Spring Puzzler

OK, here's one that even Gus Sainz may not instantly get (but he's welcome to try):

We now know, with near certainty, what was the first Master's thesis or Doctoral dissertation to be submitted in multiple copies that were made on a Xerox machine (the first commercial plain paper copier), rather than the previously-used carbon paper, thermal paper, or, rarely, photostats.

Identify the thesis or dissertation, and the year this happened.

First correct answer here gets one of my books: Bears' Guide, Not Your Mother's Cookbook, How to Repair Food, or The Prince and the Frog and the Princess and the Mole and the Prince and the Frog and.

 

SPRING????? Where?? I am looking out my window and see more snow falling....

and I have no idea about the puzzler, either

clint

 

That's because you're east of the Equator, Clint.

 

Clint...if it makes you feel any better, it snowed last night in Boston.


Bruce

 

I wish I knew

After looking aimlessly for the answer.....I give up. I wish I knew.......I would love to get my hands on Bear's Guide for a little R and R. Well, maybe next time.


drew

 

Hey, no lie, on April 5, we had the biggest snow of the year. I mean it just piled up everywhere. The town was practically shut down. Hadn't seen that all winter. I expected it to snow during this time of year, but not so much... oh well, it makes life interesting, anyway.

as to the puzzler, I still have no idea, but I will make a shot in the dark guess..

PhD dissertation from Loyola Marymount - title, "How Modern Technology Affects Educational Research."

clint

really, I have no idea at all, but just felt like making a guess so that SOMEONE would...

 

Just a guess: University of Rochester.

 

ooops,
supposed to have the year, also...
1968

 

John,

Here is my guess... for several reasons I think it was John Bardeen's dissertation entitled, Quantum theory of the work function, Princeton University, 1936.

Of course the first commercial Haloid/Xerox machine was not available until a year later; however, Carlson invented the process with Otto 10 years earlier. Anyway, it is a try...

Thanks,
John

 

That's a darned good answer, John. I wonder if it could be right, and if we could possibly know. Carlson apparently lugged his working model of an electrostatic copier around for many years before finding someone (Battelle Institute) willing to help bring it to market. He was turned down by IBM, RCA, and all the big guys, as impractical.

The first Xerox machine, the 914, nominally became available for lease in November 1959, although there were almost none out there until a few months into 1960.

 

John,

I got my dates a bit mixed up. I thought that Chester Carlson's first "Astoria" photocopy date was 1928. After I submitted my guess, I went to look for the facts and found that the date was 1938, two years after Bardeen's dissertation. My wishful thinking was based upon reading the biography of Bardeen, True Genius, which demonstrated his interest in photosensitive materials. I knew that he and Carlson were contemporaries, so my thought was there might be a connection.. oh well, on with the search for the correct answer. Hmm... what was the first university to own a photocopier?

Thanks,
John

 

Some clues may be found here? Maybe the first one is the answer?

THE IMPACT OF PHOTOCOPYING ON SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING. CLARKE, ROBERT FLANDERS, PHD. RUTGERS THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY - NEW BRUNSWICK, 1963

XEROX 720: A USE STUDY OF A COPIER IN A DEPARTMENTAL LIBRARY. SOULE, SUSAN GREENEBAUM, PHD. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, 1970.

 

THOSE are dissertations??? Sies.

 

That's because you're east of the Equator...

And west of the Pole.

 

Not a complete dissertation and no firm date (1959+). The person claims perhaps the first use of computer-printed material (statistical tables) in a dissertation; however, the printed material was first filmed and then "printed" by Xerox before inclusion in the dissertation.


"I was creating a standardized test and the norming tables were several hundred pages long. I had no desire to retype those tables for inclusion in my dissertation, but printers then used only pinfeed paper, not the 20-pound bond required by the university. I printed my tables on the computer, took them to the Xerox office in midtown Manhattan where they were transferred to microfilm, and then had the microfilm printed by Xerox on 20-pound bond. When the administration was assured by Xerox of the permanence of the ink, I was permitted to include the pages directly in my dissertation. To the best of my knowledge, that was the first dissertation at Columbia University and probably one of the first in the country printed by computer. What is today commonplace with a laser printer was then a major revolution. "

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/erm9911.html

 

Interesting find, Bill. But if Tannenbaum was a freshman in 1959, and his Xerographic output was done in graduate school, it surely was after the February 1960 copying of (tiny clue) an entire Master's thesis (tiny clue) on a Xerox 914 copier on the premises of PKL Advertising in New York (minuscule clue).

 

Given your background in advertising, the Bell & Howell connection to UMI, the doctorate earned in the mid 60's. I think it is John Bear, in the Parlor, with a Thesis!

Any connection?

John

 

More evidence my ursine friend... ?

M.J., Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, 1960 [Grade point average: 4.0]

John

 

The first part of my guess is that it was written by:

John Andrew Klempner ; )

I shall return with the title...

John

 

The second part of my best guess... A title published in 1960:

The interaction of orthographic and pictorial stimuli in producing meaning for children

published by a Berkeley Bear

Regards,
John