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ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL PICTURES

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GRAHAM BELL SPEAKING IN PROTOTYPE PHONE

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BELL SPEAKING INTO PROTOTYPE TELEPHONE

Bell speaking into prototype telephone

1876 PHONE

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ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL USED THIS PHONE IN1876

GEAHAM BELL OPENING FIRST WIRE LINE ,IN 1892

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Alexander Graham Bell at the opening of the long-distance line from New York to Chicago, 1892.

Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone

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Alexander Graham Bell constructed this prototype telephone in 1875. The device consists of a coil of wire, a magnetic arm and a taut membrane. Any sound causes the membrane, and hence the magnetic arm, to vibrate. The movement of the magnet induces a fluctuating electric current in the coil. This electrical signal can be reconverted into sound by an identical apparatus at the other end of the circuit.

GRAHAM BELL FIRST PHONE PICTURE

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ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL PICTURE IN 1876

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ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL BIOGRAPHY

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In 1876, at the age of 29, Alexander Graham Bell invented his TELEPHONE. In 1877, he formed the Bell Telephone Company, and in the same year married Mabel Hubbard and embarked on a yearlong honeymoon in Europe.

Alexander Graham Bell might easily have been content with the success of his telephone invention. His many laboratory notebooks demonstrate, however, that he was driven by a genuine and rare intellectual curiosity that kept him regularly searching, striving, and wanting always to learn and to create. He would continue to test out new ideas through a long and productive life. He would explore the realm of communications as well as engage in a great variety of scientific activities involving kites, airplanes, tetrahedral structures, sheep-breeding, artificial respiration, desalinization and water distillation, and hydrofoils.

With the enormous technical and later financial success of his telephone invention, Alexander Graham Bell's future was secure, and he was able to arrange his life so that he could devote himself to his scientific interests. Toward this end, in 1881, he used the $10,000 award for winning France's Volta Prize to set up the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C. A believer in scientific teamwork, Bell worked with two associates, his cousin Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter, at the Volta Laboratory. Their experiments soon produced such major improvements in Thomas Edison's phonograph that it became commercially viable. After 1885, when he first visited Nova Scotia, Bell set up another laboratory there at his estate, Beinn Bhreagh (pronounced Ben Vreeah), near Baddeck, where he would assemble other teams of bright young engineers to pursue new and exciting ideas.

Among one of his first innovations after the telephone was the "PHOTOPHONE," a device that enabled sound to be transmitted on a beam of light. Bell and his assistant, Charles Sumner Tainter, developed the photophone using a sensitive selenium crystal and a mirror that would vibrate in response to a sound. In 1881, they successfully sent a photophone message over 200 yards from one building to another. Bell regarded the photophone as "the greatest invention I have ever made; greater than the telephone." Alexander Graham Bell's invention reveals the principle upon which today's LASER and FIBEROPTIC communication systems are founded, though it would take the development of several modern technologies to realize it fully.

Alexander Graham Bell
Sketch of a vacuum jacket in use.

Over the years, Alexander Graham Bell's curiosity would lead him to speculate on the nature of heredity, first among the deaf and later with sheep born with genetic irregularities. His sheep-breeding experiments at Beinn Bhreagh sought to increase the numbers of twin and triplet births. Bell was also willing to attempt inventing under the pressure of daily events, and in 1881 he hastily constructed an electromagnetic device called an induction balance to try and locate a bullet lodged in President Garfield after an assassin had shot him. He later improved this and produced a device called a telephone probe, which would make a telephone receiver click when it touched metal. That same year, Bell's newborn son, Edward, died from respiratory problems, and Bell responded to that tragedy by designing a metal vacuum jacket that would facilitate breathing. This apparatus was a forerunner of the iron lung used in the 1950s to aid polio victims. In addition to inventing the audiometer to detect minor hearing problems and conducting experiments with what today are called energy recycling and alternative fuels, Bell also worked on methods of removing salt from seawater.

Photograph of the
Silver Dart

However, these interests may be considered minor activities compared to the time and effort he put into the challenge of flight. By the 1890s, Bell had begun experimenting with propellers and kites. His work led him to apply the concept of the tetrahedron (a solid figure with four triangular faces) to kite design as well as to create a new form of architecture. In 1907, four years after the WRIGHT BROTHERS first flew at Kitty Hawk, Bell formed the Aerial Experiment Association with Glenn Curtiss, William "Casey" Baldwin, Thomas Selfridge, and J.A.D. McCurdy, four young engineers whose common goal was to create airborne vehicles. By 1909, the group had produced four powered aircraft, the best of which, the Silver Dart, made the first successful powered flight in Canada on February 23, 1909. Bell spent the last decade of his life improving hydrofoil designs, and in 1919 he and Casey Baldwin built a hydrofoil that set a world water-speed record that was not broken until 1963. Months before he died, Bell told a reporter, "There cannot be mental atrophy in any person who continues to observe, to remember what he observes, and to seek answers for his unceasing hows and whys about things.

The History of Radio

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Military Use and Patent Control

When the United States entered the first world war in 1917, all radio development was controlled by the U.S. Navy to prevent its possible use by enemy spies. The U.S. government took over control of all patents related to radio technology.

In 1919, after the government released its control of all patents, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was established with the purpose of distributing control of the radio patents that had been restricted during the war.

Radio Speaks

The first time the human voice was transmitted by radio is debateable. Claims to that distinction range from the phase, "Hello Rainey" spoken by Natan B. Stubblefield to a test partner near Murray, Kentucky, in 1892, to an experimental program of talk and music by Re Ginald A. fessenden, in 1906, which was heard by radio-equipped ships within several hundred miles.

Reginald A. Fessenden

Canadian, Reginald,Fessenden is best known for his invention of the modulation of radio waves and the fathometer. Fessenden worked as as a chemist for Thomas Edison during the 1880s and later for Westinghouse. Fessenden started his own company where he invented the modulation of radio waves, the "heterodyne principle" which allowed the reception and transmission on the same aerial without interference.

True Broadcasting Begins

In 1915, speech was first transmitted across the continent from New York City to San Francisco and across the Atlantic Ocean from Naval radio station NAA at Arlington, Virginia, to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

On November 2, 1920, Westinghouse's KDKA-Pittsburgh broadcast the Harding-Cox election returns and began a daily schedule of radio programs.

The first ship-to-shore two way radio conversation occurred in 1922, between Deal Beach, New Jersey, and the S.S. America, 400 miles at sea. However, it was not until 1929 that high seas public radiotelephone service was inaugurated. At that time telephone contact could be made only with ships within 1,500 miles of shore. Today there is the ability to telephone nearly every large ship wherever it may be on the globe.

Commercial radiotelephony linking North America with Europe was opened in 1927, and with South America three years later. In 1935 the first telephone call was made around the world, using a combination of wire and radio circuits.

FM Radio

Edwin Howard Asmstrong invented frequency-modulated or FM radio in 1933. FM improved the audio signal of radio by controlling the noise static caused by electrical equipment and the earth's atmosphe. Until 1936, all American transatlantic telephone communication had to be routed through England. In that year, a direct radiotelephone circuit was opened to Paris. Telephone connection by radio and cable is now accessible with 187 foreign points.

Radio technology has grown significantly since its early development. In 1947, Bell Labs scientists invented the transister. In 1954, a then small Japanese company called Sony introduced the transistor radio.

FM Antenna System

In 1965, the first Master FM Antena System in the world designed to allow individual FM stations to broadcast simultaneously from one source was erected on the Empire State Building in NYC.

The Invention of Radio

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Radio owes its development to two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone, all three technologies are closely related. Radio technology began as "wireless telegraphy".

