We All Still Love You Harry 

                                                                Love at first Sight

     Harry was all but hypnotized by the spinning tape reels, the "whirring" sound, and the clutch and brake arrangement that would stop the tape and reverse its direction and stop it again and reverse it again without snapping and breaking the tape. It would bounce on its springs and gently grab a section of tape where it ran on and would have spilled over without the apparatus that caught it and allowed it to rewind and flow in the opposite direction. This was how pieces of data were located and copied and used on the huge computing machine. Harry was one of the students of his Junior High School Class that had gone on a class trip to see the ENIAC - the world's first electronic computer.  

     Years before - perhaps thousands of years before, scrolls of inked holy scripture were read by special people who understood how to read and recited at prayer meetings. it added to the mystery of language and its power. Imagine the changes that ensued centuries later when pages were printed and sewn and glued into books. People could leaf through hundreds of pages and find the sections they were interested in. This, of course, soon became commonplace and schools with desks were built for classes of students to use and learn from books. Lessons had to be prepared and many references in many books had to be used. Systems of data storage had been arranged into libraries. Large buildings with perhaps thousands, tens of thousands, even more, of books. Catalogs with special number systems to help people find the books and references they needed. This was all being done by machine right in front of Harry, and he knew that was happening even though he was only twelve years old. Imagine.

     And now you're reading something that has been recorded on a close to molecular sized slab of silicon - an entire huge library of data that took a huge building to store and now fits easily into your shirt pocket. Harry did this. Well he did actually do this. He dreamt this when he worked at Univac, Div. of Sperry Rand, at Blue Bell, PA. His job at the time was to check the magnetic properties of fine copper wire that was being plated with ferromagnetic material - actually iron, and then nickel. The wire was used to record and hold a magnetic polarity. It was either north or south polarized and it could be read with another magnetic sensor. Simple in theory, but it had to hold it's magnetic force - like ink on a page, that can't run or fade - it had to be "clear" enough to be read easily. This was Harry's job. Just one job, but as important as any other in manufacturing the RAM (random access memory) for their newer computers. These were much easier to use and much more convenient than all those whirring large magnetic tapes you see. Harry had dreamt all this and worked at it too and he did it because it fascinated him. That's why he did it and that's why so many people became interested in it. libraries were actually fine - for a while anyhow. As a matter of fact, so was sitting around the fire once in a while and talking about hunting deer and the weather and singing songs, but Harry really loved dreaming about how people remembered things and how their faces would light up when they told stories.; Harry loved people and he was fascinated by how they remembered things. He invented writing. He watched people respond to pictures of things and it warmed him to see them smile at the recognition of symbols. He dreamt about this. You see? People loved him for this and made a place for him to enjoy himself. Their minds were already perfect. They remembered everything they ever experience in any detail anyone would require. They simply liked Harry's enthusiasm as much as he liked their stories. What you're reading now is largely because of Harry's inventions. See?