Andrew Donald Booth (11 February 1918 – 29 November 2009)Andrew Booth: scientist who invented the magnetic storage device
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'', 12 January 2010. was a British electrical engineer, physicist and computer scientist, who was an early developer of the magnetic drum memory for

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...

s. He is known for Booth's multiplication algorithm. In his later career in Canada he became president of

Lakehead University Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, gradua ...

Early life

The son of Sidney Booth (died 1955) a cousin of Sir Felix Booth, he was raised in

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

, and educated at

Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School Haberdashers' Boys' School (also known as Haberdashers', Habs, or Habs Boys), until September 2021 known as Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, is a Independent school (United Kingdom), public school for pupils age 4 to 18 in Elstree, Hertfo ...

. In 1937, he won a scholarship to read mathematics at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes ...

. Booth left

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

without taking a degree, having become disaffected with

pure mathematics Pure mathematics is the study of mathematical concepts independently of any application outside mathematics. These concepts may originate in real-world concerns, and the results obtained may later turn out to be useful for practical applications, ...

as a subject. He chose an external degree from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

instead, which he obtained with a first. From 1943 to 1945, Booth worked as a mathematical physicist in the X-ray team at the

British Rubber Producers' Research Association The Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre, originally known as the British Rubber Producers' Research Association, carries out research into rubber and is funded by the Malaysian government. Early years: as the British Rubber Producers Research Associa ...

(BRPRA),

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and ...

, Hertfordshire, gaining his PhD in

crystallography Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids. Crystallography is a fundamental subject in the fields of materials science and solid-state physics ( condensed matter physics). The wor ...

from the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

in 1944. In 1945, he moved to

Birkbeck College , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £10 ...

, where his work in the crystallography group led him to build some of the first

electronic computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These program ...

s in the United Kingdom including the All Purpose Electronic Computer, first installed at the

British Rayon Research Association The British Rayon Research Association was a research institute formed in 1946 by the British Rayon Federation and others.The Times, November 29, 1946 page 10 It was funded by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and by voluntary fu ...

. Booth founded Birkbeck's department of numerical automation and was recently named a fellow at the university. He also did early pioneering work in

machine translation Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT (not to be confused with computer-aided translation, machine-aided human translation or interactive translation), is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates ...

. Dr. Booth served as

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

from 1972 to 1978.

Personal life

Booth married mathematician and computer engineer Kathleen Britten in 1950, and had two children, Amanda and Ian; between 1947 and 1953, together they produced three computing machines.

Bibliography

* * . * Booth, A.D. and Britten, K.H.V. (1947) ''Coding for A.R.C.'', Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton * Booth, A.D. and Britten, K.H.V. (1947) ''General considerations in the design of an all-purpose electronic digital computer'', Institute for Advance Study, Princeton * Booth, A.D. and Britten, K.H.V. (1948) ''The accuracy of atomic co-ordinates derived from Fourier series in X-ray crystallography Part V'', ''Proc. Roy. Soc.'' Vol A 193 pp305–310 * The Electronic Principles of Digital Computers, Electronics Forum (1948); * . * Booth, A.D (1949) ''A Magnetic Digital Storage System'', Electronic Engineering * Booth, A.D. (1950) ''The Physical Realization of An Electronic Digital Computer'', Electronic Engineering * Booth, A.D. (1952) ''On Optimum Relations Between Circuit Elements and Logical Symbols in the Design of Electronic Calculators'', Journal of British Institution of Radio Engineers * Booth, A.D. and Booth K.H.V. (1953) ''Automatic Digital Calculators'', Butterworth-Heinmann (Academic Press) London

References

External links

The APEXC driver page
* ttps://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/manchesteruniversity/data/gb133-nahc/boo Andrew Booth Collection

University of Manchester Library The University of Manchester Library is the library system and information service of the University of Manchester. The main library is on the Oxford Road campus of the university, with its entrance on Burlington Street. There are also ten other ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Andrew Donald 1918 births 2009 deaths People educated at Haberdashers' Boys' School Academics of Birkbeck, University of London Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Birmingham Alumni of the University of London British electrical engineers British computer scientists Computer designers History of computing in the United Kingdom Lakehead University faculty British expatriate academics in Canada Canadian university and college chief executives

Early life

Personal life

See also

Bibliography

References

External links