Radio can refer to either the electronic appliance that we listen with or the content listened to. However, it all started with the discovery of "radio waves" - electromagnetic waves that have the capacity to transmit music, speech, pictures and other data invisibly through the air. Many devices work by using electromagnetic waves including: radio, microwaves, cordless phones, remote controlled toys, television broadcasts, and more.

The Roots of Radio

During the 1860s, Scottish physicist, James clerk maxwell predicted the existence of radio waves; and in 1886, German physicist, Heinrich Rudolph Hertz demonstrated that rapid variations of electric current could be projected into space in the form of radio waves similar to those of light and heat.

In 1866, Mahlon loomis, an American dentist, successfully demonstrated "wireless telegraphy." Loomis was able to make a meter connected to one kite cause another one to move, marking the first known instance of wireless aerial communication.

Guglielmo Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor, proved the feasibility of radio communication. He sent and received his first radio signal in Italy in 1895. By 1899 he flashed the first wireless signal across the English Channel and two years later received the letter "S", telegraphed from England to Newfoundland. This was the first successful transatlantic radiotelegraph message in 1902.

Nikola Tesla

In addition to Marconi, two of his contemporaries Nikola Tesla and Nathan Stufflefield took out patents for wireless radio transmitters. Nikola Tesla is now credited with being the first person to patent radio technology; the Supreme Court overturned Marconi's patent in 1943 in favor of Tesla.

Growth of Radio - Radiotelegraph and Spark-Gap Transmitters

Radio-telegraphy is the sending by radio waves the same dot-dash message (morse code) used in a telegraph. Transmitters at that time were called spark-gap machines. It was developed mainly for ship-to-shore and ship-to-ship communication. This was a way of communicating between two points, however, it was not public radio broadcasting as we know it today.

Wireless signals proved effective in communication for rescue work when a sea disaster occurred. A number of ocean liners installed wireless equipment. In 1899 the United States Army established wireless communications with a lightship off Fire Island, New York. Two years later the Navy adopted a wireless system. Up to then, the Navy had been using visual signaling and homing pigeons for communication.

In 1901, radiotelegraph service was instituted between five Hawaiian Islands. By 1903, a Marconi station located in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, carried an exchange or greetings between President Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII. In 1905 the naval battle of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese war was reported by wireless, and in 1906 the U.S. Weather Bureau experimented with radiotelegraphy to speed notice of weather conditions.

In 1909, Robert E. Peary, arctic explorer, radiotelegraphed: "I found the Pole". In 1910 Marconi opened regular American-European radiotelegraph service, which several months later, enabled an escaped British murderer to be apprehended on the high seas. In 1912, the first transpacific radiotelegraph service linked San Francisco with Hawaii.

Improvements to Radio Transmitters

Overseas radiotelegraph service developed slowly, primarily because the initial radiotelegraph transmitter discharged electricity within the circuit and between the electrodes was unstable causing a high amount of interference. The Alexanderson high-frequency alternator and the deforest tube resolved many of these early technical problems.

Lee DeForest - AM Radio

Lee Deforest invented space telegraphy, the triode amplifier and the Audion. In the early 1900s, the great requirement for further development of radio was an efficient and delicate detector of electromagnetic radiation. Lee De Forest provided that detector. It made it possible to amplify the radio frequency signal picked up by the antenna before application to the receiver detector; thus, much weaker signals could be utilized than had previously been possible. De Forest was also the person who first used the word "radio".

The result of Lee DeForest's work was the invention of amplitude-modulated or AM radio that allowed for a multitude of radio stations. The earlier spark-gap transmitters did not allow for this.

Guglielmo Marconi inside the station

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Guglielmo Marconi inside the station at St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, after receiving the first transatlantic wireless signal.

GUGLIELMO MARCONI PICTURE ( RADIO INVENTOR)

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guglielmo marconi (radio inventor)

Just Who Invented Radio And Which Was The First Station?

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If you ask most people who invented Radio, the name Marconi comes to mind. Usually KDKA Pittsburgh is the response when you ask about the first Radio station. But are these really Radio's firsts? In the interest of curiosity and good journalism, we set out to determine if these were in fact Radio's firsts.

Of course, as with a rating book, almost anyone can find a place where they rank higher than someone else in something. Such is the case with the inventors of Radio and the first Radio stations. Was the inventor of Radio the person who discovered that electromagnetic waves could be sent through the air, or the person
who actually sent them? Was it the person who sent signals the farthest, or who sent the first with voice? Was the first station the first one to be licensed, or was it the first licensed experimental station? The answers aren't easy.

Wireless itself is relatively broad. Within the wireless category are many subcategories and industries of which Radio broadcasting is just one, as is wireless telegraph, wireless ship-to-shore communication, and so on.

To go back to the development of wireless we must first track events leading up to the discovery of electricity. Though some documentation goes further back, electricity as a science began in 1600 when Dr. William Gilbert, who was Queen Elizabeth's personal physician, invented the electroscope which detected electromagnetic energy in the body. He coined the word electricity. From that point forward many people had their hand in the development of electricity. Sir Thomas Browne, Benjamin Franklin, Alessandro Volta and Georg Simon Ohm among others. For brevitys sake, we'll look at wireless after electricity was invented.

Exploring Wireless

The real interest in wireless began with Samuel F. Morse's invention of the telegraph in 1837, which required wires (a very expensive proposition). In 1867 a Scottish mathematician, James Clerk Maxwell, conceived of the electromagnetic theory of light. This theory holds that light, electric waves and magnetic waves, of varying frequency, travel through the same medium ether. Maxwell was never able to prove the theory.

In 1865 a Washington, D.C. dentist, Dr. Mahlon Loomis, explored wireless. He developed a method of transmitting and receiving messages using the Earth's atmosphere as a conductor. Loomis sent up kites 18 miles apart from two West Virginia mountaintops. The kites were covered with a copper screen and were (1)connected to the ground with copper wires. The wire from each kite string was connected to one side of a galvanometer; the other side was held by Loomis, who was ready to make a connection to a coil buried in the Earth. The receiving station connection, between the meter and the coil buried in the Earth, was always closed, and whenever the circuit was closed at the transmitting end, the galvanometer at the receiving station actually dipped. Congress then awarded Loomis a $50,000 research grant.

In 1879 David Edward Hughes discovered that when a stick of wood covered with powdered copper was placed in an electrical circuit, the copper would adhere when a spark was made. In 1885 Sir William H. Peerce and A.W. Heaviside sent signals to one another at a distance of 1,000 yards with two parallel telegraph lines and an unwired telephone receiver in the middle. This was the discovery of induction, or crosstalk.

The real experiments leading to Radios discovery started with Heinrich Hertz in 1887. Some call him the father of Radio because his experiments created interest by Marconi. Radio waves were commonly called Hertzian Waves in the early days. Hertz studied Maxwell's theories and in attempting to develop further data, actually set up the first spark transmitter and receiver. The transmitter consisted of a Leyden jar and a coil of wire, the ends of which were left open so that a small gap was formed. For the receiver he used a similar coil at the opposite end of the room. When the jar was charged, sparks flew across the gap and were received on the other end. Hertz then measured the velocity of the waves and found they were the same as light, 186,000 miles per second.

In 1892 a French inventor, Edouard Branly, created a tube containing loose zinc and silver filings, with contact plugs on each end. The shavings would stick together after the first spark was received; a method of separating them for the next signal was necessary. Popov, a Russian, came up with the idea of using a vibrator and the hammer of an electric bell to strike the tube and cause the filings to separate.

