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Research Index

Deep research notes for the NWP history blog series at michalbrennek.github.io. All files researched and written on 2026-04-02. Sources cited with access dates in each file.

Computers (23 files)

Early Pioneering Machines

| File | Machine | Years | Key Innovation | Lines | |——|———|——-|—————-|——-| | ENIAC.md | ENIAC | 1945-1955 | First general-purpose electronic computer | ~340 | | EDVAC.md | EDVAC | 1949-1962 | First binary stored-program design (concept) | ~280 | | EDVAC_additional.md | EDVAC (supplementary) | – | Mercury delay lines, human experience, anecdotes | ~80 | | Whirlwind.md | MIT Whirlwind | 1951-1959 | First real-time computer; magnetic core memory | ~370 |

IAS Architecture Family

| File | Machine | Years | Location | Lines | |——|———|——-|———-|——-| | IAS_machine.md | IAS Machine | 1952-1958 | Princeton | ~110 | | MANIAC.md | MANIAC I/II | 1952-1958 | Los Alamos | ~120 | | JOHNNIAC.md | JOHNNIAC | 1953-1966 | RAND, Santa Monica | ~90 | | ILLIAC.md | ILLIAC I-IV | 1952-1981 | U of Illinois | ~180 | | ORDVAC.md | ORDVAC | 1952-1963 | Aberdeen/Illinois | ~80 | | WEIZAC.md | WEIZAC | 1955-1963 | Rehovot, Israel | ~100 | | SILLIAC.md | SILLIAC | 1956-1968 | Sydney, Australia | ~100 | | BESM.md | BESM-1 to -6 | 1953-1987 | Moscow | ~190 | | BESK.md | BESK | 1953-1966 | Stockholm; world’s first operational NWP forecasts | ~180 |

IBM 700 Series

| File | Machine | Years | Key Innovation | Lines | |——|———|——-|—————-|——-| | IBM_701.md | IBM 701 | 1952-1955 | First commercial scientific computer | ~140 | | IBM_701_NWP_detail.md | IBM 701 (NWP detail) | – | JNWPU formation, Cressman, operational NWP supplementary | ~120 | | IBM_704.md | IBM 704 | 1955-1960 | Hardware floating-point; core memory; FORTRAN | ~150 | | IBM_709_7090.md | IBM 709/7090/7094 | 1958-1969 | Transistorized; NASA/space program | ~160 |

Desk-Sized / Personal

| File | Machine | Years | Key Innovation | Lines | |——|———|——-|—————-|——-| | LGP-30.md | LGP-30 | 1956-1960s | First affordable desk computer; chaos discovery | ~170 | | LGP-21.md | LGP-21 | 1963-1960s | Transistorized LGP-30 successor | ~100 | | RPC-4000.md | RPC-4000 | 1960-1960s | Lorenz’s later machine; “Story of Mel” | ~120 |

Neural Network Machines

| File | Machine | Years | Key Innovation | Lines | |——|———|——-|—————-|——-| | Perceptron.md | Mark I Perceptron | 1960-1967 | First hardware learning machine; 400 photocells, electric motor weights | ~130 |

Supercomputers

| File | Machine | Years | Key Innovation | Lines | |——|———|——-|—————-|——-| | Cray-1.md | Cray-1 | 1976-1989 | Vector processing; NCAR weather modeling | ~170 | | Cray-2.md | Cray-2 | 1985-1990 | Fluorinert immersion cooling; 1.9 GFLOPS | ~120 |

People (55 files)

NWP / Atmospheric Science Pioneers

| File | Person | Born-Died | Role | |——|——–|———–|——| | Richardson.md | Lewis Fry Richardson | 1881-1953 | First NWP attempt (by hand); forecast factory vision | | Vilhelm_Bjerknes.md | Vilhelm Bjerknes | 1862-1951 | 1904 weather prediction programme; Bergen School founder | | Jacob_Bjerknes.md | Jacob Bjerknes | 1897-1975 | Cyclone model; “fronts”; ENSO discovery | | Charney.md | Jule Charney | 1917-1981 | Quasi-geostrophic filtering; ENIAC forecast; Charney Report | | Phillips.md | Norman Phillips | 1923-2019 | First GCM (1956); aliasing discovery | | Lorenz.md | Edward Lorenz | 1917-2008 | Chaos theory; butterfly effect; predictability limits |

