This film is an episode of ‘The Search’ a pioneering educational program that aired on CBS. This episode takes a look at the laboratories and plants that pioneered the development of automatic machines in 1954. It takes a tour through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, the Bell Laboratories in New York, and others locales. It is narrated by Charles Romine (:47). Professor Donald B. Campbell (:52) of MIT, is the leading authority on automatic machines and their processes. In North Grafton, Mass. the Wyman-Gordon Company’s ‘Big Squeeze’ machine (1:21). This was one of two of the largest hydraulic presses in the US which forged aluminum as well as magnesium parts (1:29). using a pressure of 18,000 tons (2:07). These performed only mechanical functions. The film turns to MIT with the FELIX robot searching for sunlight (3:24). Professor Wiener (3:56) explains that FELIX demonstrates how machines can use human senses such as sight. FELIX was able to perceive light similar to the way in which primitive animals do (5:13). Light is collected by photoelectric cells which move his rudder and steer him (5:29). Other machines, such as guided missiles and sonic torpedoes were already using human senses as when they were fired, they chased the sound of ships (5:49). In the MIT digital computer lab, Jay Forrester, the director (6:35) is seen with the Whirlwind (6:37). This computer was able to carry out 25,000 arithmetic operations per second (7:08). Researchers feed a mathematical equation in (7:13) that Whirlwind is able to solve in a fraction of a second (7:28). Whirlwind communicated responses through a recording on magnetic tape which controlled a typewriter (8:34) or by recording curves on a cathode ray tube face(8:47). Dr. Brown in the Electronic Engineering Department (9:32) explains the idea of feedback. A demonstration is conducted on an experimental rig (11:44) with a magnetic gyro compass that enables the vessel to adjust or correct its course through feedback (12:08). In weaponry, the radar signal is the feedback link to the nervous system of the missile (13:08). Dr. Claude Shannon of Bell Labs shows an experiment which is similar to that of the traditional mouse and maze experiment (14:41). The mouse is mechanical and controlled by a small computing machine that solves problems through trial and error and can remember the solutions that it found (15:03). The maze is adjusted so the mouse will be unfamiliar (15:28) and during the first test run, it takes the mouse 52 seconds and multiple errors to find the brass knob representing the cheese (15:53). On the second run, it takes 17 seconds without mistakes (17:24). Under the maze, the ‘brains’ of the mouse are pointed to (17:51). The magnetized mouse is drawn about by an electromagnet driven by two electronic motors and these are controlled by miniature computing machines (17:53). The second run was completed without error because the computing machine contains 50 relays that are like a memory for the machine (18:15). Bell conducted these tests in order to improve their own telephone service further, to study the general design principles of machines that can learn and to potentially better understand the human brain (18:41). In the Servomechanism laboratory, Dr. Pease and Mr. McDonough are seen who had worked on an automatic milling machine that could do a job that humans would take several days to complete in a matter of hours (19:27). It is controlled by a computer that receives information from the same type of tape as the Whirlwind (19:52). The electronic equipment controlling the motion of the machine (20:04). A demonstration follows of the machine spelling out CBS TV (20:39). Ford Motor Company engine plant was already using machinery that was operational with minimum human control (22:25) including automatic machines that grind crank shafts to predetermined dimensions (22:35). Dr. James Rhyne Killian, President of MIT, discusses automation as a threat to jobs (23:25). He states that oftentimes technology increases employment. Universities such as MIT will educate a new breed of professional (24:41). Produced by Irving Gitlin (25:26).

Whirlwind I was a Cold War-era vacuum tube computer developed by the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory for the U.S. Navy. It was among the first digital electronic computers that operated in real-time for output, not simply an electronic replacement of older mechanical systems.

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