Tesla, Marconi and Stubblefield

In 1893 a Serbian, Nikola Tesla, suggested a means of conduction using the Earth. He invented the Tesla coil which created high frequency oscillations. In 1895 Marconi experimented with Hertzian waves and was able to send and receive messages over a mile and a quarter. He made great strides when he created transmission between two ships 12 miles apart. He then solicited and secured investors for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph company, the first to commercialize wireless. He was 23. By 1899 he had covered distances of 74 miles. In 1899 he adopted Sir Oliver Lodge's principles of tuning circuits, perfecting them and obtaining a patent in 1900. In December 1901 when Marconi sent the first transatlantic signal, inventor H. Otis Pond told Tesla, "Looks like Marconi got the jump on you." Tesla replied, "Marconi is a good fellow, let him continue. He is using 17 of my patents." Tesla's attitude toward Marconi later changed after years of litigation between them. Tesla later referred to Marconi as "a donkey."

Tesla had come up with something different and superior to that of Hertz's original ideas. He developed a series of high frequency alternators producing frequencies up to 33,000 cycles per second (33,000 Hz). This, of course, was the forerunner to high frequency alternators used for continuous wave Radio communication. Tesla went on to build the Tesla coil, an air-core transformer with primary and secondary coils tuned to resonate a step-up transformer which converts low-voltage high current to high-voltage low current at high frequencies. It is used today in all Radios and televisions.

In 1892, a Kentucky farmer and inventor, Nathan Stubblefield, publicly demonstrated wireless. Not only did he broadcast signals, but he also was able to broadcast voice and music. He demonstrated wireless again in 1898 to a documented (by The St. Louis Dispatch) distance of 500 yards. He demonstrated a ship-to-shore broadcast on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., on March 20, 1902, and received patent number 887,357 for wireless telephone on May 12, 1908. Stubblefield was so afraid that someone would steal his invention, he sheltered it from everyone. He had been offered $500,000 for his invention but turned it down because he felt it was worth more. Stubblefield envisioned the device in motorcars (as shown on his patent). Following another demonstration in Washington his "secret box" with his apparatus inside was stolen (documented February 13, 1912) and he believed his invention was copied. Nathan B. Stubblefield died of starvation and a pauper in Murray, Kentucky, after going into seclusion because of his failed attempts for acceptance.

Fessenden, De Forest & Fleming

In 1900, Professor Reginald A. Fessenden realized that Marconi's work was limited to telegraphy and wanted to find a way to transmit and receive telephony (voice). He began experimenting with continuous wave transmissions which led to the perfection of the arc transmitter. He also developed an alternator, similar to todays alternating current, with a higher frequency and thus eliminated the spark gaps which wasted energy. His work was to become a major milestone in the development of Radio. Simultaneously Lee De Forest built a wireless outfit, also less cumbersome than Marconi's. He used the electrolytic detector as did Fessenden, which later created legal conflicts between the two. (De Forest spent years in litigation with many other inventors and was often accused of taking credit for the inventions of others).

In 1904 J. Ambrose Fleming developed his two-element (diode) valve (The Fleming Valve) while working for Marconi. Though significant, the invention was short-lived due to De Forest's invention of a three-element (triode) valve, which later became the audion tube, said to be the most significant invention in Radio. Unfortunately DeForest could not interest the public in buying stock in his company and he was forced to sell the rights to the American Telephone and Telegraph company for $500,000. The decision made by AT&T was thought to be foolish at the time, but later proved to be the investment that made the company.

On Christmas Eve in 1906 Fessenden delighted listeners up and down the East Coast by broadcasting voice and music from his transmitter at Brant Park, Massachusetts, using a high frequency alternator based on Teslas designs and principles. The program consisted of music from phonograph records, a violin solo, and a speech by the inventor. Fessendens program did not prove to be a pioneering effort, however. For several years Radio remained a communications medium devoted to sending and receiving messages. It proved especially valuable to the armed forces during World War I. The broadcasting potential was not realized until after the war, though David Sarnoff in 1916 envisioned the possibility of a Radio receiver in every home. (He later became head of the Radio Corporation of America and the National Broadcasting Company.) In 1907 G.W. Pickard discovered that minerals made an excellent detector which led to the invention of the crystal detector. It was not only effective but inexpensive which made the availability of wireless receivers more widespread.

The Radio Act of 1912

In 1910 the government required all ships to have a wireless telegraph. In 1912 the Titanic hit an iceberg and sent the first SOS signal which was heard by a nearby ship that came to the rescue of many survivors. It was later learned that another ship was closer, which would have resulted in more lives being saved, but that ship only had one wireless operator on board who happened to be "off-watch" at the time the Titanic went down. That resulted in the Radio Act of 1912, requiring that two operators be employed on all ships with constant watch. When the Titanic sunk, a young wireless operator was stationed at the Wanamaker Radio station in New York City to receive signals between the distressed ship and its rescuers, reports about the rescue work, and a list of the survivors so that the anxious world could be advised. This kid stayed at the telegraph for 72 hours. His name... David Sarnoff. It was this event that made the public aware of the importance of the wireless.

In 1913 Edwin H. Armstrong (who much later invented FM Radio) created a way to increase the sensitivity of receivers. This regeneration system ended up in litigation with De Forest who claimed he was the inventor. Ultimately De Forest prevailed. De Forest also continued to perfect the audion tube he had sold to AT&T. It now had the ability to function as an oscillator (generator of high frequencies). This led to the oscillator circuit created by W.E. Hartley. The result was improved long-distance transmission of speech, the forerunner of Radio broadcasting.

The First Stations

In 1916 an amateur operator and engineer for Westinghouse Electric began broadcasting programs from his garage on amateur station 8XK in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. The broadcasts were enthusiastically received by other Radio amateurs who liked hearing wireless music. The broadcasts resulted in a newspaper article which generated such interest, that Westinghouse decided to build a station for the purpose of broadcasting. The station, KDKA, was rushed to launch its first broadcast for the election returns of the Harding-Cox presidential race. It was the first programming to reach a sizable audience (perhaps 1,000 persons mainly ham and amateur Radio operators). The returns were read by Leo Rosenberg, who later claimed to be the first professional Radio announcer. KDKA also hired the first full-time announcer Harold W. Arlin, who became the first sportscaster to do play-by-play football. The newspapers (2,000 across the country) having not yet realized that they were promoting a competitor, were so enamored with the medium that they printed daily broadcast schedules. KDKA broadcast the first remote, the first religious service, the first broadcast from a theater, and the first prizefight, all in 1921.

The first commercial was claimed to be sent out over WEAF in New York City in 1922, however that is disputed because in KDKAs initial broadcasts announcers mentioned a record store in exchange for records to play on the air, as did KQW announcers in San Jose, California. (It's interesting to note that Westinghouse, which owned KDKA, was founded by George Westinghouse, the first owner of an electric company to employ the principles of alternating current. These principles were obtained through a relationship with Nikola Tesla who held the patent, and also had the patent on wireless transmission.)

But was KDKA the first station? Though its November 2, 1920 debut is considered the official start of Radio broadcasting, others were doing the same prior to KDKA. Earlier that same year, in Detroit, WWJ using call letters 8MK began regular broadcasts. And much earlier, in 1912, Charles David Herrold began regular, continuous broadcasts of music and information in San Jose. The amateur station was well-known around the Bay area. It eventually became KQW and then KCBS.

In 1913 the physics department at Iowa State University began wireless demonstrations and is documented by a newspaper article to have done one such demonstration at the Iowa State Fair in 1915. It became station 9YI and later WOI. With groundwork dating back to 1904, the University of Wisconsin in Madison experimented with voice and music transmission in 1917. Their calls were 9XM, and later WHA.

Radio's Father

So who was the father of Radio? We have credited Marconi traditionally, however there is much doubt that he is the true father of Radio. He was very industrious, highly inventive, and had the strongest and most successful entrepreneurial spirit of any of Radio's fathers. He made excellent commercial applications for wireless telegraphy. However our exhaustive research points to the father of Radio as Nikola Tesla who had disclosed wireless and the technology at a lecture in 1893, preceding Marconi's wireless inventions and practical demonstrations. In fact, a Supreme Court case in 1943 ruled that Tesla was the father of Radio. Marconi's first patent was issued in 1900 and Tesla's in 1898.

