Herman Heine Goldstine (September 13, 1913 – June 16, 2004) was a
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
and
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
, who worked as the director of the
IAS machine at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
's
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...
and helped to develop
ENIAC, the first of the modern electronic digital computers. He subsequently worked for many years at
IBM as an
IBM Fellow, the company's most prestigious technical position.
Early life
Herman Heine Goldstine was born in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
in 1913 to Jewish parents. He attended the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, where he joined the
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
fraternity, and graduated with a degree in Mathematics in 1933, a master's degree in 1934, and a
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in 1936. For three years he was a research assistant under
Gilbert Ames Bliss, an authority on the mathematical theory of
external ballistics.
Career
Early career
In 1939 Goldstine began a teaching career at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, until the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
' entry into
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, when he joined the
U.S. Army.
BRL and the Moore School
As a result of the United States' entering
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Goldstine left the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
where he was a professor in July, 1942 to enlist in the Army. He was commissioned a
lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...
and worked as an ordnance mathematician calculating
firing tables
Dismissal (also called firing) is the termination of employment by an employer against the will of the employee. Though such a decision can be made by an employer for a variety of reasons, ranging from an economic downturn to performance-relat ...
at the
Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) at
Aberdeen Proving Ground,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. The firing tables were used in battle to find the appropriate
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
and
azimuth
An azimuth (; from ar, اَلسُّمُوت, as-sumūt, the directions) is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system. More specifically, it is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north.
Mathematicall ...
for aiming artillery, which had a range of several miles.
The firing table calculations were accomplished by about one hundred women operating
mechanical desk calculators. Each combination of gun, round and geographical region required a unique set of firing tables. It took about 750 calculations to compute a single trajectory and each table had about 3,000 trajectories. It took a
human computer at least 7 hours to calculate one trajectory.
Herman H. Goldstine, Remembrance of Things Past
from "A History of Scientific Computing" To increase production, BRL enlisted the computing facilities of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
and Goldstine was the liaison between BRL and the university.
The ENIAC
While making some adjustments to the Moore School's mechanical differential analyzer, engineer Joseph Chapline suggested Goldstine visit John Mauchly, a physics instructor at the Moore School, who had distributed a memorandum proposing that the calculations could be done thousands of times faster with an electronic computer using vacuum tubes
A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied.
The type known as a ...
. Mauchly wrote a proposal and in June 1943 he and Goldstine secured funding from the Army for the project. The ENIAC was built in 30 months with 200,000 man hours. The ENIAC was huge, measuring 30 by 60 feet and weighing 30 tons with 18,000 vacuum tubes
A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied.
The type known as a ...
. The device could only store 20 numbers and took days to program. It was completed in late 1945 as World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
was coming to an end.
The EDVAC
In spite of disappointment that ENIAC had not contributed to the war effort, interest remained strong in the Army to develop an electronic computer. Prior even to the ENIAC's completion, the Army procured a second contract from the Moore School to build a successor machine known as the EDVAC. Goldstine, Mauchly, J. Presper Eckert
John Adam Presper Eckert Jr. (April 9, 1919 – June 3, 1995) was an American electrical engineer and computer pioneer. With John Mauchly, he designed the first general-purpose electronic digital computer (ENIAC), presented the first course in co ...
and Arthur Burks began to study the development of the new machine in the hopes of correcting the deficiencies of the ENIAC.
Meeting John von Neumann
In the summer of 1944 Goldstine had a chance encounter with the prominent mathematician John von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
on a railway platform in Aberdeen, Maryland, and Goldstine described his project at the University of Pennsylvania. Unknown to Goldstine, von Neumann was then working on the Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
, which was aiming to build the first atomic bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
. The calculations needed for this project were also daunting.
The ''First Draft''
As a result of his conversations with Goldstine, von Neumann joined the study group and wrote a memo called '' First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC''. Von Neumann intended this to be a memo to the study group, but Goldstine typed it up into a 101-page document that named von Neumann as the sole author. On June 25, 1946, Goldstine forwarded 24 copies of the document to those intimately involved in the EDVAC project; dozens or perhaps hundreds of mimeographs of the report were forwarded to von Neumann's colleagues at universities in the United States and in Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
in the weeks that followed. While incomplete, the paper was very well received and became a blueprint for building electronic digital computers. Due to von Neumann's prominence as a major American mathematician, the EDVAC architecture became known as the von Neumann architecture
The von Neumann architecture — also known as the von Neumann model or Princeton architecture — is a computer architecture based on a 1945 description by John von Neumann, and by others, in the ''First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC''. The ...
