Institute for Instrument Science in the Max Planck Society
The Institute for Instrument Science in the Max Planck Society in Göttingen was an institution of the Max Planck Society that existed from 1946 to 1957. Konrad Beyerle headed the institute throughout its existence .
History and tasks
The institute was established on May 3, 1946 under the British occupation as a spin-off from the Aerodynamic Research Institute (AVA) of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in Göttingen and was initially called the Institute for Instrumentation in the Kaiser Wilhelm Society . In the new institute, AVA scientists and technicians constructed apparatus (= devices and machines ) and instruments (= measuring devices ) for the British in the former central workshop of the AVA .
Heinz Billing reported that with the simplest means - a few amplifier tubes , a few current and voltage measuring devices and a cathode ray oscilloscope - and scientifically isolated from abroad, he set up a high-frequency laboratory. First, reports on the state of German research had to be submitted to the British occupiers as part of FIAT reviews . In a meeting later organized by the British on an equal footing, in which Konrad Zuse and Alwin Walther also took part, Billing came into contact with ideas for calculating machines.
With the currency reform on June 21, 1948, the institute's budget was cut sharply, so that layoffs became necessary and employees left the institute for foreign countries. Projects could later be financed again from funds from the Marshall Plan , before the financing was secured through the Max Planck Society.
The Institute for Instrument Science (now part of the Max Planck Society) subsequently supported various Max Planck Institutes and other scientific institutions in the development of technical devices. The numerical calculating machines working group under Heinz Billing cooperated in particular with the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich. For example, the working group of the head of the institute Beyerle worked together with the Institute for Physical Chemistry at the University of Hamburg .
The institute was spun off from the Max Planck Society in 1957. Parts were taken over by the Society for the Promotion of Nuclear Physics Research (later the Jülich Research Center ) in Düsseldorf . The numerical calculating machines working group was affiliated to the Max Planck Institute for Physics.
People and developments
- Konrad Beyerle : Beyerle was head of the institute from 1946 to 1957. Among other things, he worked to improve gas centrifuges for separating radioactive isotopes.
- Heinz Billing : From 1946 Billing received a laboratory in the former AVA wind tunnel . Here he developed the magnetophone memory in 1947/1948 (see magnetic drum memory ). Billing initially stayed at the institute until 1949. After staying in Australia for about a year, he worked in the numerical calculating machine group from 1950 until the institute was dissolved .
- Wilhelm Hopmann (1924–2002): Together with Billing and Ludwig Biermann and Arnulf Schlüter from the Max Planck Institute for Physics, Hopmann developed the electronic computers G1 (1952), G2 and G3 , each about ten times faster than its predecessor.
Individual evidence
- ^ Richard E. Schneider: A (re) construction under uncertain signs. The founding history of the Max Planck Society. Federal Agency for Civic Education , August 15, 2011
- ↑ Hans Dieter Hellige: Stories of Computer Science: Visions, Paradigms, Leitmotifs . Springer, 2004, ISBN 978-3-642-18631-8 , pp. 88 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Heinz Billing : The Göttingen calculating machines G1, G2, G3. Development tendencies of scientific data centers. In: Computer science reports. Volume 37, 1980, pp. 1-13 doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-662-07056-7_1
- ↑ a b c d Heinz Billing - the builder of the first German electronic computer. In: Scientific computing in Göttingen - on the history of the computer and the GWDG on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the GWDG. GWDG-Nachrichten - Special edition 40 years GWDG. (PDF, 23.3 MB) Göttingen 2010, pp. 76–121
- ↑ a b K. Beyerle et al .: About gas centrifuges (excerpt). Enrichment of the xenon, krypton and selenium isotopes using the centrifuge process. In: Chemical Engineer Technology. Volume 21, Issue 17-18, pp. 331-334, September 1949 doi : 10.1002 / cite.330211703
- ^ Archive of the Max Planck Society ( Memento from September 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ electron brain. For intellectual work. Der Spiegel of June 18, 1952, pp. 32-33