But what about Nathan Stubblefield who had demonstrated wireless in 1892? If you go to the town square in Murray, Kentucky, you'll find a statue of Stubblefield inscribed with the words "Murray, Kentucky, Birthplace of Radio" Could it be that a forward-thinking albeit eccentric farmer from Kentucky outwitted the intellects of Tesla, Marconi, Edison (who once worked on wireless experiments and also won a suit against Marconi for patent infringement) and others? You will recall that after being very protective of his proprietary knowledge, Stubblefield's apparatus was stolen following a demonstration in Washington, D.C. Could it have surfaced as someone else's invention? Documents prove his early demonstrations of an actual working wireless system to have occurred one year before Tesla's lectures about Radio which were prior to his working experiments. No one will ever know for sure. The Supreme Court ruled that Tesla is the father of Radio ... and Marconi is not. The question remains whether the honor should really go to Stubblefield.

Martin Cooper - History of Cell Phone Martin Cooper talks about the first cell phone call.

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Martin Cooper demonstrates the first portable cellular telephone.

April 3, 2003 marked the 30th anniversary of the first public telephone call placed on a portable cellular phone. Martin Cooper ( now chairman, CEO, and co-founder of ArrayComm Inc) placed that call on April 3, 1973, while general manager of Motorola's Communications Systems Division. It was the incarnation of his vision for personal wireless communications, distinct from cellular car phones. That first call, placed to Cooper's rival at AT&T's Bell Labs from the streets of New York City, caused a fundamental technology and communications market shift toward the person and away from the place.

"People want to talk to other people - not a house, or an office, or a car. Given a choice, people will demand the freedom to communicate wherever they are, unfettered by the infamous copper wire. It is that freedom we sought to vividly demonstrate in 1973," said Martin Cooper.

Martin Cooperadded, "As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren't cordless telephones, let alone cellular phones. I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter - probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life."

Following the April 3, 1973, public demonstration, using a "brick"-like 30-ounce phone, Cooper started the 10-year process of bringing the portable cell phone to market. Motorola introduced the 16-ounce "DynaTAC" phone into commercial service in 1983, with each phone costing the consumer $3,500. It took seven additional years before there were a million subscribers in the United States. Today, there are more cellular subscribers than wireline phone subscribers in the world, with mobile phones weighing as little as 3 ounces.

Martin Cooper Today

Martin Cooper's role in conceiving and developing the first portable cellular phone directly impacted his choice to found and lead ARRAY COMM, a wireless technology and systems company founded in 1992. ArrayComm's core adaptive antenna technology increases the capacity and coverage of any cellular system, while significantly lowering costs and making speech more reliable. This technology addresses what Cooper calls "the unfulfilled promise" of cellular, which should be, but still isn't as reliable or affordable as wired telephony.

ArrayComm has also used its adaptive antenna technology to make the Internet "personal" by creating the i-BURST Personal Broadband System, which delivers high-speed, mobile Internet access that consumers can afford.

"It's very exciting to be part of a movement toward making broadband available to people with the same freedom to be anywhere that they have for voice communications today," said Martin Cooper. "People rely heavily on the Internet for their work, entertainment and communication, but they need to be unleashed. We will look back at 2003 as the beginning of the era when the Internet became truly untethered."

Martin Cooper ( cell phone inventor)

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Martin Coope

The entire telecommunications industry will be restructured within the next couple of years, the father of the cellular phone says. And if you still do business the old-fashioned way, you will be left in the wake of wireless turbulence.

As a witness to how the major long-haul carriers now scramble to provide wireless, Martin Cooper, chairman, CEO and co-founder of ArrayComm Inc. says the industry is moving away from technological divisions and more into the area of perceived service.

"The divisions we made in the past, like local, long distance, analog or digital are disappearing, if they haven't disappeared already," says Cooper. "There is hardly analog left anywhere. It is now voice as data, and there are different kinds of data."

Vital Stats

Title: Chairman/CEO
Hobbies: Running, skiing, swimming, kayaking.
Philosophical belief: There is no lack of spectrum, only a lack of spectral efficiency.
Membership: Radio Club of America.
Accolades: Has been granted six patents in the communications field; widely published on various aspects of communications technology and management of research and development; RCR/CTIA Wireless Hall of Fame; Red Herring magazine's Top 10 Entrepreneurs of 2000.

Because of this, Cooper says wireless--and especially his newest endeavor at ArrayComm--is an opportunity that will revolutionize telecom today and tomorrow, just as his cell phone began changing calling habits in the 1970s.

Cooper adds that carriers, resellers and independent agents can claim a stake in this future, if they are concerned about personal communications services.

"And they certainly will have to be concerned, because eventually all services will be wireless," says Cooper. "I'm not just speaking about voice. I'm speaking of all data. When the Internet grows up, most Internet services are going to be wireless."

But first, wireless must mature, he says.

"Everybody I know has been on a cell phone call and will say, 'Let's finish this call on a real phone.' There is no fundamental reason wireless can't be as good as wireline," Cooper insists.

So the man who is credited for creating the cell phone in 1973 while working for Motorola Inc. and who lives by the principle that "There is no lack of spectrum, only a lack of spectral efficiency" has a new technology that he believes will once again shake up telecom dramatically.

Many people might be satisfied with one gigantic accomplishment in a lifetime. Cooper was not.

"Think about what the alternative is," says the 71-year-old. "You could sit around talking about the past and boring people to death, or you can keep active and be where the action is. Your mind and body have similar attributes. If you stop using your mind and body, they atrophy. That is why I run six miles every other day. I lift weights for 20 minutes on the days I run.

"To keep up with these smart alecs, you have to keep yourself exercised and persuade yourself to stay younger."

Cooper is credited as a co-founder of ArrayComm--his fifth startup. The "technical" founder is one of those "smart alecs" who sought out Cooper nine years ago at the suggestion of Arnaud Saffari, the company's executive vice president. Saffari heard a concept from a "techie," and told him no one would listen to him unless he could convince someone in the industry who had clout, Cooper recalls.

"I hear ideas like this on an average of one every two weeks," Cooper says. "This guy persisted, and the only time I could find to meet with him was during my running time during a convention in New Orleans."

Cooper laughs at that meeting. He says the youngster was cruising alongside him explaining his idea, while the older man says he probably looked as if he was huffing-and-puffing to get through the run.

But it was a meeting that satisfied "Cooper's law" of squeezing more stuff into the spectrum.

"The problem right now is capacity," Cooper explains. "If we can find a way to increase capacity and make it less costly, we can get to the point where personal communications can be done completely wireless. The key issue is how much stuff can you squeeze into a radio frequency. We've been searching for ways to squeeze more onto frequencies since Marconi invented radio.

"I've come up with a way to squeeze more into a radio frequency by 10 trillion times."

Company Snapshot

Name: ArrayComm Inc.
Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.
Founded: 1992
Mission: To improve the spectral efficiency of wireless systems
Founders: Martin Cooper, Arnaud Saffari, Craig Barratt
No. of Employees: 160
Sales and research: $20 million, global

He explains that with Marconi's discovery, the conversation was simply two-way radio. After the invention of the cell phone, the 1980s allowed the technology to provide "confined wireless conversations" within a specific distance.

Cooper says, "Now, we can deliver the entire radio spectrum to each individual. We can do this by literally placing radio energy around the individual."

According to Cooper, the proof is in Southeast Asia, where ArrayComm already has installed 50,000 base stations.

Cooper says the ArrayComm methodology is through what the company calls i-BURST, its "smart antennae arrays" that direct data transmissions at 1mbps.