.
One of the key ideas in the "first draft" was that the programmer could store a program in the computer's electronic memory, rather than program the computer using mechanical switches and patch cables. This and other ideas in the paper had been discussed in the EDVAC study group before von Neumann joined the group. The fact that Eckert and Mauchly, the actual inventors and designers of the ENIAC, were not named as co-authors created resentment that led to the group's dissolution at the end of the war.
Eckert and Mauchly went on to form the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, a company that in part survives today as the Unisys
Unisys Corporation is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. It provides digital workplace solutions, cloud, applications, and infrastructure solutions, e ...
Corporation, while von Neumann, Goldstine and Burks moved on into academic life at the Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...
. In Summer 1946, all of them were reunited to give presentations at the first computer course, which has come to be known as the Moore School Lectures ''Theory and Techniques for Design of Electronic Digital Computers'' (popularly called the "Moore School Lectures") was a course in the construction of electronic digital computers held at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical ...
; Goldstine's presentations, given without notes, covered deeply and rigorously numerical mathematical methods useful in programs for digital computers.
Institute for Advanced Study
After World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Goldstine joined von Neumann and Burks at the Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...
at Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...
, where they built a computer referred to as the IAS machine. Goldstine was appointed as assistant director of the project and was later its director, after 1954.
The IAS machine influenced the design of IBM's early computers through von Neumann, who was a consultant to IBM. When von Neumann died in 1957, the IAS computer project was terminated. Goldstine went on to become the founding director of the Mathematical Sciences Department at IBM's Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.
IBM
At IBM one of Goldstine's most significant roles was in fostering relations between IBM researchers and the academic community. In 1969 he was appointed an IBM Fellow, the company's most prestigious technical honor, and a consultant to the director of research. As a fellow Goldstine developed an interest in the history of computing and mathematical sciences. He wrote three books on the topic; ''The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann'', ''History of Numerical Analysis from the 16th Through the 19th Century'' and ''History of the Calculus of Variations from the Seventeenth Through the Nineteenth Century''. As the title implies, in ''The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann'', Goldstine leaves little doubt that in his opinion von Neumann played a critical role in developing modern theories of computing.
Later career
In retirement Goldstine became executive director of the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
between 1985 and 1997, in which capacity he was able to attract many prestigious visitors and speakers.
Personal life
In 1941 he married Adele Katz, who was an ENIAC programmer and who wrote the technical description for ENIAC. He had a daughter and a son with Adele, who died in 1964. Two years later, he married his second wife, Ellen Watson.
Death
Goldstine died on June 16, 2004, at his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
. His death was announced by the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, where a post-doctoral fellowship was renamed in his honor.
Awards and honoraria
*Harry H. Goode Memorial Award
The Harry H. Goode Memorial Award is an IEEE Computer Society
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated discipline ...
in 1979
* National Medal of Science (1985)
*Hall of Fame of the United States Army Ordnance Department
The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Lee, Virginia. The broad mission of the Ordnance Corps is to supply Army comb ...
(1997)
* of the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
(1997).
* IEEE Computer Society Pioneer Award (charter recipient)
*member of the National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
*member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
*member of the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
Publications
*Arthur W. (Arthur Walter) Burks, Herman Heine Goldstine, John Von Neumann; ''Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computer Instrument''; (Institute for Advanced Study, January 1, 1946) ASIN B0007HW8WE
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References
External links
Herman Goldstine, Who Helped Build First Computers, Dies at 90
(Wolfgang Saxon, ''The New York Times'', 26 June 2004)
Oral history interview with Herman H. Goldstine
Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Goldstine discusses his experiences with the ENIAC computer during World War II. He mentions the EDVAC, the ENIAC's successor, and its innovation of stored programming, for which he credits John von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
.
An interview with Goldstine about his experience at Princeton
Biographical memoir for American Philosophical Society
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldstine, Herman
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