The RCA Selectron -- Selected Reprints

These excerpts and documents are reproductions of material not readily available from libraries in electronic form.

Cover of RCA Research Report 1946
RCA Research Report 1946
Storage Tubes,1946, pp. 41 - 43 (OCR'd)

Cover of RCA Research Report 1946 Text (OCR'd) PDF 877 kB -- (OCR'd)

Copyright 1946 Radio Corporation of America
All Rights Reserved


Cover of RCA Radio Age, April 1947
New Tube Has Memory
RCA Radio Age, April 1947, pp. 53 - 97 (OCR'd)
Jan Rajchman
Link to New Tube Has Memory, pp. 20 Text (OCR'd) PDF 166 kB -- (OCR'd)

Copyright 1947 Radio Corporation of America
All Rights Reserved


Cover page of MTAC papers.
Technical Developments
Jan A. Rajchman
Mathematical Tables and Other Aids to Computation
Volume 2, Number 20 (October, 1947) pp. 359-361
Link to American Mathematical Society paper (OCR'd) PDF 18 kb (OCR'd)

Copyright 1947 American Mathematical Society
All Rights Reserved


Cover of RCA Research Report 1948
RCA Research Report 1948
The Selectron,1948, pp. 68 - 69 (OCR'd)

Cover of RCA Research Report 1948 Text (OCR'd) PDF 570 kB -- (OCR'd)

Copyright 1948 Radio Corporation of America
All Rights Reserved


Cover page of report by R. D. Huntoon on the Selectron...CONFIDENTIAL stamped on top of original document, then crossed out by hand.
The National Bureau of Standards description of the Selectron.
R. D. Huntoon, July 1948
Link to NBS OD_6_37M Technical Memorandum (OCR'd) PDF 37 kb (OCR'd)


First page of 1948 excerpt showing 4096-bit Selectron
Electronic Digital Computers
David Fidelman
Radio Electronics Engineering
October, 1948, Volume 11, number 4, pp. 10-12 (excerpt).
Link to a description of the Selectron from a 1948 non-computer magazine PDF 47 kb (OCR'd)

Copyright 1948 Ziff-Davis Publishing
All Rights Reserved


Cover of January 1949 issue of Astounding Science Fiction showing three eyeballs, a scalpel and a voodoo skull.
Modern Calculators
E. L. Locke
Astounding Science Fiction
January, 1949, Vol. XLII , number 5, pp. 87-106 (excerpt).
Link to a description of the Selectron from a 1949 Science Fiction / Science Fact magazine PDF 123 kb (OCR'd)

Copyright ©1949 by Street and Smith Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of Dell Magazines, a Division of Crosstown Publications. This excerpt originally appeared in Astounding Science Fiction.
All Rights Reserved


Cover of February 1949 issue of Astounding Science Fiction showing spaceman .
The Little Blue Cells
J. J. Coupling -- aka, Bell Telephone Laboratories engineer and Caltech professor John R. Pierce,
Astounding Science Fiction
February, 1949, Vol. XLII , number 6, pp. 85-99 (excerpt).
Link to a description of the Selectron from a 1949 Science Fiction / Science Fact magazine PDF 4.5 Mb (OCR'd)

Copyright ©1949 by Street and Smith Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of Dell Magazines, a Division of Crosstown Publications. This excerpt originally appeared in Astounding Science Fiction.
All Rights Reserved


First page of 1949 memorandum
IBM memorandum on the IAS computer
Nathanial Rochester
IBM Corporate Archives 28 February, 1949.
Field report of a visit to the IAS electronic computer program.
Link to memo from Naty Rochester to IBM Poughkeepsie about the IAS computer PDF 19 kb (OCR'd)

Property of, and used by permission of, IBM Corporation
All Rights Reserved


Cover of RCA Laboratory Division Research Report 1949
RCA Laboratory Division Research Report 1949
The Selectron (OCR'd)

Cover of RCA Laboratory Division News 1949 Text (OCR'd) PDF 3.98 Mb -- (OCR'd)

Copyright 1949 Radio Corporation of America
All Rights Reserved


Cover of RCA Laboratory Division News 1949
Laboratory Division News 1949
The Selectron (OCR'd)

Cover of RCA Laboratory Division News 1949 Text (OCR'd) PDF 4.12 Mb -- (OCR'd)

Copyright 1949 Radio Corporation of America
All Rights Reserved


Cover of RCA Radio Age, April 1947
The Selectron
Proceedings of a Second Symposium on Large Scale Digital Calculating Machinery, September 1949, pp. 365 - 373 (OCR'd)
Jan Rajchman
Link to The selectron, pp. 365 - 373 (OCR'd) PDF 999 kB -- (OCR'd)

Copyright 1951 Harvard University Press
All Rights Reserved


RCA Selectron Ad -- National Geographic Magazine; Artist's rendering of a stylized SB256 Selectron in front of a filing cabinet with mathematical equations written on cards spilling out
"Tube With A Memory"
National Geographic Magazine, ca 1950
Link to RCA Selectron Ad -- National Geographic Magazine image JPEG 121 kb
Link to RCA Selectron Ad -- National Geographic Magazine image JPEG 343 kB
Copyright 1950 Radio Corporation of America
All Rights Reserved


Cover of RCA Review, Vol XII, No. 1, March 1951
The Selective Electrostatic Storage Tube
RCA Review, Vol XII, No. 1, March 1951, pp. 53 - 97 (OCR'd)
Jan Rajchman
Link to The Selective Electrostatic Storage Tube, pp. 53 - 87 Text (OCR'd) PDF 122 kB -- main text only (OCR'd) Link to The Selective Electrostatic Storage Tube, pp. 53 - 87 Images PDF 979 kB -- main images only
(For ease of viewing open as two side-by-side Acrobat documents.)
Link to The Selective Electrostatic Storage Tube, pp. 87 - 97 Text (OCR'd) PDF 52 kB -- appendix text only (OCR'd) Link to The Selective Electrostatic Storage Tube, pp. 87 - 97 Images PDF 255 kB -- appendix images only
(For ease of viewing open as two side-by-side Acrobat documents.)