"We've only seen a trace of what will be possible in the next 10 or 15 years," says Cooper, explaining that i-BURST will allow streaming media from the Internet anywhere on earth. He compares the performance of the i-BURST system with current cellular to a Razor Scooter up against an F-16.

"What we do comes down to the matter of how we are combining the signals, which allows us to receive signals from the people from whom we want, and to reject the signals who interfere with us," Cooper explains.

The array requires 10 or 12 antennas. This allows the system to act more like a radio station engineer who processes the music sent over the air.

"Think about how you hear," Cooper explains. "If you and I are in a room and are speaking, you can close your eyes and you know exactly where I am because you have two ears, and because my voice gets to your ears at different times, your brain can figure out where in the room I am."

In a room with a lot of people, however, a person's brain goes into overdrive in order to zero in on specific conversations or sounds. This is what Cooper calls the "cocktail party effect."

"Your brain has the ability of focusing in, and if someone behind you says something that interests you, your mind immediately focuses on that," he says. "You haven't moved your head, but you think differently. You can reject the first person.

"That is what we do. Instead of two ears, we have 10 or 12. We can really magnify the signal. Furthermore, while you have one mouth when you talk, we have 10 or 12 antennas."

The technology is also able to work on top of any existing system, Cooper says.

"How does this relate to your clients? Well, if they've built a wireless system and apply our kind of technology, they need many fewer base stations to serve more people," Cooper says.

While he is excited at what ArrayComm is doing, Cooper admits that he has "always lived in the future."

His first cell phone was a 29-ounce, brick-like device. Now he marvels at how similarly today's cell phones resemble the communicator Capt. James T. Kirk used on television's original "Star Trek."

And in a few short years, it may become similar to what was used in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Cooper told a CNN audience during a recent interview, "The future of the cell phone will continue to be personal. ... In the long term, you may even have your cell phone embedded, perhaps, under the skin behind your ear."

During his interview with PHONE+, Cooper said, "It's really embarrassing, but television did not become commercial until I was past my teen years." Instead, he read science fiction novels, and he recognizes that many of today's technologies were born through the imaginative visions of what was, decades ago, science fiction.

So maybe Cooper's major contribution is in bringing science fiction to reality.

Who Invented the Cell Phone?

2008-08-10T02:28:00.000-07:00

The cell phone was invented by bell labs from about 1947 to 1967….by Martin cooper who at that time was a vice-president at Motorola….he made the first cell-phone call in 1973 on a street corner in New York using a base station at the top of a tall building in that city. He called an acquaintance at AT&T who at that time was a rival and perhaps said something like “we’ve done it”. Motorola introduced its cell phone in 1983 after five generations, 15 years, and $ 90 million; …the first commercial cell phone service was started by NTT in Japan on December 3, 1979….Cooper himself… states that “Bell Labs had invented this thing called cellular technology”. What Martin Cooper apparently did was build a relatively small radio telephone which could be carried by a person. He did not develop the idea and the mechanism for automatically switching over when a phone went from one cell to another. The true inventor of the cell phone is the person or group who developed the concept of small cells and implemented the automatic switchover system, and this was Bell Labs. ….Necessity is the mother of invention. If… the FCC had not limited the number of channels available for radio telephones to 23, Bell Labs would not have been under intense pressure to develop the cellular concept. …Finally the explosion of cellular technology which we now see around us today was caused by the Microprocessor, i.e. a computer on a small single chip.

Martin Cooper - Inventor Of The Cellphone

2008-08-10T02:14:00.000-07:00

Dr Martin Cooper, a former general manager for the systems division at Motorola, is considered the inventor of the first portable handset and the first person to make a call on a portable cell phone in April 1973. The first call he made was to his rival, Joel Engel, Bell Labs head of research.

AT&T's research arm, Bell Laboratories, introduced the idea of cellular communications in 1947. But Motorola and Bell Labs in the sixties and early seventies were in a race to incorporate the technology into portable devices.

Cooper, now 70, wanted people to be able to carry their phones with them anywhere.

While he was a project manager at Motorola in 1973, Cooper set up a base station in New York with the first working prototype of a cellular telephone, the Motorola Dyna-Tac. After some initial testing in Washington for the F.C.C., Mr. Cooper and Motorola took the phone technology to New York to show the public.

The First Cellphone (1973)

Name: Motorola Dyna-Tac
Size: 9 x 5 x 1.75 inches
Weight: 2.5 pounds
Display: None
Number of Circuit Boards: 30
Talk time: 35 minutes
Recharge Time: 10 hours
Features: Talk, listen, dial

In 1973, when the company installed the base station to handle the first public demonstration of a phone call over the cellular network, Motorola was trying to persuade the Federal Communications Commission to allocate frequency space to private companies for use in the emerging technology of cellular communications. After some initial testing in Washington for the F.C.C., Mr. Cooper and Motorola took the phone technology to New York to show the public.

On April 3, 1973, standing on a street near the Manhattan Hilton, Mr. Cooper decided to attempt a private call before going to a press conference upstairs in the hotel. He picked up the 2-pound Motorola handset called the Dyna-Tac and pushed the "off hook" button.

The phone came alive, connecting Mr. Cooper with the base station on the roof of the Burlington Consolidated Tower (now the Alliance Capital Building) and into the land-line system. To the bewilderment of some passers-by, he dialed the number and held the phone to his ear.

Who is he?
Cooper grew up in Chicago and earned a degree in electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. After four years in the navy serving on destroyers and a submarine, he worked for a year at a telecommunications company.

Hired by Motorola in 1954, Mr. Cooper worked on developing portable products, including the first portable handheld police radios, made for the Chicago police department in 1967. He then led Motorola's cellular research.

RISHAD PREMJI AND HIS WIFE PICTURE

2008-08-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

RISHAD PREMJI WITH HIS WIFE ADITI

RISHAD PREMJI (AZIM PREMJI'S SON)

2008-08-08T12:00:00.001-07:00

Rishad Premji
Business manager in banking and financial services vertical - Wipro

Year of Birth & Age:

1975, 31 yrs

Grew up:

In Mumbai

Education:

School: St.Mary’s Cathedral and John Connon School
College: Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Wesleyan University, Connecticut, USA (1955)
MBA: Harvard Business School (2003)

career graph:

As part of his degree he spent a year at London Stock Exchange.

He was selected for General Electric’s Financial Management Programme in 1999 and worked for four years.

In 2005 he joined Bain & Company’s London office.

Wipro Technologies:

Rishad will be joining the financial services practice of Wipro Technologies and would report to president Girish Paranjpe. He will join after July, since the annual general meeting takes place that month. After getting the shareholders’ nod, the company will have to take government permission.
Sources in Wipro maintain that Rishad will have to work his way through to the top. It is said that Rishad was keen on joining Wipro. Like everyone else, he too had to send in his resume and as luck would have it, he managed to find a placement.

Rishad will join the 70,000-employee-strong software-led conglomerate, which also makes soaps and bulbs, as a business finance solutions manager. Like dad, like son: Lots has been spoken about Rishad's simplicity and his love to remain low key. Sources say his father always wanted him to learn the hard way. In fact, when Rishad was in London, he had asked his father's permission to stay at the Wipro guesthouse. Azim Premji who reportedly said it was company property turned this down.