Bergen School

| File | Person | Born-Died | Role | |——|——–|———–|——| | Bergeron.md | Tor Bergeron | 1891-1977 | WBF precipitation process; occlusion; air masses | | Rossby.md | Carl-Gustaf Rossby | 1898-1957 | Rossby waves; MIT/Chicago meteorology; Time cover | | Petterssen.md | Sverre Petterssen | 1898-1974 | Frontogenesis function; D-Day forecast | | Solberg.md | Halvor Solberg | 1895-1974 | Polar front theory co-author | | Holmboe.md | Jorgen Holmboe | 1902-1979 | Recruited Charney; UCLA meteorology | | Eady.md | Eric Eady | 1915-1966 | Baroclinic instability (independent of Charney) |

Computing Pioneers

| File | Person | Born-Died | Role | |——|——–|———–|——| | von_Neumann.md | John von Neumann | 1903-1957 | Stored-program concept; IAS machine; NWP advocacy | | Klara_von_Neumann.md | Klara Dan von Neumann | 1911-1963 | Coded ENIAC weather forecast and H-bomb simulations | | Mauchly.md | John Mauchly | 1907-1980 | Co-conceived ENIAC; co-founded first computer company | | Eckert.md | J. Presper Eckert | 1919-1995 | Built ENIAC; vacuum tube reliability engineering | | Bigelow.md | Julian Bigelow | 1913-2003 | Chief engineer of IAS machine; cybernetics | | Herman_Goldstine.md | Herman Goldstine | 1913-2004 | Army liaison for ENIAC; IAS project director | | Adele_Goldstine.md | Adele Goldstine | 1920-1964 | Trained ENIAC programmers; wrote technical manual | | ENIAC_programmers.md | Six ENIAC Women | various | First programmers: McNulty, Jennings, Snyder, Wescoff, Bilas, Lichterman |

Later Computing Figures

| File | Person | Born-Died | Role | |——|——–|———–|——| | Backus.md | John Backus | 1924-2007 | Created FORTRAN; Turing Award | | Forrester.md | Jay Forrester | 1918-2016 | Magnetic core memory; Whirlwind; system dynamics | | Amdahl.md | Gene Amdahl | 1922-2015 | IBM 704 architect; Amdahl’s Law | | Frankel.md | Stan Frankel | 1919-1978 | Manhattan Project; ENIAC; designed LGP-30 | | Metropolis.md | Nicholas Metropolis | 1915-1999 | Monte Carlo method; MANIAC; first ENIAC calculations | | Ulam.md | Stanislaw Ulam | 1909-1984 | Monte Carlo concept; Teller-Ulam design | | Rochester.md | Nathaniel Rochester | 1919-2001 | IBM 701 designer; Dartmouth AI conference | | Barricelli.md | Nils Barricelli | 1912-1993 | Artificial life on IAS machine (decades ahead) |

AI / Machine Learning Pioneers (Post 13 and later)

| File | Person | Born-Died | Role | |——|——–|———–|——| | Rosenblatt.md | Frank Rosenblatt | 1928-1971 | Invented the perceptron; first neural network on IBM 704 | | Minsky.md | Marvin Minsky | 1927-2016 | Co-founded AI lab; critiqued perceptron; Rosenblatt’s rival | | Samuel.md | Arthur Samuel | 1901-1990 | IBM 701 checkers-playing program; coined “machine learning” | | Dostert.md | Leon Dostert | 1904-1971 | Georgetown-IBM machine translation demo on IBM 701 (1954) | | Shuman.md | Frederick G. Shuman | 1920-2001 | JNWPU; succeeded Cressman as NWS head; NWP operations | | Watson_Jr.md | Thomas Watson Jr. | 1914-1993 | IBM CEO who bet the company on the 701; computerized IBM | | Hurd.md | Cuthbert Hurd | 1911-1996 | IBM Applied Science director; drove the 701 project | | Post12_new_people.md | Various (Post 13) | – | Thematic overview of IBM 701-era people |

Atmospheric Scientists (Later Generations)

| File | Person | Born-Died | Role | |——|——–|———–|——| | Smagorinsky.md | Joseph Smagorinsky | 1924-2005 | ENIAC team; founded GFDL; subgrid turbulence model | | Manabe.md | Syukuro Manabe | 1931- | CO2/climate modeling; 2021 Nobel Prize | | Platzman.md | George Platzman | 1920-2008 | ENIAC forecast team; NWP historian | | Fjortoft.md | Ragnar Fjortoft | 1913-1998 | ENIAC forecast team; 2D turbulence theorem | | Browning.md | Keith Browning | 1938-2021 | Conveyor belt model; coined “supercell”; sting jets | | Saltzman.md | Barry Saltzman | 1931-2001 | Convection model that Lorenz simplified to 3 equations | | Arakawa.md | Akio Arakawa | 1927-2021 | Arakawa grids; energy-conserving schemes; UCLA GCM | | Cressman.md | George Cressman | 1919-2008 | First JNWPU director; operational NWP pioneer | | Emanuel.md | Kerry Emanuel | 1955- | Hurricane physics; Lorenz commentator | | Peter_Lynch.md | Peter Lynch | 1943- | Vindicated Richardson; PHONIAC; NWP historian | | Bolin.md | Bert Bolin | 1925-2007 | Swedish NWP pioneer at MISU; first IPCC chairman |

