by appointment. Unprotected lantern slides and stereographs must be handled with gloves.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: reproduction fees may apply.
Collection Citation:
Division of Cultural History Lantern Slides and Stereographs, dates, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Papers relate to Gordon D. Goldstein, a computer engineer and frequent seminar speaker and participant, especially in the fields of linguistics and machine translation.
Scope and Contents:
The Goldstein Collection documents an interesting and important period in the development of the early computer industry. Many of the items in the collection are technical in nature; others, however, provide an interesting perspective on the development of post-war American culture. Items in the collection include design and training materials, operational manuals, professional literature, advertisements and promotional items, photographs, business and office documentation, and conference and seminar materials.
The collection is divided into five series. The first three series correspond to Goldstein's employment history; the fourth series includes notes and minutes from UNIVAC and computer conferences attended by Goldstein; and the fifth series contains general computer publications and computer advertisements. Of particular interest in the last series is a copy of the 1954 Report to the Association for Computing Machinery: First Glossary of Programming Terminology. This item was edited by Grace Murray Hopper.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 5 series.
Series 1, National Bureau of Standards, Electronic Computers Section/Standards Eastern Automatic Computer, 1948-1953
Series 2, U.S. Navy/Applied Mathematics Laboratory, 1950-1957
Series 3, UNIVAC-Remington Rand Corporation/Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, 1948--956
Series 4, UNIVAC Conferences, 1950-1956
Series 5, Publications and Competitor Materials, 1950-1955
Biographical / Historical:
Born in 1917, Gordon D. Goldstein graduated from Clarkson College of Technology with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. In 1941, Goldstein took a job with the Army Signal Corp as a civilian inspector of radio and navigation equipment. After leaving the Army Signal Corp, Goldstein took a job as development engineer at the Washington Institute of Technology where he was employed until 1950. From 1950 to 1951 he worked as chief engineer with computers for the Census Bureau in Philadelphia.
In 1951, Goldstein left the Census Bureau and took a job with the Navy Department. During his tenure there, Goldstein worked in three offices or divisions: the Naval Ordnance Laboratory (electronics scientist), the David Taylor Model Basin's Applied Mathematics Laboratory, and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Information Systems Program where he was involved with applications of UNIVAC I. Goldstein worked in the Office of Naval Research from 1956 until his retirement in 1980.
Sources
Berkeley, Edmund C., ed. Who's Who in Computers and Data Processing 1971: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Computer Professionals. New York: The New York Times Book and Educational Division, 1971.
Gordon D. Goldstein Papers, 1950-1979. Charles Babbage Institute: Center for the History of Information Processing.
Williams, Michael R. A History of Computing Technology. Los Alamitos, California: IEEE Computer Society Press, 1997.
Related Materials:
Materials in Other Organizations
The Charles Babbage Institute, Center for the History of Information Processing houses the Gordon D. Goldstein Papers, 1950-1979, http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/cbi00068.xml
Archives Center, National Museum of American History houses the Computer Oral History Collection, 1969-1973, 1977 http://invention.smithsonian.org/resources/fa_comporalhist_index.aspx
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Gordon D. Goldstein on December 13, 1978.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Computers, Information and Society, Division of (NMAH, SI). Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Scope and Contents:
The series documents the American federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS) activities during the late sixties, when the donor, Paul Armer, served as Chairman of the AFIPS Committee on the Social Implications of Information Processing Technology, as Vice President, and as President of AFIPS. AFIPS (the American Federation of Information Processing Societies) was organized on 10 May 1961. The founding societies were the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Institute of Radio Engineers (later combined to form the IEEE), and the Association for Computing Machinery. Prior to the founding of AFIPS, members of its founding societies began in 1951 to sponsor the Eastern and Western Joint Computer Conferences through the National Joint Computer Committee. The founding of AFIPS was a response to the perceived need of expanding the functions of that Committee.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Paul Armer Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Physical Sciences, Division of (NMAH, Smithsonian Institution). Search this
Container:
Box 3, Folder 13
Type:
Archival materials
Scope and Contents:
Published monthly by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers; Editor --G. Ross Henninger. Volume 65, Numbers 8-9, August-September 1946; Number 10, October 1946; Number 11, November 1946 (These contain the articles by Aiken and Hopper on the Mark I)
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Grace Murray Hopper Collection, 1944-1965, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Developments in Compiling Techniques to 31 December 1953, by Dr. Grace Murray Hopper, 31 December 1953, 11 pages: pages 1-9, 11 contain the report; page 10, table "Aids to Man's Work" taken from Electrical Engineering, January 1954; p. 24, the report.
Physical Sciences, Division of (NMAH, Smithsonian Institution). Search this
Container:
Box 5, Folder 1
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Grace Murray Hopper Collection, 1944-1965, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