Personal Information:

Interests: Rishad, like his father, is interested in reading and music. It is said that Rishad reads quite a lot and during his spare time reads quite a lot of books, mostly relating to management. The million-dollar question is whether he will travel economy class like his father. Another aspect of Rishad, which is very similar to his father, is his secular nature. Although a Muslim, a visit to the temple is a must for Rishad too.
Succession: Rishad's father owns nearly 84 per cent of the stake in Wipro and IT pundits feel this move by Premji Senior to rope in his son means that there is a succession plan in place. The post of CFO is number two in the Wipro hierarchy and bringing Rishad into the financial services hints of a succession plan, it is believed. Analysts say like his father he eventually will become the chairman of the company.
Marriage: The tall and handsome Rishad got married to his childhood sweetheart Aditi at a very low-key ceremony in Mumbai in 2005. Considering his father's penchant for remaining low-key, it is learnt that Rishad too was in favour of a low-key wedding. No gala receptions with no celebrity list, the wedding at the Taj Palace, Mumbai, was a very quiet family affair.
Although nothing much is known about Rishad's tall and attractive wife, it is said that she also belongs to the no-nonsense clan. It is said she would fit the bill of an ideal Wipro bahurani as her non-nonsense attitude will be an asset in the business world.
Family: Rishad is the son of Azim and Yasmeen. His younger brother Tariq, who is currently with the Azim Premji Foundation, is more of a friend. Rishad is basically a family man and any spare time is exclusively reserved for family. Like most Indian men he is closer to his mother and looks up to his father who he considers as his icon.

AZIM PREMJI'S FAMILY&PERSONAL LIFE

2008-08-08T11:41:00.000-07:00

Premji is married to Yasmeen, the couple have two children, Rishad and Tariq. Rishad is married to Aditi.

Premji is known for his modesty and frugality in spite of his wealth. He drives a toyota corolla and flies economy class, prefers to stay in company guest houses rather than luxury hotels and even served food on paper plates at a lunch honouring his son's wedding.

AZIM PREMJI'S EARLY LIFE

2008-08-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

Azim H Premji was born to M.H.Hasham Premji. He attended st.Mary'S School I.C.S.E in Mazagaon, Mumbai. Premji was just finishing his undergraduate engineering studies at Stanford University in 1966 when his father passed away. He immediately returned to INDIA where he took over the family's fledgling vegetable oil business, Western Indian Vegetable Products Limited (now called Wipro). Premji started off with a simple vision: to build an organization on a foundation of values. Premji eventually received permission to take correspondence art courses to complete the requirements for his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering.

Wipro premji's 10-point recipe for success

2008-08-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

10 points are

You should dare to dream, define what you stand for, never lose your zest and curiosity, always strive for excellence, build self confidence, learn to work in teams, take care of yourself, preserve, have a broader social vision and finally never let success go to your head

Wipro chairman Azim H Premji, one of India's most successful entrepreneurs, on Friday prescribed a 10-point recipe for success, based on the very lessons he had learnt during his last 35 years in the organisation.

"You should dare to dream, define what you stand for, never lose your zest and curiosity, always strive for excellence, build self confidence, learn to work in teams, take care of yourself, preserve, have a broader social vision and finally never let success go to your head," Premji said.

The Wipro chairman was delivering the convocation address at the 38 the convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Following is the entire text of the convocation address made by Premji:

I am privileged to be with you here today and to share this significant moment of your life.

The convocation marks the culmination of all the endless nights you worked through, all the anxieties you have gone through facing one examination after another and all the preparation you have put in, not only to enter this prestigious institution but also to graduate from it successfully. It is no mean achievement.

Only a handful of the most talented people in the world have shared this success with you. Let me just say that I am very proud of each and every one of you.

I am a little wary about giving you advice- because advice is one thing young people all over the world do not like receiving. I cannot fault you for that.

The world does look very different when it is seen with your eyes. You are filled with enthusiasm and are straining at the leash to get on with life.

And the world is very different from what it was when I was at your age. Never before has the role of technology been so pervasive and so central. The Internet has breached all physical borders and connected the world together like no other force has done before.

For the first time, opportunities for creating wealth in India are at par with the best in world. There is no need for you to sacrifice the joy of remaining in your own country any more.

All opportunities are accompanied by their own challenges. I thought I would share with you a few of the lessons I have learnt in my own life, while loading the transformation at Wipro, from a small company three and a half decades back into a global corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange. I hope you find them useful.

Lesson # 1: Dare to dream

When I entered Wipro at the age of 21, it was a sudden and unexpected event. I had no warning of what lay ahead of me and I was caught completely unprepared. All I had with me was a dream.

A dream of building a great Organisation. It compensated for my inexperience and I guess, also prevented me from being overwhelmed by the enormity of the task before me.

What I am happy is that we never stopped dreaming. Even when we achieved a position of leadership in every business we operated in India. We now have a dream of becoming one of the top 10 global it service companies.

Many people wonder whether having unrealistic dreams is foolish. My reply to that is dreams by themselves can never be realistic or safe. If they were, they would not be dreams. I do agree that one must have strategies to execute dreams. And, of course, one must slog to transform dreams into reality. But dreams come first.

What saddens me most is to see young, bright people getting completely disillusioned by a few initial setbacks and slowly turning cynical and some of them want to migrate to America in the hope this is the solution.

It requires courage to keep dreaming. And that is when dreams are most needed- not when everything is going right, but when just about everything is going wrong.

Lesson # 2: Define what you stand for

While success is important, it can become enduring only if it is built on a strong foundation of Values. Define what you stand for as early as possible and do not compromise with it for any reason. Nobody can enjoy the fruits of success if you have to argue with your own conscience.

In Wipro, we defined our Beliefs long before it became a fashion to do so. It not only helped us in becoming more resilient to stand up to crises we faced along the way, but it also helped us in attracting the right kind of people.

Eventually, we realised that our values made eminent business sense. Values help in clarifying what everyone should do or not do in any business situation. It saves enormous time and effort because each issue does not have to be individually debated at length.

But remember that values are meaningful only if you practice them. People may listen to what you say but they will believe what you do. Values are a matter of trust. They must be reflected in each one of your actions. Trust takes a long time to build but can be lost quickly by just one inconsistent act.

Lesson #3: Never lose your zest and curiosity

All the available knowledge in the world is accelerating at a phenomenal rate. The whole world's codified knowledge base (all documented information in library books and electronic files) doubled every 30 years in the early 20th century.

By the 1970s, the world's knowledge base doubled every seven years. Information researchers predict that by the year 2010, the world's codified knowledge will double every 11 hours.

Remaining on top of what you need to know will become one of the greatest challenges for you.

The natural zest and curiosity for learning is one of the greatest drivers for keeping updated on knowledge. A child's curiosity is insatiable because every new object is a thing of wonder and mystery. The same zest is needed to keep learning new things.

I personally spend at least ten hours every week on reading. If I do not do that, I find myself quickly outdated.

Lesson # 4: Always strive for excellence

There is a tremendous difference between being good and being excellent in whatever you do. In the world of tomorrow, just being good is not good enough.

One of the greatest advantages of globalisation is that it has brought in completely different standards. Being the best in the country is not enough; one has to be the best in the world. Excellence is a moving target. One has to constantly raise the bar.

In the knowledge-based industries, India has the unique advantage of being a quality leader. just like japan was able to win in the overseas market with its quality leadership in automobile manufacturing, india has been able to do the same in information technology.

At Wipro, we treat quality as the #1 priority. This enabled us not only to become the world's first SEI CMM Level 5 software services company in the world but also a leader in Six Sigma approach to quality in India.

However, even today I am dissatisfied with several things which we are not doing right in the area of customer satisfaction.

Doing something excellently has its own intrinsic joy, which I think is the greatest benefit of Quality.

Lesson # 5: Build self-confidence

Self-confidence comes from a positive attitude even in adverse situations. Self-confident people assume responsibility for their mistakes and share credit with their team members.

They are able to distinguish between what is in their control and what is not. They do not waste their energies on events that are outside their control and hence they can take setbacks in their stride.

Remember, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Lesson # 6: Learn to work in teams

The challenges ahead are so complex that no individual will be able to face them alone. While most of our education is focused in individual strength, teaming with others is equally important. You cannot fire a missile from a canoe. Unless you build a strong network of people with complimentary skills, you will be restricted by your own limitations.

