Electronic Brain

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28774, 20 December 1958, Page 15

Electronic Brain

(Rec. 10.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, December 18. A giant electronic brain capable of making 10,000 arithmetical calculations in a second kept the Atlas missile on course today as it rose in the sky toward orbit from Cape Canaveral.

The intricate guidance system was described in New York by officials of Burroughs Corporation, which built the computer at its research laboratory at Paoli, Pennsylvania, 20 miles west of Philadelphia. During the count-down, the computer, housed in the control centre, gave the missile its course, point of engine cut-offs and other instructions.

In the early stages of flight, the missile sent back statistics on actual performance. The computer compared this information with the pre-selected course and in seconds flashed back any adjustments necessary in the missile’s flight. Once in orbit, the Atlas was on its own.

The electronic brain, officially called the Atlas Ground-guidance Computer, is crammed with transistors, tubes, condensers and other equipment. It is Bft high and 16ft long. A seven-man crew of technicians and engineers mans it during launchings. The computer was used in the recent successful 6300-mile flight of an Atlas missile. One of the computers has been installed at Vandenberg Air Force base in California for launchings there. At Cape Canaveral, BrigadierGeneral Osmond Ritland, vicecommander of the Air Force’s Ballistic Missile Division, said: “This is the first satellite we actually steered into orbit—a unique first