Vannevar Bush

person Dr. Vannevar Bush, 1890-1974. The man who invented

hypertext, which he called memex, in the 1930s.

Bush did his undergraduate work at Tufts College, where he

later taught. His masters thesis (1913) included the

invention of the Profile Tracer, used in surveying work to

measure distances over uneven ground. In 1919, he joined

MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering, where he stayed

for twenty-five years. In 1932, he was appointed

vice-president and dean. At this time, Bush worked on optical

and photocomposition devices, as well as a machine for rapid

selection from banks of microfilm.

Further positions followed: president of the Carnegie

Institute in Washington, DC (1939); chair of National Advisory

Committee for Aeronautics (1939); director of Office of

Scientific Research and Development. This last role was as

presidential science advisor, which made him personally

responsible for the 6,000 scientists involved in the war

effort. During World War II, Bush worked on radar antenna

profiles and the calculation of artillery firing tables. He

proposed the development of an analogue computer, which

later became the Rockefeller Differential Analyser.

Bush is the pivotal figure in hypertext research. His

ground-breaking 1945 paper, "As We May Think," speculated on

how a machine might be created to assist human reasoning, and

introduced the idea of an easily accessible, individually

configurable storehouse of knowledge. This machine, which he

dubbed "memex," in various ways anticipated hypermedia and

the World Wide Web by nearly half a century.

Electronic Labyrinth article.

Bush's famous article, \"As We May Think\".

(2001-06-17)