Globalisation has brought in people of different origin, different upbringing and different cultures together. Ability to become an integral part of a cross-cultural team will be a must for your success.

Lesson # 7 Take care of yourself

The stress that a young person faces today while beginning his or her career is the same as the last generation faced at the time of retirement.

I have myself found that my job has become enormously more complex over the last two or three years. Along with mutual alertness, physical fitness will also assume a great importance in your life.

You must develop your own mechanism for dealing with stress. I have found that a daily jog for me, goes a long way in releasing the pressure and building up energy. You will need lots of energy to deal with the challenges.

Unless you take care of yourself there is no way you can take care of others.

Lesson # 8: Persevere

Finally, no matter what you decide to do in your life, you must persevere. Keep at it and you will succeed, no matter how hopeless it seems at times. In the last three and half decades, we have gone through many difficult times. But we have found that if we remain true to what we believe in, we can surmount every difficulty that comes in the way.

I remember reading this very touching story on perseverance.

An eight-year-old child heard her parents talking about her little brother. All she knew was that he was very sick and they had no money left. They were moving to a smaller house because they could not afford to stay in the present house after paying the doctor's bills. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and there was no one to loan them the money.

When she heard daddy say to her tearful mother with whispered desperation, 'Only a miracle can save him now', the child went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jar from its hiding place in the closet.

She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully.

Clutching the precious jar tightly, she slipped out the back door and made her way six blocks to the local drug Store. She took a quarter from her jar and placed it on the glass counter.

"And what do you want?" asked the pharmacist. "It's for my little brother," the girl answered back. "He's really, really sick and I want to buy a miracle."

"I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist.

"His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my daddy says only a miracle can save him. So how much does a miracle cost?"

"We don't sell miracles here, child. I'm sorry," the pharmacist said, smiling sadly at the little girl.

"Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn't enough, I can try and get some more. Just tell me how much it costs."

In the shop was a well-dressed customer. He stooped down and asked the little girl, "What kind of a miracle does you brother need?"

"I don't know," she replied with her eyes welling up. "He's really sick and mommy says he needs an operation. But my daddy can't pay for it, so I have brought my savings".

"How much do you have?" asked the man. "One dollar and eleven cents, but I can try and get some more", she answered barely audibly.

"Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man. "A dollar and eleven cents -- the exact price of a miracle for little brothers."

He took her money in one hand and held her hand with the other. He said, "Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the kind of miracle you need."

That well-dressed man was Dr Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specialising in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed without charge and it wasn't long before Andrew was home again and doing well.

"That surgery," her mom whispered, "was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost?"

The little girl smiled. She knew exactly how much the miracle cost ... one dollar and eleven cents ... plus the faith of a little child.

Perseverance can make miracles happen.

Lesson # 9: Have a broader social vision

For decades we have been waiting for some one who will help us in 'priming the pump' of the economy.

The government was the logical choice for doing it, but it was strapped for resources. Other countries were willing to give us loans and aids but there was a limit to this.

In the millennium of the mind, knowledge-based industries like Information Technology are in a unique position to earn wealth from outside. While earning is important, we must have mechanisms by which we use it for the larger good of our society.

Through the Azim Premji Foundation, we have targeted over the next 12 months to enrol over a million children, who are out of school due to economic or social reasons.

I personally believe that the greatest gift one can give to others is the gift of education. We who have been so fortunate to receive this gift know how valuable it is.

Lesson # 10: Never let success go to your head

No matter what we achieve, it is important to remember that we owe this success to many factors and people outside us. This will not only help us in keeping our sense of modesty and humility intact but also help us to retain our sense of proportion and balance.

The moment we allow success to build a feeling or arrogance, we become vulnerable to making bad judgements.

Let me illustrate this with another story:

A lady in faded dress and her husband, dressed in a threadbare suit, walked in without an appointment into the office of the president of the most prestigious educational institution in America.

The secretary frowned at them and said, "He will be busy all day."

"We will wait," said the couple quietly.

The secretary ignored them for hours hoping they will go away. But they did not. Finally, the secretary decided to disturb the president, hoping they will go way quickly once they meet him.

The president took one look at the faded dresses and glared sternly at them. The lady said, "Our son studied here and he was very happy. A year ago, he was killed in an accident. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial for him on the campus."

The president was not touched. He was shocked. "Madam, we cannot put up a statue for every student of ours who died. This place would look like a cemetery."

"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly, "we don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would give a building to you."

"A building?" exclaimed the president, looking at their worn out clothes. "Do you have any idea how much a building costs? Our buildings cost close to ten million dollars!"

The lady was silent. The president was pleased and thought this would get rid of them.

The lady looked at her husband. "If that is what it costs to start a university, why don't we start our own?" Her husband nodded.

Mr and Mrs Leland Stanford walked away, travelling to Palo Alto, California, where they established the university as a memorial to their son, bearing their name - the Stanford University.

The story goes that this is how Stanford University began.

I wish you every success in your career and your future life.

Azim Premji Profile( wipro founder&chairman)

2008-08-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

Born: July 24, 1945
Achievements: Chairman of Wipro Technologies; Richest Indian for the past several years; Honored with Padma Bhushan in 2005.

Azim Premji is Chairman of Wipro Technologies, one of the largest software companies in India. He is an icon among Indian businessmen and his success story is a source of inspiration to a number of budding entrepreneurs.

Born on July 24, 1945, Azim Hashim Premji was studying Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA when due to the sudden demise of his father, he was called upon to handle the family business. Azim Premji took over the reins of family business in 1966 at the age of 21.

At the first annual general meeting of the company attended by Azeem Premji, a shareholder doubted Premji's ability to handle business at such a young age and publicly advised him to sell his shareholding and give it to a more mature management. This spurred Azim Premji and made him all the more determined to make Wipro a success story. And the rest is history.

When Azim Premji occupied the hot seat, Wipro dealt in hydrogenated cooking fats and later diversified to bakery fats, ethnic ingredient based toiletries, hair care soaps, baby toiletries, lighting products and hydraulic cylinders. Thereafter Premji made a focused shift from soaps to software.

Under Azim Premji's leadership Wipro has metamorphosed from a Rs.70 million company in hydrogenated cooking fats to a pioneer in providing integrated business, technology and process solutions on a global delivery platform. Today, Wipro Technologies is the largest independent R&D service provider in the world.

Azim Premji has several achievements to his credit. In 2000, Asiaweek magazine, voted Premji among the 20 most powerful men in the world. Azim Premji was among the 50 richest people in the world from 2001 to 2003 listed by Forbes. In April 2004, Times Magazine, rated him among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. He is also the richest Indian for the past several years. In 2005,Government of India honored Azim Premji with Padma Bhushan.

AZIM HASHAM PREMJI Founder of Wipro Limited

2008-08-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

Azim Hasham Premji, founder of Wipro Limited, India's biggest and most competitive IT company based in Bangalore, was born on July 24th 1945 in Bombay. Premji was forced to leave his studies in computer science from Stanford University, California, USA at the age of 21 to take over the family business of vegetable oils when his father M.H. Premji, suddenly passed away in 1966. He has since after a gap of over thirty years completed his degree in Electrical Engineering.

The Amalner-based vanaspathi manufacturing company, the Western India Vegetable Product later became Wipro Products Ltd, Wipro Technologies and Wipro Corporation. Under Premji's leadership Wipro embarked on an ambitious phase of expansion and diversification. The Company began manufacturing light bulbs with General Electric and other consumer products including soaps, baby care products, shampoos, powder etc. In 1975, Wipro Fluid Power business unit manufacturing hydraulic cylinders and truck tippers was started. But Premji's ambitions did not stop there. In the 1980s Wipro entered the IT field, taking advantage of the expulsion of IBM from the Indian market in 1975. Thus, Wipro became involved in manufacturing computer hardware, software development and related items, under a special license from Sentinel. As a result, the $1.5 million company in hydrogenated cooking fats grew within a few years to a $662 million diversified, integrated corporation in services, medical systems, technology products and consumer items with offices worldwide.

