United States. National Bureau of Standards Search this
Collector:
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Extent:
5.5 Cubic feet (14 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Correspondence
Patents
Photographs
Engineering drawings
Date:
1947-1990
Summary:
The collection documents three major areas of Jacob Rabinow's work in improvement of electronic and other devices: phonograph record players, optical character recognition (reading machines) and automatic self regulation of watches and clocks.
Scope and Contents:
This collection comprises material from three major areas of Jacob Rabinow's work in improvement of electronic and other devices: phonograph record players, optical character recognition (reading machines) and automatic self regulation of watches and clocks. Included are technical descriptions, engineering drawings and sketches, numerous patent applications, patents, photographs of devices and voluminous correspondence, often related to patents and financial claims arising from them. The papers are grouped into the three areas of product innovation in approximate chronological order. In addition to many U.S. patents, Rabinow was granted numerous foreign patents, including British, French, German, Canadian and Japanese which are part of the collection. The patents as early as 1910 1917 were collected and assembled by Rabinow in his search of previous inventors' work.
Arrangement:
The papers are arranged into three series.
Series 1, Straight Line Photograph Arm, 1910-1917; 1947-1988
Subseries 1.1, Patents, 1910-1917; 1947-1988
Subseries 1.2, Litigation and Royalties, 1954-1980
Subseries 1.3, Brochures, Publicity, Photo Prints, and Advertisements, 1954-1980
Subseries 1.4, General Correspondence, 1954-1978
Series 2, Reading Machine, 1956-1990
Subseries 2.1, Patents, 1957-1958
Subseries 2.2, Brochures, Publicity, and Photo Prints, 1954-1970
Subseries 2.3, Correspondence, 1956-1960
Subseries 2.4, General Correspondence, 1954-1978
Series 3, Automatic Regulation of Watches and Clocks, 1948-1981
Subseries 3.1, Patents, 1948-1975
Subseries 3.2, Patent Right Litigation and Royalties, 1948-1976
Subseries 3.3, Brochures, Publicity, and Photo prints, 1953-1964
Subseries 3.4, General Correspondence, 1948-1981
Biographical / Historical:
Jacob Rabinow was born Jacob Rabinovich in the Kharkov, Ukraine in 1910 and moved with his family to Siberia in 1917 during the Bolshevik Revolution. In 1919, the Rabinow Family moved to China, where his father died. With his mother and brother, Rabinow then immigrated to the United States in 1921, where his mother established a corset shop in New York City. Rabinow graduated from the City College of New York with a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering (1933) and a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering (1934). After graduation in 1934, he worked at diverse jobs until he was hired by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) and now known as National Institute of Standards and Technology or NIST in 1938. At NBS Rabinow calibrated flow meters and then, with the outbreak of World War II, designed proximity fuses for Army bombs and rockets. To calculate the velocity of the falling fuses, he devised an acceleration integrator. He also worked on bombing techniques. Rabinow eventually became Chief of the Electro-Mechanical Ordnance Division at NBS before leaving in 1954 to form his own company, Rabinow Engineering.
At Rabinow Engineering, projects included the development of automatic winding equipment and test equipment for Sprague Electric; design of a letter sorter later built by Burroughs; a digital computer for the U.S. Post Office; and the construction of reading machines for RCA, UNIVAC, and others. When servicing machines began to require too much staff and travel, Rabinow sold his company and became a consultant. In 1964, Rabinow Engineering eventually became part of Control Data Corporation (CDC) where Rabinow was head of the Rabinow Advanced Development Laboratory. In 1968, Rabinow formed RABCO Company to manufacture his straight-line phonographs. RABCO was later acquired by the Harmon-Kardon Corporation. In 1972, Rabinow rejoined NBS where he was Chief Research Engineer. In 1975, he retired, but acted as a consultant.
Rabinow held 230 United States Patents on a wide variety of mechanical, optical and electrical devices. Of note is his magnetic particle clutch (1956) used in tape and disk drives; first automobile clutch to work by magnetic and not electrostatic charge (1956); first phonograph whose cartridge moved along a straight track rather than at the end of a swinging arm (1959); first self-regulating clock (1960); and his best known invention, a Reading Machine (1960). Rabinow was honored for his scientific work with the Naval Ordnance Development Award (1945); the President's Certificate of Merit (1948); the IEEE's Harry Diamond Award (1977); and the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award (1998) Rabinow died September 11, 1999.
Related Materials:
The Division Medicine and Science holds the Rabinow Scanned Comparison Reading Machine (Accession #: 1982.0393.01).