Copyright 1951 Radio Corporation of America
All Rights Reserved


Cover of RCA Review, Vol XII, No. 1, March 1951 -- reprint. Initials of Keith Uncapher are in lower right corner.
Reprint cover of The Selective Electrostatic Storage Tube
RCA Review Reprint
Work copy used by Keith Uncapher of the RAND Corporation
during development of the JOHNNIAC computer.
(Note initials on lower right corner.)
Cover of RCA Review reprint JPEG 90 kB

Copyright 1951 Radio Corporation of America
All Rights Reserved
Copy courtesy Computer History Museum


Cover of Ernest Linwood Hurd theses, 1951

Storage Tubes For Use As Memory Units In Digital Computers
Ernest Linwood Hurd thesis, 1951
U. S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California

thesis PDF 4.2 MB


RCA ELECTRON TUBE HANDBOOK HB-3
RCA ELECTRON TUBE HANDBOOK HB-3
Commercial Engineering, Tube Department, Radio Corporation of America
Harrison, New Jersey
Faux data sheets for the Selectron as they might have been prepared. PDF 1200 kB

The Selectron was never incorporated into the RCA HB-3 handbook.
These faux data sheets are offered to the student and reader
as a best faith reproduction, in both style and content,
of that which never existed.


Storage Tubes and Their Basic Principles
Storage Tubes and Their Basic Principles, pp. 92 - 96 (OCR'd)
Max Knoll and Benjamin Kazan
Link to Storage Tubes and Their Basic Principles, pp. 92 - 96 (OCR'd) PDF 27 kB (OCR'd)

Copyright 1952 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
All Rights Reserved


History of the JOHNNIAC
History of the JOHNNIAC, pp. 25 - 27 (OCR'd)
1953 memorandum from John Williams (excerpt)
History of the JOHNNIAC, 1953 memorandum from John Williams pp. 25 - 27 (excerpt) (OCR'd) PDF 27 kB (OCR'd)

Copyright 1953 The RAND Corporation
All Rights Reserved

Complete History of the JOHNNIAC document (140 pages) from RAND Corporation site (PDF) 12 Mb


IBM house piece about 701/706 CRT production
They Put MEMORIES in a Tube!
Business Machines, April 1954, pp. 10 - 11 (OCR'd)

IBM internal publication about production of the memory CRTs
for the 706 storage unit.
IBM house piece about 701/706 CRT production (excerpts) (OCR'd) PDF 259 kB (OCR'd)

Copyright 1954 IBM Corporation
All Rights Reserved


IBM house piece about 701/706 CRT production
ELECTRON BEAM TUBES WITH ACCUMULATED CHARGES by N.P. SUPRYAGA
MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE
USSR MINISTRIES OF DEFENSE
MOSCOW - 1961

ЭЛЕКТРОННО-ЛУЧЕВЫЕ ТРУБКИ С НАКОПЛЕНИЕМ ЗАРЯДОВ я Н. П. СУПРЯГА
ВОЕННОЕ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО
МИНИСТЕРСТВА ОБОРОНЫ СССР
МОСКВА— 1961 ,

Soviet military monograph about cathode ray tubes with storage elements.
Selectron description on page 95



Image of student examining an SB256 Selectron
"Computer Teaching Students Barn in Hopewell Township Is Their Classroom"
Newark [NJ] Sunday News, May 28, 1967
Link to page Computer Teaching Students Barn in Hopewell Township Is Their Classroom JPEG 102 kb

Photo courtesy of Chris Brigham.
www.resistors.org


Early Research on Computers at RCA; from A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century
A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century:
Early Research on Computers at RCA, pp. 465 - 469 (excerpts) (OCR'd)
Nicholas Metropolis, Jack Howlett, and Gian-Carlo Rota
Link to Early Research on Computers at RCA, pp. 465 - 469 (excerpts) (OCR'd) PDF 16 kB (OCR'd)

Copyright 1980 Academic Press, Inc.
All Rights Reserved


Oral History Interview: Herman Goldstine
Oral History Interview: Herman Goldstine (excerpt) (OCR'd)
Conducted by Nancy Stern
Oral History Interview: Herman Goldstine (excerpt) (OCR'd) PDF 12 kB (OCR'd)

Copyright � 1980, Charles Babbage Institute -- All rights reserved

Complete Interview document from CBI site (PDF) 126 kb


Oral History Interview: Willis H. Ware
Oral History Interview: Willis H. Ware (excerpt) (OCR'd)
Conducted by Nancy Stern
Oral History Interview: Willis H. Ware (excerpt) (OCR'd) PDF 17 kB (OCR'd)

Copyright � 1981, Charles Babbage Institute -- All rights reserved

Complete interview document from CBI site (PDF) 143 kb