Joseph Raymond Desch (23 May 1907 – August 3, 1987) was an American electrical engineer and inventor. During World War II, he was Research Director of the project to design and manufacture the US Navy version of the
bombe, a cryptanalytic machine designed to read communications enciphered by the German
Enigma.
Early life
Desch was born in
Dayton, Ohio, in 1907 into a family of
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
descent whose livelihood was blacksmithing and wagon-making. He attended the Catholic
elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
of his neighborhood
parish, then won a
scholarship to the preparatory (high) school of the
University of Dayton. While attending college at
University of Dayton, Desch worked evenings as an inspector at Day-Fan Electric in
Dayton
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...
, supervising radio testing and production.
Career
After graduation in 1929 he began to work at General Motors Radio where he supervised radio testing, and met
Robert E. Mumma
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, ho ...
, who quickly began a friendship which lasted over 50 years. After supervising the liquidation of General Motors Radio in 1933, he conducted teleprinter
communications research for Telecom Laboratories, a company financed by
Charles Kettering of automotive pioneering fame through General Motors and
Delco. Two years later he was hired by Harry Williams to be foreman on the Process Laboratory at the Frigidaire Division of General Motors, once again in Dayton. He then followed Williams to the
National Cash Register Company in 1938 to form the innovative Electrical Research Laboratory at the direction of
Edward A. Deeds
Edward Andrew Deeds (March 12, 1874 – July 1, 1960) was an American engineer, inventor and industrialist prominent in the Dayton, Ohio, area. He was the president of the National Cash Register Company and, together with Charles F. Kettering, ...
, then president of the company.
At Deeds' direction he conducted research to implement pioneering ideas regarding the use of tubes and circuitry in counting devices, with the idea of developing high speed
mathematical computing
machines to augment or replace the Company's mechanical machines. The idea of applying electronic counting to calculating mechanisms occurred to him when reading of a
thyratron (gas-filled tube) counting ring of five places (5 digits, not five orders) developed by British scientist
Dr C. E. Wynn-Williams. As a result Desch's lab received an introduction to and work with the
MIT Electrical Engineering Department led by
Vannevar Bush.
Inventions during WWII
Beginning in 1940, Desch's lab was awarded several contracts by the
National Defense Research Committee. These contracts made use of Desch's research into fast-firing vacuum tubes, including a high-speed
thyratron Desch developed. This tube was used in a counter capable of millisecond speed for the University of Chicago
Manhattan Project. This was followed by a contract with the
OP-20-G section of the Office of Naval Communications. In 1942 his research in the area of electronic counting made him a candidate to evaluate the design for a totally electronic deciphering device created by a group of MIT academics. He gave the opinion that the implementation of the design was not possible, primarily because of the large number of tubes necessary. Believing that the
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
version of the
bombe decryption machine could be built using mechanical and electronic components, and recognizing the National Cash Register Company's capabilities, the Navy moved ahead with a contract. Desch's lab became the
United States Naval Computing Machine Laboratory
The United States Naval Computing Machine Laboratory (NCML) was a highly secret design and manufacturing site for code-breaking machinery located in Building 26 of the National Cash Register (NCR) company in Dayton, Ohio and operated by the Uni ...
.
In 1943 Desch's team, working in NCR's
Building 26
"Building 26" is the sixteenth episode of the third season of the superhero drama series ''Heroes'' and fiftieth episode overall. The episode aired on February 16, 2009 on the NBC network in the United States, its country of origin. The episode wa ...
, began delivery of completed machines to OP-20-G in Washington. Desch's department was immediately asked to research the problems of breaking Japanese communications. The pressure of cryptanalytic work and the continuing toll of the loss of life in the Pacific theater led to Desch's withdrawal from the project in late 1944. He returned to assist in 1945.
Electronic calculator
In 1946 Desch filed an application for a
patent on an
electronic calculator designed by him and Bob Mumma, as part of an application initiated in March 1940. This brought about three interferences filed in the US Patent Office between their application and one by
Arthur Dickinson of
IBM.
Eventually these were settled in favor of Desch, in part because he proved Dickinson's design unworkable, and gave Desch and Mumma the first patent on the modern digital
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
. His career after this point was noteworthy, and he was especially proud in later years of his work with Bob Mumma in the development of the
NCR 304
The NCR 304 computer hardware, announced in 1957, first delivered in 1959, was National Cash Register (NCR)'s first transistor-based computer. The 304 was developed and manufactured in cooperation with General Electric, where it was also used in ...
, the first completely solid state computer. He continued to be an integral part of NCR until his retirement in 1972.
Awards
Desch was awarded the
Medal for Merit by President
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
July 16, 1947.
Desch was a 2011 inductee to the
NSA/CSS Hall of Honor.
Desch was a 2017 recipient of the University of Dayton Distinguished Alumnus Award.
