Eldred Nelson interview: October 17, 1972

After working on the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos during World War II, Nelson formed a partnership with Dr. Stanley Frankel, and as part of a contract with Northrop, they both worked on the development of the Magnetic Drum Digital Differential Analyzer (MADDIDA). In 1948, he joined Hughes Aircraft Company and worked on DIGITAC, a tactical bombing system designed to perform navigational and bombing calculations. He also helped in the design of the MXll79 and a prototype commercial computer. When the Hughes Company decided against continuing computer work, some employees left to set up companies of their own, and in 1954 Nelson joined one such company, Ramo-Woolridge Corporation. He studied the generalization of the technology of airborne digital computers into an industrial process system and delivered an important paper on the subject at the meeting of the Institute of Management Sciences in 1955 or 1956. He discusses the east coast/west coast differences in computer design and operation, including the smaller size of west coast computers, and their earlier use of Boolean algebra. He traces the development of TRW through its various names. Nelson was still with TRW at the time of the interview. Names often mentioned include Dr. Stanley Frankel, Montgomery Phister, Floyd Steele, and John von Neumann.