Provenance:
Collection donated by Jacob Rabinow, 1990, Decmeber 17.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
Documents relating to early development of radio aids to aerial navigation, mostly on behalf of the U.S. military services.
Scope and Contents:
Documents relating to early development of radio aids to aerial navigation, mostly on behalf of the U.S. military services.
Biographical / Historical:
This material describes developments related to the National Bureau of Standards work in radio technoloqy in its early days. It relates to specific projects (some classified) involving aerial navigation equipment and other electrical instrumentation. It was identified by Mr. Wilbert F. Snyder who was engaged in writing a history of radio work conducted by the National Bureau of Standards entitled "Achievement in Radio" and who•had access to the N3S files on this work. Most of the material he reviewed was sent to the National Archives and the present collection represents the residual.
Provenance:
Collection donated by National Bureau of Standards, through R. Kamper, and Boulder Laboratories, July 30, 1986.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
Hammond Radio Control Apparatus for Air Service of the U.S. Army
Collection Collector:
United States. National Bureau of Standards Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 5
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1920
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:
National Bureau of Standards Radio Collection, 1917-1933, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Braun radio tube and an instruction manual for use of an oscillograph tube
Collection Collector:
United States. National Bureau of Standards Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 7
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1920-1922
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:
National Bureau of Standards Radio Collection, 1917-1933, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Operating instructions for radio landing systems at Newark Airport
Collection Collector:
United States. National Bureau of Standards Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 4
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1933
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:
National Bureau of Standards Radio Collection, 1917-1933, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
War Department, Air Corps, Material Division, Report on "Radio Beacons for Atlantic Flights"
Collection Collector:
United States. National Bureau of Standards Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 8
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1928
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:
National Bureau of Standards Radio Collection, 1917-1933, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Report about Radio Acoustic Ranging to the United States and Geodetic Survey, Sound Laboratory, Bureaus of Standards
Collection Collector:
United States. National Bureau of Standards Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 6
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1924
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:
National Bureau of Standards Radio Collection, 1917-1933, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
United States. National Bureau of Standards Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 3
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1924-05-31
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:
National Bureau of Standards Radio Collection, 1917-1933, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
United States. National Bureau of Standards Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 2
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1920
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:
National Bureau of Standards Radio Collection, 1917-1933, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
United States. National Bureau of Standards Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 1
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1917-1918
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:
National Bureau of Standards Radio Collection, 1917-1933, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Marton, Ladislaus Laszlo, 1901-1979 (physicist) Search this
Collector:
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Electricity and Modern Physics Search this
Names:
United States. National Bureau of Standards Search this
Extent:
4.66 Cubic feet (15 boxes, one (1) 16 mm film)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Blueprints
Lantern slides
Drawings
Photographs
Correspondence
Diagrams
Slides (photographs)
Notebooks
Date:
1932 - 1970
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of materials documenting the history of electron optics, especially electron microscopes. Included are engineering drawings of Marton's devices, designed in Belgium, Stanford and RCA in the 1930s and 1940s; notebooks concerning extensive investigations in electron microscopy; photographs and micrographs concerning development work in this area of physics; correspondence 1930s 702; and reprints of scientific literature relating to Marton's interests.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into three series.
Series 1: Notebooks, electron microscope, 1920s, undated
Series 2: Photographs, undated
Series 3: Printed Materials, 1940-1970
Biographical / Historical:
Ladislaus L. Marton 1901 1979 was a physicist best known for his pioneer work in electron physics, specifically in electron microscopy, electron optics, and electron interferences and scattering. He came to the United States in 1938, and became a naturalized citizen in 1944. He was a member of the faculty at the University of Brussels (Belgium), 1928 1938, and assistant professor from 1933 1938. He was a research physicist at the RCA Manufacturing Company from 1938 1941. He was associate professor of electron optics, head division Stanford University, 1941 1946. He was a physicist from 1946 1970 at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington. Until his death he was an honorable research associate at the Smithsonian Institution.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Ladislaus Laszlo Marton, circa 1970.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
This collection contains Upson's papers and notebooks. The material consists of notebooks, both general (1911-35) and experimental (1928-68) and reference files on a variety of aeronautical subjects. The collection also contains material from Upson's teaching career, as well as miscellaneous personal documents.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains Upson's papers and notebooks. The material consists of notebooks, both general (1911-35) and experimental (1928-68) and reference files on a variety of aeronautical subjects. The collection also contains material from Upson's teaching career, as well as miscellaneous personal documents.