Swedish Computing / BESK Builders

| File | Person | Born-Died | Role | |——|——–|———–|——| | Stemme.md | Erik Stemme | 1921-2007 | BESK engineer; mercury delay-line memory; later inkjet printing | | Neovius.md | Gosta Neovius | 1921-2002 | BESK architect; studied at IAS Princeton; MMN co-designer | | Froberg.md | Carl-Erik Froberg | 1918-2007 | Visited IAS 1947-48; built Lund’s SMIL; numerical analysis | | Conny_Palm.md | Conny Palm | 1907-1951 | Queueing theory; Ericsson/KTH; influenced BESK design |

Cryptology / Intelligence (Swedish and Polish)

| File | Person / Topic | Born-Died | Role | |——|—————-|———–|——| | Beurling.md | Arne Beurling | 1905-1986 | Cracked Geheimschreiber in 2 weeks; created FRA; IAS professor | | Beurling_additional.md | Arne Beurling (supplementary) | – | Deeper detail on Geheimschreiber, FRA operations, Ahlfors | | Polish_codebreakers.md | Rejewski / Rozycki / Zygalski | 1905-1980 / 1909-1942 / 1908-1978 | Cracked Enigma 1932; handed secrets to Bletchley 1939 | | Geheimschreiber_crypto.md | Siemens T52 Geheimschreiber | – | Technical/thematic file: cipher mechanism, Beurling’s attack |

Thematic / Overview Files

| File | Topic | Role | |——|——-|——| | Swedish_NWP.md | Swedish NWP overview | Rossby at MISU, BESK, 1954 operational forecasts, SMHI vs Air Force |

Cross-References

See CROSS_REFERENCES.md for:

  • People –> Machines matrix: who built/programmed/used what
  • People –> People network: by institution (Bergen, UCLA, Chicago, IAS, MIT, GFDL, Los Alamos, Moore School, IBM, RAND)
  • 7 key mentorship chains (e.g., V. Bjerknes –> Holmboe –> Charney –> Phillips/Lorenz/Emanuel)
  • Machines –> Science matrix: what breakthroughs happened on each machine
  • Chronological timeline: 100+ events from 1862 to 2021
  • Institution map: 18 institutions with their machines, people, and dates
  • 5 cross-cutting thematic chains (Bjerknes to Nobel, ENIAC to Chaos, IAS family tree, Bergen-to-Princeton pipeline, Women who made it work)

Key Threads for Future Blog Posts

Thread 1: The Women

ENIAC programmers –> Klara von Neumann –> Adele Goldstine –> Margaret Hamilton –> Mary Tsingou –> Arianna Rosenbluth –> Thelma Estrin –> the unnamed core memory threaders. Every machine in this series was built or programmed by women whose names were not recorded.

Thread 2: The IAS Clone Diaspora

One design, published freely, built on every continent. MANIAC (weapons), JOHNNIAC (AI), ILLIAC (music), WEIZAC (tides), SILLIAC (ecology), BESM (independent Soviet version). Each clone found its own science.

Thread 3: From Weather to Everything

Charney’s weather forecast on ENIAC –> Phillips’ climate on IAS –> Smagorinsky’s GFDL –> Manabe’s Nobel. But also: Monte Carlo (ENIAC) –> financial modeling. Lorenz’s chaos (LGP-30) –> every nonlinear system. Arakawa’s grids (UCLA) –> every fluid simulation.

Thread 4: The Machines That Made Music

ILLIAC I (Illiac Suite, 1957) –> IBM 704/7094 (Daisy Bell) –> the connection between numerical methods and creative expression. Computing was never just about numbers.

Thread 5: Stan Frankel’s Arc

Los Alamos T-Division –> ENIAC H-bomb calculations –> Librascope LGP-30 design –> Lorenz’s chaos discovery. One engineer connecting nuclear weapons to butterfly wings. Almost unknown.