Herbert S. Bright papers
Scope and Content Note
The collection includes correspondence, memoranda, technical reports and notes, subject files, minutes, manuals, photographs, audio tapes, videotapes, publications, presentations, and a deposition related to Herbert Bright's work in the computer industry and with computer professional groups. Records from Philco and COMPLAN include chronological files for brief periods.
The Philco records also contain a series of subject files. The Informatics, Inc., records include technical notes, correspondence, and reports. The deposition was taken when Bright was an expert witness for the Burroughs Corporation in the legal action of South Jersey Wallpaper Co. vs. Burroughs Corporation. The records from the standards organizations -- the American National Standards Institute (formerly the U.S.A. Standards Institute and before that the American Standards Association) and the International Standards Organization -- contain committee minutes, correspondence, reports, and working papers. Also included in the collection are some personal papers and photographs that partially document the period from 1924-1956.
Dates
- Creation: 1924-1988
Creator
Language of Materials
English
Access to materials:
Access to the collection is unrestricted.
Copyright:
The Charles Babbage Institute holds the copyright to all materials in the collection, except for items covered by a prior copyright (such as published materials). Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provisions of the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).
Biographical Note
Herbert Samuel Bright (13 September 1919 - 28 November 1986) earned a BS in Physics from the University of Michigan in 1943 and an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California-Berkeley in 1963. After completing his BS, Bright became an electrical engineer working with radar and gunfire control systems at Western Electric. Three years later, he joined the electrical engineering department of the Antenna Laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley.
In the early 1950s, Bright began developing general purpose computer applications while chief of the laboratory instrumentation branch at the Radiological Defense Laboratory. As supervising scientist of the computational planning section at Westinghouse Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, he worked on FORTRAN applications for large scale engineering calculations. He continued his work with FORTRAN when he joined the Data Processing Group of CBEMA as director of engineering. Bright later served as Secretary of the ANSI-X3.4.3 FORTRAN Working Group from its inception in 1963 to the publication of American Standard FORTRAN in 1966. At Philco, Bright was responsible for the planning design, development, distribution and maintenance of all product-line software. This included a wide range of programs such as assemblers, compilers, operating systems, and generalized applications. While at Philco, Bright served as the chair of the Philco Corporate Technical Committee on Computer Aids to Engineering and Research, TAC-63-8, from its inception in 1963 to 1965. As director of programming at Informatics, Inc., Bright completed systems programming studies and development projects.
In 1966, Bright founded Computation Planning, Inc. (COMPLAN). This computation consulting firm focused on the analysis, design, programming and management of computation systems. Under Bright's management as president and technical director, COMPLAN concentrated its operations after 1975 on information security through cryptographic control. Bright co-invented a patented encryption system used by many major firms and government agencies for data security. His professional interest in encryption led to his active participation in the ANSI-X9.E9 Working Group on Financial Institution Cryptographic and Authentication Key Management.
Bright was also active in professional associations. In the Association for Computing Machinery, Bright served as Secretary (1962-1964), Vice-President (1964-1966), and Council Member at Large (1966-1978). He also served as the Technical Program Chairman for the 1964 ACM conference and as National Program Committee Chairman on several occasions. Bright served two terms on the AFIPS Board of Directors (1963-1965; 1972-1974), secretary and vice president of SHARE (IBM users' group), president of TUG (Philco users' group), and president (1970) and later member of the board of directors (1971), of the Association on Independent Software Companies.
Extent
6 boxes (5.4 cubic feet)
Abstract
Collection contains correspondence, memoranda, technical reports and notes, subject files, minutes, manuals, photographs, audio tapes, videotapes, publications, presentations, and a deposition related to Herbert Bright's work in the computer industry and with computer professional groups. Records from Philco and COMPLAN include chronological files for brief periods. Also included in the collection are some personal papers and photographs that partially document the period from 1924-1956.
Arrangement of Collection
The materials in this collection are arranged into the following groups:
- Companies, 1956-1984
- Conferences, 1961-1980
- Herbert S. Bright Personal Papers, 1924-1988
- Herbert S. Bright Professional Papers, 1960-1982
- Professional and Trade Associations, 1958-1983
- Standards Organizations, 1960-1983
Acquisition:
The records were given to the Charles Babbage Institute by Lee E. M. Bright in 1988 and 1989.
Subject
- Bright, Herbert S. (Herbert Samuel), 1919-1986 (Person)
- American Federation of Information Processing Societies (Organization)
- Electronic Funds Transfer Committee. (Organization)
- American National Standards Institute. (Organization)
- Association for Computing Machinery (Organization)
- Association of Independent Software Companies (Organization)
- Burroughs Corporation (Organization)
- Computation Planning, Inc. (Organization)
- Informatics, Inc. (Organization)
- International Organization for Standardization. (Organization)
- Office Equipment Manufacturers Institute (U.S.). Data Processing Group. (Organization)
- Philco Corporation. Computer and Electronics Division. (Organization)
- SHARE (Association) (Organization)
- United States of America Standards Institute. (Organization)
- Westinghouse Research Laboratories. (Organization)
Topical
- APT (Computer program language) -- Standards.
- COBOL (Computer program language) -- Standards
- Computer industry
- Computer software industry
- Computer user groups
- Cryptography -- Data processing.
- Cryptography -- United States -- Standards.
- FORTRAN (Computer program language) -- Standards.
- Programming languages (Electronic computers) -- Standards.
- Title
- Herbert S. Bright Papers, 1924-1988. Finding Aid.
- Author
- Prepared by Kevin D. Corbitt, June 1991.
- Date
- March 2004
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Collecting Area Details
Contact The Charles Babbage Institute Archives Collecting Area
Elmer L. Andersen Library
222 - 21st Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55455
612-624-5050
cbi@umn.edu