IEEE Joe Desch Innovation Award
This Award was instituted by the Engineers Club in 2008 to honor Desch's legacy. The next year its stewardship was handed over to Deborah Anderson, Desch's daughter. Since 2013 she has been coordinating the award process with the Dayton Section of the
IEEE to bring an added importance to the Award.
The recipients so far are:
* 2008: John Janning
* 2009: Dr. Peter T. Brody
* 2010: Drs. Ken Jordan and John Birden
* 2011:
Whitfield Diffie
* 2013: Dr.
Jacek M. Zurada
* 2015: Dr.
George B. Purdy
George Barry Purdy (20 February 1944 – 30 December 2017) was a mathematician and computer scientist who specialized in cryptography, combinatorial geometry, and number theory.
Purdy received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana ...
* 2017: Dr. Daniel Both
Patents
* 2,177,133. Measuring Instrument. Filing date: Nov 25, 1936. Issue date: Oct 24, 1939. Inventor: Joseph. R. Desch, Dayton, Ohio. Assignee: Commonwealth Engineering Co.
* 2,399,473. Electronic Devices. Filing date: Aug 20, 1941. Issue date: Apr 30, 1946. Inventors: Joseph R. Desch and Robert E. Mumma, assignors to The National Cash Register Company
* 2,401,621. Electronic Accumulator. Filing date: Dec 31, 1941. Issue date: Jun 1946. Inventors: J. R. Desch and Lawrence D. Kilheffer, assignors to The National Cash Register Company
* 2,404,697. Calculating Device. Filing date: Mar 21, 1942. Issue date: Jul 23, 1946. Inventors: J. R. Desch and Robert E. Mumma, assignors to The National Cash Register Company
* 2,451,812. Electron Tube Variable Impulse Transmitter. Filing date: Sep 16, 1942. Issue date: Oct 19, 1948. Inventors: Joseph R. Desch, Ernest V. Gulden and Robert E. Mumma, assignors to The National Cash Register Company
* 2,462,613. Communication System. Filing date: Sep 16, 1942. Issue date: Feb 22, 1949. Inventors: J. R. Desch, Ernest V. Gulden, and Robert E. Mumma, assignors to The National Cash Register Company
* 2,419,485. Electronic Device. Filing date: Jun 3, 1943. Issue date: Apr 22, 1947. Inventors: Joseph B. Desch and Robert E. Mumma, assignors to The National Cash Register Company
* 2,467,257. Electronic Remote Control Device. Filing date: May 11, 1944. Issue date: Apr 12, 1949. Inventors: J. R. Desch and Ernest V. Gulden, assignors to The National Cash Register Company
* 2,595,045. Calculating Machine. Filing date: March 20, 1940. Issue date: Apr 29, 1952. Inventors: J. R. Desch and Robert E. Mumma, assignors to The National Cash Register Company
* 2,644,087. Electronic Impulse Generator. Filing date: Dec 4, 1951. Issue date: Jun 30, 1953. Inventor: J. R. Desch, assignor to The National Cash Register Company
* 2,644,110. Filing date: Feb 20, 1952. Issue date: Jun 30, 1953. Inventor: Joseph R. Desch, assignor to The National Cash Register Company
* 2,717,334. Filing date: Apr 21, 1953. Issue date: Sept. 6, 1955. Inventor: Joseph R. Desch, assignor to The National Cash Register Company
* 2,871,408. Filing date: Apr 21, 1953. Issue date: Jan 27, 1959. Inventor: Joseph R. Desch, assignor to The National Cash Register Company
See also
*
Bombe
*
OP-20-G
*
Joseph Wenger
Joseph Numa Wenger (June 7, 1901 – September 2, 1970) was a Rear-Admiral of the United States Navy who served as the first Deputy Director of the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA), and later as the first Vice Director of the National Securi ...
*
Edward A. Deeds
Edward Andrew Deeds (March 12, 1874 – July 1, 1960) was an American engineer, inventor and industrialist prominent in the Dayton, Ohio, area. He was the president of the National Cash Register Company and, together with Charles F. Kettering, ...
*
Vannevar Bush
*
National Defense Research Committee
*
National Security Agency
*
Harold Keen
Harold Hall "Doc" Keen (1894–1973) was a British engineer who produced the engineering design, and oversaw the construction of, the British bombe, a codebreaking machine used in World War II to read German messages sent using the Enigma machi ...
References
External links
* Dayton Daily News
Dayton's Code Breakers
* Jim DeBrosse and Colin Burke, The Secret in Building 26: The Untold Story of America's Ultra War Against the U-boat Enigma Codes, 2004, .
* Dayton Codebreakers Web site
DaytonCodebreakers.org Information about Desch, personnel of the US Naval Computing Machine Laboratory, declassified documents.
* National Security Agency 2011 Cryptologic Hall of Hono
{{DEFAULTSORT:Desch, Joseph
1907 births
1987 deaths
American people of German descent
People from Dayton, Ohio
University of Dayton alumni
Medal for Merit recipients
NCR Corporation people
20th-century American inventors