It is commonly believed that World War II had a uniformly positive effect on the development of computing in America. In fact, the war had a mixed effect on MIT’s computing programs. Already in the 1930s MIT had a much broader and more active computing program than is generally recognized. The faculty was beginning to examine digital techniques to complement its expertise in analog techniques. It was also investigating electronic elements to supplement or supplant mechanical switches, as part of the continuing effort to enhance the capability of computing technology. The Rockefeller Foundation awarded MIT a grant to build an electronic version of Bush’s 1931 differential analyzer, and the Carnegie Corporation provided a grant to the electrical engineering department to form the Center for Analysis under the direction of Bush’s lieu- tenant in analog computing, Samuel Caldwell. The Center for Analysis was intended to be the locus for MIT’s efforts in computing. In 1938 Bush had begun to work with one of his students, William Radford, on plans for a general-purpose digital computing machine called the Rapid Arithmetical Machine. NCR provided support for the project, and Wilcox Overbeck was hired to work on the engineering design.The expectation of Caldwell and the uni versity administration at the end of the war was that MIT should regain its momentum in computing through a reactivated Center for Analysis. MIT successfully applied for a $100,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to support the center, not to build any machines but rather to study how to bring digital and electronic technologies into MIT’s computing program. But within five years, these plans had been scrapped, the Center for Analysis had lost its respect both inside and outside the university, and the university administration felt obligated to terminate the grant and return some of the funding to the Rockefeller Foundation.By this time MIT had outgrown the Whirlwind, the university computing service responsibility was transferred from the Digital Computer Laboratory (the home of Whirlwind) to Morse’s operation, and Whirlwind was transferred to Lincoln Lab, which operated it for another three years. IBM provided one of its Model 704 computers free of charge to MIT. The computer was made available one eight-hour shift each day to MIT faculty and students, and a second shift per day to the New England Regional Computing Consortium (Nercomp), which was a consortium of universities in New England formed to take research advantage of the computer facilities and computer expertise based at MIT. IBM also sponsored research assistantships at the computing center, while the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Rockefeller Foundation supported application of the computer to research in the physical and social sciences, respectively. During its first three years of operation, the computer was used on more than 1,000 research problems and 274 theses.study and plan the strategy for an industrial fundraising campaign. The Jones company came up with the slogan mass produced mathematics, which was abhorrent to the university administration, playing on their worst fears of industrial mass production on campus. The fundraising campaign was abandoned, and thereafter Aiken struggled each year to finance his operation. He was able to get grants from Bell Labs for research on switching theory and from the American Gas Association and the Edison Electric Institute for research on business data processing, but funding was always a concern;
