Vannevar Bush was one of the towering figures of 20th century American science and technology. As an inventor, engineer, administrator and policymaker, Bush helped usher in the digital era we live in today. He pioneered early analog computers, formulated a visionary concept for a worldwide hyperlinked information system in 1945, marshalled scientific research to winning WWII, and convinced policymakers that continued government support of science in peacetime was vital to the nation‘s prosperity.
From Small-Town Tinkerer to Leading MIT Engineer
Born in 1890 in Everett, Massachusetts, Bush showed an early fascination with science and technology. As a sickly child often confined indoors, he became an avid reader and tinkerer. In his home laboratory, Bush rigged electrical transformers and batteries to conduct experiments. He excelled in math and science from grammar school through attending Tufts College. There, he jointly earned bachelor‘s and master‘s degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering.
As a student, Bush constructed an early prototype for a digital device he called a “profile tracer”. It was a mechanically-driven contraption strapped to a surveyor that mapped terrain profiles over which it traveled. While it did not find a market, this gadget exemplified Bush’s drive to invent solutions to technical problems.
After graduating college in 1913, Bush took a job at General Electric. But feeling unfulfilled, he spent a year teaching math at a small college before entering a doctoral program at MIT. Here Bush came into his own, researching and building devices under the university’s generous budget. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering within a stunning year, while also serving as an assistant professor.
In 1919, Bush joined MIT‘s electrical engineering department faculty full-time. Over the next decade, he earned distinction as a prolific inventor of analog computing machines. These were constructed not with electronics, but out of metal gears, wheels, shafts and cams. They were capable of solving complex mathematical formulas with multiple variables.
Bush pioneered the Product Integraph and, in 1931, the Differential Analyzer – an 8-foot high assemblage of parts weighing over 100 tons. As one of the world’s first advanced calculating machines, it marked an important step towards high-speed computing preceding digital electronic computers. The Differential Analyzer was adopted by the military during WWII to produce ballistics tables.
Bush also co-developed the “network analyzer”, which helped design electrical power networks by modeling them in an scaled-down analog form. Through his engineering genius and drive, Bush rose swiftly within MIT and was appointed Vice President and Dean of Engineering in 1932.
Pioneering Memex – A Vision for the World‘s Information at One‘s Fingertips
Even while crafting mechanical calculating machines, Bush was beginning to envision a comprehensive store of the world‘s information that could be quickly searched and retrieved. Considering the rapid pace of technological change, Bush imagined a device he called the "Memex" (memory index) – essentially a desk with screens, controls, a keyboard and electromechanical links to extensive microfilm records.
As Bush described in his hugely influential 1945 essay "As We May Think", a user would be able to instantly call up documents, books, communications and other media associated by indexes and markers into a cohesive trail. What Bush foresaw was a globally interconnected information structure that formed the underpinning of the Internet age.
While the electromechanical technology did not exist in Bush‘s time to build his concept, he created a prototype using microfilm and controls to rapidly skip through frames and locate related material by coded links. He recognized the potential for science to deeply augment human memory and understanding. Bush paved the conceptual groundwork for hypertext pioneers like Douglas Engelbart and Ted Nelson who later worked to realize Bush’s vision electronically.
Marshaling Science to Win World War II
In 1938, Bush left MIT and academia to become president of the Carnegie Institution, overseeing its program of pure scientific research. With war clouds gathering at the start of the 1940s, Bush offered his expertise in organizing scientists to support the national defense. He chaired the National Defense Research Committee advising the White House.
After Pearl Harbor, Bush took full charge of coordinating government-sponsored scientific research for military applications as Director of the new Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). With a budget of over $500 million yearly, the OSRD mushroomed to over 6000 scientists and engineers working on over 2000 highly classified programs.
Bush organized the OSRD into divisions focusing on specific areas like radar, rockets, chemical and medical research. He worked closely with military leaders to set priorities and funnel resources into the most crucial programs for the war effort.
Under Bush’s leadership, the OSRD delivered major scientific contributions that changed the course of World War II. This included advances in radar to detect enemy ships and aircraft, precise bomb sights, code-breaking, innovative rockets and jet engines, penicillin mass production methods and many others.
The OSRD also oversaw the initiation of the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic weapons. While Bush was not involved in its daily research, he coordinated vital contacts between project leaders and the military and arranged acquisitions of uranium stockpiles even before the project was formally organized.
By the war’s end, Bush could look back on leading one of the most monumental government-sponsored scientific mobilizations in history. He managed brilliant, quirky scientists deftly, convinced skeptical military brass of the potential of untested technologies, and delivered results that helped win the war.
Convincing Government that Science Was Key to Future Prosperity
As WWII was nearing its victorious finish in 1944, Bush envisioned the next challenge – convincing policymakers that maintaining lavish funding of scientific research was essential even in times of peace. With stars like Einstein and Oppenheimer returning to universities, Bush feared research would founder for lack of financial support. He began formulating a report outlining crucial arguments why the government must continue its stewardship of American science.
At President Roosevelt’s request in 1945, Bush formally delivered his manifesto “Science: The Endless Frontier”. He emphasized only continued heavy investment in science could deliver better health care, rising living standards and national security for the future. Bush proposed organizing all government scientific funding under a centralized National Research Foundation allocating grants to individuals and institutions.
While Congress ultimately decided on a decentralized model creating the National Science Foundation, Bush is credited with driving policy consensus that made government by far the largest backer of American scientific research in history. This abundant funding propelled post-war breakthroughs like space exploration technologies, genetics, computing, the Internet and medical advances that saved countless lives.
Just before his death in 1974 at the age of 84, Bush had the satisfaction of seeing his visions for hyperlinked information systems and publicly-funded science come spectacularly to life in the digital and space ages dawning around him. He more than any other American paved the way for both these realities that define our world today. Bush combined engineering ingenuity, wartime leadership and policy vision to profoundly shape America‘s technological trajectory throughout the 20th century.
