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1964 Diary & Notes

Meanwhile at the IEE my involvement with Measurement was continuing. I had lunch with Lionel Golds (the electrical power measurement specialist) at his club, the Army and Navy. Lionel was trying to twist my arm over an IEE Measurement matter but I did not like his proposals or his methods. Then, at a meeting of the E1 Committee, there were developments in a planned discussion meeting entitled What is Measurement? which had been proposed at the November 1963 meeting of E1. The meeting was postponed from May to November 1964 and was to take the form of a Discussion opened by four speakers. I undertook to coordinate the meeting and J.R. Thompson agreed to write a report for the IEE News.   64b10 .

In April I wrote to Prof Oatley about teaching Electronic Measurement Techniques.  64d16 . A few days later I received a rather dampening reply from Prof. Oatley, claiming that he was not self satisfied. He said he had no faith in group discussion.

A meeting on Programmed Test Equipment - proposed but not discussed in September 1963 as a meeting on Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) - was now being planned for December 1964. Further to discussions at the February meeting of E1 two of the Committee members, Dr. C.H. Vincent & J.R. Thompson, visited me at M.I., as a result of which an IEE letter went out in my name inviting contributions to what was now called a Colloquium on Programmed Test Equipment and Techniques.  64c10 .

Plans for the various meetings were developed at the March meeting of E1.  64c18 . Early in November 1964 E1 met and progressed the meeting on Programmed Test Equipment and Techniques. A number of proposals for further open meetings on electronic measurements were accepted, including the teaching of the subject, J.R. Thompson proposing and undertaking that task.

In March I received a letter from the IEE Secretariat requesting my agreement to being nominated for membership of the Electronics Divisional Board from 1st October 1964.  64c17 . Progress! I had attended Board meetings as a representative of a local Group, then as Chairman of a Professional Group, then (currently) as a co-opted full member to fill a casual vacancy and now I was being put up for election as a full member, which would be for the next 3 or 4 years. I agreed to the request.

In April a letter from the IEE was circulated inviting members to a Popov Society meeting in Moscow under the auspices of the USSR Academy of Sciences.  64d09 . I did not regard attendance at such a meeting as falling within my M.I. remit so did not respond to the invitation.

In April I started the process of applying for full Corporate Membership of the IEE. For many years I had been an Associate Member. I first wrote to Sir Gordon Radley asking, if he felt I was worthy of the honour, if he would be prepared to propose me for full membership of the IEE.  64d16 . Sir Gordon had been IEE President in 1956 (in succession to Sir George Nelson Bt., who became 1st Baron Nelson of Stafford) so he was a good person to have on one's side. By return Sir Gordon replied that he would be "very pleased indeed" to propose me and "will gladly sign" the form. 

I had asked J.A. Ratcliffe CB, CBE, FEng, FRS, who became President in 1966, if he was willing to be my seconder and he replied that he would be "of course, be very glad to propose" my application to become Member grade of IEE. 

Ray Burnett had agreed to be one of my supporters. Dr. P. Dunsheath C.B.E. (IEE President in 1945) also signed as a supporter as did Nat Hiller, who I regarded as the IEE's man in Cambridge.

All the necessary Application papers were sent to the IEE in mid-June and on 2nd November 1964 the IEE wrote saying that I was now a Member.  Soon that grade of membership came to be called Fellow.  64k02 .

At a 1963 meeting of the Electronics Divisional Board shortly after he took over as its Chairman, Dr. R.C.G. Williams, a Phillips executive, asked for ideas on how to put the IEE more firmly on the Electronics map. On 9th March 1964 I wrote to him suggesting that Electronics Design might fulfil this purpose.  This was a revival of an earlier interest - when on 6th October 1960 I delivered my Address as Chairman of the Cambridge Electronics and Measurements Group, I had chosen to speak on the then highly unusual topic of Design Processes for Electronic Equipment, i.e. how such equipment comes into being. 

Bob Williams reacted favourably to the idea and as a result I wrote a paper (EL/P(64)P) outlining the idea, which went before the Board a month later, together with a strong supporting paper by a Mr. R.E. Young.  64d08 . The proposal went, in the face of some opposition, through the IEE mill. Another paper of mine, Electronics Design - Further Explanatory Notes [EL(64)15M], was produced by the IEE and went before the Board  64f30  and by July 1964 it had been agreed that an ad hoc Committee on Electronics Design should be set up under my chairmanship.

On 26th May an IEE letter was sent out in my name to R. Knowles, MOD Whitehall, inviting him to contribute to the IEE Colloquium on Programmed Test Equipment and Techniques scheduled for December 1964. He was asked to reply to me as Chairman of IEE Professional Group E1 c/o M.I. but to let Dr. C.H. Vincent have a copy of his synopsis.  64e26 . On 25th June, R Knowles wrote saying he would be delighted to make such a contribution.  64f25  .

In July 1964, J.R. Thompson and I visited Charlie Vincent at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment to progress the Colloquium on Programmed Test Equipment. On 7th August Dr. C. Vincent reported that the Programmed Test Equipment and Techniques Colloquium would include contributions by Fuchs, Trim, Knowles, and Walton.  64h07 .  

Various names had been suggested for membership of the Committee and I contacted them and in some cases met them, e.g. Peter E.M. Sharp at the IEE, W.D. (Bill) Mallinson at Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment, Portsdown) and David Marples (one of the very few worldwide who had published a paper on Design Processes) at King's College, Cambridge. In this way the Committee took shape.

At some point in this preparatory period it was suggested that the Committee should organise a Conference on Electronics Design at Savoy Place in February 1965. I explored ahead of the first meeting of the Committee some ideas for such a Conference, in the course of which followed up a suggestion by Joe Regan, who was servicing the Committee, that I should write to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh asking if he would open it.

On 26th August 1964 Rear Admiral Bonham Carter, Private Secretary to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh wrote from Buckingham Palace in response to the invitation to open the Conference on Electronics Design.  64h26 . The reply was reported to the Committee at its first meeting on 14th September (Minute 9). 

The IEE Secretary - George Gainsborough - later told me he had composed the letter for the Private Secretary but it soon became clear that the communication was not limited to the two Secretariats.

Other matters considered by the Committee at its meeting on 14th September were papers on Design by W.D. Mallinson (ASWE) [EDC(64)1] & R.E. Young [EDC(64)2].   64i14 .

The Conference was progressed at further meetings of the Committee on Electronics Design which took place on 12th October  64j12  and 16th November  64k16 . There were discussions out of the Committee e.g. with one Committee member, Ian Ross, Director of Ether Langham Thompson and Professor M.R. Gavin.

It had been agreed that MIT would be invited to send a speaker and as a result I corresponded with a T.J. Allen over the title and scope of the contribution.

The Measurement side of my IEE activities had proceeded apace. There had been one or changes in arrangements for the What is Measurement? meeting - it was now a Joint Divisional rather than an E1 meeting and, borrowing an idea from the 6-speaker meetings I had arranged at the Cavendish Laboratory, it now had 4 openers - Paul Vigoureux, A.C. Lynch, Ludwig Finkelstein & Geoffrey Gouriet.  Synopses of their contributions were provided in a paper made available before the meeting. 

At the request of the IEE Secretariat I wrote a General Announcement item for IEE News and, provoked by a remark that very few members would be interested in the meeting, I asked for a little descriptive material to be added to the usually plain poster distributed ahead of the meeting, as follows:-

"Four distinguished engineers have different but not necessarily conflicting views .....".