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December 1959 Radio-Electronics
 [Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Electronics,
published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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In his 1959 Radio-Electronics
magazine editorial, Hugo Gernsback envisioned a "National Facts Center" - a government-run
repository where all global scientific knowledge would be coded, cross-indexed,
and accessible via computers. He argued that researchers were drowning in uncoordinated
information, leading to wasted effort and redundant discoveries, like the "electronic
cigarette" concept which had been documented decades earlier. His solution anticipated
key aspects of the Internet: a centralized, searchable database that could deliver
relevant facts within seconds, drawn from worldwide sources. Gernsback's vision
also foreshadowed artificial intelligence by proposing that "information scientists"
would curate and dispense knowledge - a primitive form of AI's role in parsing vast
data sets to provide targeted insights. His concept highlights the enduring challenge
of information overload and the need for intelligent systems to navigate it. What
he does not allow for is the propensity for corrupt information - both intentional
and not - to be inserted into the system, thereby "poisoning the well," so to speak,
as is the case today.
Billions of Electronic Facts ... Astounding Growth of Electronics
Calls for New Strategy ...
  By Hugo Gernsback
An important government official, commenting on the chaos of electronic research,
recently rebuked American research scientists for failing to make use of available
Russian data. This occurred in early October, during the Chicago meeting of the
National Electronics Conference, and was described in a news report:
"John C. Green, director, Office of Technical Services, Department of Commerce,
said his office began translating Soviet scientific reports more than a year ago
and, because of the impact of Russia's sputniks, had expected these translations
to total 25% to 50% of its sales of science papers. Actually, he said, they amounted
to only $50,000 out of the total of $500,000, or 10%.
"Mr. Green offered several reasons - researchers don't want new sources of information
because they are already floundering in reports; some still discount the worth of
Russian data, and others simply don't know the Russian translations are available.
"What scientific research needs, Mr. Green declared, is a new professional -
an "information scientist" - to peruse the mountain of information and dispense
relevant data to working researchers."
"Floundering in reports" is stating the condition far too mildly - "drowning
in reports" would, in our opinion, be more to the point.
How could it be otherwise in an industry that mushrooms at such a fantastic rate
of growth that it doubles its new inventions and devices every few years? What will
the electronics field be in 10 years, 25 years, 50 years hence?
Today we have millions of electronic facts available to our researchers. Soon
there will be billions of facts - what then?
Several times in recent years, research teams have developed "new" devices, only
to find that identical ones had been in use elsewhere for a different purpose. They
had been fully described in technical papers, too.
Let us cite a specific example, which we may call The Great Electronic Cigarette
Hoax. Recently, full-page ads in newspapers throughout the country announced the
"new" "electronic," "ventilated," "aerated" or "air-conditioned" cigarettes - a
breakthrough in smoking. Just how new and revolutionizing is this?
In the early 1890's, when the present writer was a young boy in Europe, one of
the most hilarious jokes went as follows: You asked a friend to lend you his cigarette-paper
book - usually Riz-La Croix brand. You then proceeded to roll your own cigarette.
But instead of returning his book of cigarette papers, you substituted your own.
This one you had "prepared" by placing it on a metal plate, wired to the hot side
of a spark coil. The other side went to a sharp probe, which you carefully guided
for 5 minutes over the cigarette book while the spark coil was "on." Result: every
one of the fine cigarette papers was punctured with thousands of invisible holes.
Now, when your victim tried to smoke his cigarette with such a "super-aerated"
paper, there was no smoke forthcoming no matter how furiously he drew and puffed,
simply because the paper acted as an excellent sieve. All your friend got was air
and frustration!
The idea was described in French and German books in the 90's, as well as in
Practical Electrics, one of the writer's magazines (May, 1922, page 279).
Now the hoary old idea has been re-invented - as happens so often - by the cigarette
manufacturers, who play the same, albeit attenuated, joke on their customers, simply
using newer holes in the cigarette paper. Carefully regulating the frequency of
the holes along the shaft of the cigarette causes the smoker to get less smoke and
more air - also less nicotine and tar. This really gives you a cigarette with an
electronic carburetor. Of course, you no longer get your money's worth in tobacco,
but then - sh-sh - the cancer risk is less, too. This makes everybody happy - manufacturer
and consumer as well. Hurrah for electronics!
Let us give cigarette manufacturers the benefit of the doubt and admit that they
probably never heard of the ancient spark-coil cigarette-paper joke; which is precisely
the point of this article.
Useless, uncoordinated research is dogging every industry today. Duplication
of research, effort and money is the order of the day. Will it stop before all of
our progress is engulfed?
There seems to us only one sensible remedy - a National Facts Center of the Federal
Government. Only the Government is big enough to build and run such a center. It
would be far larger than even the Pentagon. Nor would the information which it supplied
be free - not any more free than the US Patent Office services. Whatever information
was demanded by any industry or individual would cost a statutory fee, determined
by various schedules.
The Center would be equipped with possibly the largest array of electronic computers
in existence. Every important scientific, electronic and industrial fact would be
coded and carded, cross-indexed for various industries. All these billions of facts
would be fed to the computers in such a manner that, upon inquiry, the proper information
could be given, often within seconds.
These facts and information would not come solely from American sources. That
would defeat the whole purpose. Facts would be culled from every country of the
world, because only in this manner could the Center be all-comprehensive.
The Center would have to be closely allied with the Patent Office for intimate
reciprocal information of every kind -indeed each would be dependent upon the other.
But industry, researchers, inventors and others would not have to waste their
time any longer in useless research, when the key to their problem would be forthcoming
within minutes from the Center. To be sure, the key itself would solve no problems
- it would state, however, where your vital information could be had. It would be
an immense shortcut to all research.
How long does electronic computer information - on magnetic tape and memory magnetic
cores - last? Remember the Center would entrust to the computers thousands of billions
of vital facts.
The experts in the field assure us that magnetic Mylar tape - the tape itself
and the magnetic iron oxide - will last, at the present state of the art, as least
100 years. It may, with improvements to come, last much longer. Magnetic cores and
the magnetism impressed on them, we are informed, will probably last hundreds of
years.
All this need not worry anyone, because the thousands of scientists and technicians
of the future National Facts Center would continuously replace old magnetic tapes
and memory cores with new ones as a routine procedure.
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