There is approximately seven cubic feet of correspondence, reports, manuscripts, notebooks
and various other materials.
Arrangement note:
Contents:
Series 1: Personal and Career
Subseries 1: Personal
Subseries 2: Career
Subseries 3: Education
Subseries 4: Authorship
Subseries 5: Correspondence
Series 2: Notepads and Notebooks
Subseries 1: Notepads and Appointment books
Subseries 2: Notebooks
Series 3: Subject files
Series 4: Miscellaneous
Biographical/Historical note:
Ralph Hazlett Upson (1888-1968) was an aeronautical engineer, inventor and pilot. After graduation from Stevens Institute of Technology (ME 1910) he rocketed to prominence by winning the International Balloon Race (1913) and American National Balloon Race (1913, 1921). He worked as chief engineer of the aeronautical department of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. (1914-1920), during which time he flew the first United States Navy coastal patrol airship on a demonstration flight (1917) and served on the Navy Design Mission to Europe (1918-19). He then moved to the Aircraft Development Corp. (Chief Engineer 1922-27) while serving as chairman of the Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) division of the Aeronautical Safety Code Commission, US Bureau of Standards (1922-24). He went to work for Aeromarine-Klemm Corp. and a number of other companies (1928-42), during which time he designed the first successful metal-clad airship, the ZMC-2 (1929). After a brief tenure at H. J. Heinze Co. (Chief of Aeronautical Engineering (1942-44) he moved into academia at New York University (NYU, Research Specialist and Lecturer 1944-46) and the University of Minnesota (Professor of Aeronautical Engineering 1946-56; Professor Emeritus 1956-1968). Upson then worked for Boeing (Research Specialist 1956-64) and remained an active consultant until his death.
General note:
An artifact from this collection, the Early Bird plaque of Ralph Upson, was transferred to the Aeronautics Division of the National Air and Space Museum.
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Science, Medicine, and Society Search this
Names:
United States. National Bureau of Standards Search this
Extent:
0.5 Cubic feet (1 box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Drawings
Notebooks
Date:
1946-1952
Summary:
Collection documents circuit development for the Standards Western Automatic Computer (SWAC). SWAC was an early digital computer built in 1950 by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards in Los Angeles, California.
Scope and Contents:
Three bound notebooks maintained by Harry Huskey, Dave Rutland and Harry T. Larson, documenting circuit development for the Standards Western Automatic Computer (SWAC). SWAC was an early digital computer built in 1950 by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards in Los Angeles, California. Additional materials include one folder of test routines and coding sheets, from 1952.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Designed in 1950 by Huskey, and built by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards in Los Angeles, California, SWAC was an early version of an electronic digital computer.
Provenance:
Immediate source of acquisition unknown.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
17.25 Cubic feet ((2 legal document boxes) (15 records center boxes))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Correspondence
Financial records
Photographs
Drawings
Logs (records)
Manuscripts
Publications
Reports
Date:
1926-1972
bulk 1938-1943
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains the research material that Neill used in compiling his book. The material consists of correspondence and reports dealing with inspection, specifications, and performance tests of automobile and aircraft engines and fuels from 1926 to 1944. There are also reports, articles, and log books of specific engine types, both aeronautical and automotive, collected from all over the world, as well as a rough manuscript copy of Neill's book.
Biographical / Historical:
Thomas Taylor Neill (1903-1988) was an aeropropulsion engineer and author. Following the completion of his degrees at Catholic University of America (BS.ME 1925) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MS 1926) he went to work in the Aircraft Engine Research lab at the United States National Bureau of Standard (engineer 1926-39). He served as an ignition engineer for the Army Air Corps in Dayton, OH (1939-42). He then spent nearly twenty years in research for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (Assistant to the Director of Research 1942-58) and its successor the National Aeronautics and Administration (NASA; Chief of Research Administration Division, Office of Advanced Research Programs 1958-61; Chief of Research and Technical Reports, Office of Advance Research and Technology, 1961-70). Following his retirement from NASA, Neill worked as a consultant to the National Air and Space Museum (1971- ) where he began compiling a book on aviation engines in the inter-war period.
General:
NASMrev
Provenance:
Thomas Neill, transfer, unknown, XXXX-0181, unknown
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
1970 Twelfth Scintillation and Semiconductor Counter Symposium : Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C., March 11-13, 1970 / sponsored by IEEE Nuclear Science Group, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and National Bureau of Standards
Author:
Scintillation and Semiconductor Counter Symposium (12th : 1970 : Washington, D.C.) Search this
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
