a presentation image of the entire ASSC Mark I computer with major sections identified.

James W. Bryce

1880 - 1949

BiographyJames W. Bryce (1880-1949) was a prolific inventor with more than 500 U.S. and foreign patents to his credit. He began his career at IBM in 1917. He invented various time clock and recorder equipment, including a self-regulating time system. He also invented and developed the"universally splittable" accumulators and printers used with accounting machines, and the automatic multiplying punch.

In 1932, Bryce began to use vacuum tubes to perform mathematical operations. The led to the production in 1946 of the first commercial electronic multiplier.

As chief engineer, Bryce supported Howard Aiken's proposal that IBM help to design and build the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASSC) in 1937 and got the project approved in 1939. Bryce also was involved with the development of the electronic arithmetic unit for the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC).

Bryce is also remembered for his work the generation and display of data on cathode ray tubes, data transmission, magnetic-records sensing, and high-speed photographic recording.

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A memoir of Bryce is published on the website of the IBM Archives <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/markI/2413JB01.html" target="_blank">here</a>.