L.H. Thomas and Wallace Eckert in Watson Lab, Columbia University
LH Thomas and WJ Eckert in Watson Lab;
Photo: [37]
Professors Llewellen Hilleth Thomas and Wallace
J. Eckert looking over a machine calculation in Watson Lab at Columbia
University in the 1940s or 50s. In the background on the left you can see a
stack of control panels which were used to
program IBM equipment before the stored-program computer days
(CLICK HERE for another view of
the Watson Lab "program library"). Right rear: the
IBM master clock.
LH Thomas
L.H. Thomas (1903-1992, PhD Cambridge University 1927) is known by
physicists for the
Thomas Precession
(of the electron) and the
Thomas-Fermi-Dirac Model (the statistical model of the atom). One of
the world's foremost applied mathematicians, he was brought to Watson Lab in
1945 from Ohio State University as a "technician" since he did not seem to
fit into any existing job category, and was a appointed a full professor of
Physics at Columbia in 1946. That same year Thomas, Eckert,
and Herb Grosch were the first to teach for-credit
computer courses at Columbia -- or anywhere else! (Thomas taught Physics
228, Numerical Solution of Differential Equations.)
Thomas's influence at Watson Lab -- in physics,
mathematics, and machine design -- was so great that eventually Eckert thought
of the perfect job title for him on the organization chart: "L.H.
Thomas" [9]. While at Watson Lab he
invented core memory (in 1946) two years before
An Wang did
(but it was Wang's version that took
off) [9], and is also credited with
NORC's 3-address instruction
format [9]. He remained at Columbia
until 1968, when he moved on to North Carolina State University.