The company's IT division became the world’s first to win SEI CMM level 5 and PCMM Level 5 (People Capability Maturity Model) certification, the latest in quality standards. A large percentage of the company's revenues are generated by the IT division. Wipro works with leading global companies, such as Alcatel, Nokia, Cisco and Nortel and has a joint venture in Medical Systems with General Electric company.

Premji's story of success and prominence clearly shows how determination and perseverance, when coupled with knowledge, clear vision and proper planning, enable one to reach the peak of success and leadership. A straight forward person, he doesn't believe in resorting to bribery or corruption to get things done and associates quality with integrity. He is an absolute workaholic and according to him work is the only way to success and survival in a competitive environment. A tough employer, he expects his employees to be competent and will not tolerate lies or deception from anyone.

Azim Hasham Premji finds himself in the Forbes Billionaire List 2000, placed in 41st position with a wealth of $ 6.4 billion. Over the years, Azim Premji has been privileged with many honors and accolades. He was chosen as the Business India's 'Businessman of the Year 2000', He was named by Fortune (August 2003) as one of the 25 most powerful business leaders outside the US, Forbes (March 2003) listed him as one of ten people globally, Business Week featured (October 2003) him on their cover with the sobriquet 'India's tech king'. The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education have both conferred honorary doctorates on him. He is also a member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Committee for Information Technology in India.

In the year 2001, Premji established Azim Premji Foundation, a not-for-profit organization with a vision of influencing the lives of millions of children in India by facilitating the universalisation of elementary education. The foundation works closely with the state governments of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh etc and the programs cover over 5000 rural schools. Premji contributes the financial resources for the foundation.

Personally, Premji is known for his humility and helping mentality. Easily one of the richest men in the world, he always travels in economy class. One of his favorite recreational activity is hiking. He leads a quiet life with his wife Yasmin Premji who had worked for 'Inside Outside' (editorial) in Mumbai and his two sons in a simple, but elegant villa in Bangalore. The elder son, Rishad, works in the USA for GE and the younger one, Tariq, has co-founded a dotcom and works from Bangalore. Mr. Premji who holds 78% stakes in the company does not believe in naming one of his sons as his successor just for the norms.

Contact address

Wipro Limited
Wipro Campus,
Doddakannelli, Sarjapur Road,
Bangalore-560 035
Phone : 080 - 8440001;Fax: 080- 8440056
E-mail : info@wipro.com

Naidu offers more land for Infosys Hyderabad centre

2008-08-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys, with the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, going through the new facility of Infosys in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

HYDERABAD, Jan. 14

INFOSYS Technologies Ltd, the country's leading end-to-end technology solutions provider, has outlined its Hyderabad expansion plans which involves an investment outlay of Rs 100 crore and additional manpower of about 1,300 in Phase II and III within the next 3 years.

Inaugurating the Hyderabad global development centre, which has been created with an investment outlay of Rs 74 crore in a record nine months time, the Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies, Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, said that the centre, which has the capacity to host 1500-plus people, had a little over 800 now and depending on the business requirements, will be upscaled.

Impressed with the modern facility, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr N.Chandrababu Naidu, after having a first hand experience at the gym quipped that the `company employees come to such a facility not just to work but to improve their health'.

In a typical hard selling approach, he offered another 20 acres to Infosys to make Hyderabad their biggest development centre in the country.

He also urged the Chairman to develop a centre at Visakhapatnam, and offered land and necessary support.

The Hyderabad global delivery centre, which started in a small way with 8 people in March 2000, had 111 people as on March 2001. By the end of March 2002, it had 414 people on its rolls and has grown to a little over 800 by January 14, 2003.

In the first year, the centre accounted for revenues of Rs 25.72 crore, second year (Rs 125.63 crore) and during the last eight months it recorded Rs 164.95 crore.

The revenues from Hyderabad centre, which is an independent profit-driven centre, crossed the Rs 200-crore mark, registering Rs 202.92 crore, according to the Director and Chief Financial Officer, Mr T.V. Mohandas Pai.

Addressing a press conference before the formal inauguration of the facility, Mr Chandrasekhar Kakal, Head of Hyderabad Development Centre, said that the company had entered into a memorandum of understanding with the State Government during the Partnership Summit in 2001.

"Based on its commitment, we have so far invested Rs.73.66 crore and created a 1200 people facility," he said.

The centre has garnered a very impressive client list covering a whole gamut of business applications from semiconductors to ERP solutions. These included Toshiba, Sony, Siemens, Dell Computers and Microsoft, Mr Kakal explained. Developed on a 30-acre site, it has a 3.11-lakh sq ft of built up space, complimented by a 70,000 sq ft of food court.

The distinguishing factor of the whole development centre is a unique parabolic dome having a 46-metre diameter, with a seating capacity of about 800 people.

The innovatively designed software development techno campus, has a range of recreational facilities, a 5,000 sq ft gym, a aerobics centre, and a 12-hole golf putting and driving range.

The centre is designed by architects — Sundaram & Associates and the interiors have been custom-designed by architect, Hafeez Contractor.

The entire dome-shaped multi-purpose building is perceived as an engineering marvel, the air-conditioning is uniquely designed and the audio systems have been custom-made by Bose, he said.

Infosys - History

2008-08-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

Murthy was working for Patni Computer Services(PCS) initially.

Infosys was started in 1981, as a Private Limited Company, under the name of Infosys Consultants Pvt. Ltd. A team of seven experienced software professionals, led by Mr.N. R. Narayana Murthy promoted the company. They brought into the company their wide experience, having handled projects in developed countries like USA, Europe and Canada. There are anecdotal experiences told by Sudha moorthy about cooking and serving food for all the partners of Infosys when the company was taking wings in the initial stages.MICO was their first client.The company’s operations were carried out from a development centre in Bangalore..

N.R.NARAYANA MURTHY WITH BILL GATES

2008-08-08T09:33:00.000-07:00



Bill Gates and N.R. Narayana Murthy at Infosys in Bangalore, India.

AN ARTICLE ON N.R.NARAYANA MURTHY

2008-08-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

SIMPLE,SELFLESS,SUPERRICH

N.R.Narayana Murthy, Chairman, Infosys Technologies Ltd

An Indian IT chief who's really made it big without dropping his ethical precepts by the wayside is Nagawara Ramarao Narayana Murthy, Chairman of Infosys. Born in 1946, Murthy's father was a schoolteacher in Kolar district, Karnataka, India. A bright student, Murthy went on to acquire a degree in Electrical Engineering from Mysore University and later studied Computer Science at the IIT, Kanpur, India.

The Infosys legend began in 1981 when Narayana Murthy dreamt of forming his own company, along with six friends. There was a minor hitch, though-he didn't have any seed money. Luckily, like many Indian women who save secretly without their husband's knowledge, his wife Sudha-then an engineer with Tatas-had saved Rs 10,000. This was Murthy's first big break.

The decade until 1991 was a tough period when the couple lived in a one-room house. The second break came in 1991 when Indian doors to liberalization were flung open… Murthy grabbed the opportunity with both hands and has never looked back ever since. Today, Infosys is the first Indian company to be listed on the US NASDAQ.

While working in France in the 1970s, Murthy was strongly influenced by socialism. The bubble was pricked, however, when he was arrested in Bulgaria on espionage charges. Today, he says: "I'm a capitalist in mind, a socialist at heart." It was this belief in the distribution of wealth that made Infosys one of the first Indian companies to offer employees stock-option plans. Infosys now has 400 employees who are dollar millionaires.

In a poll conducted by Asiaweek, the quiet, soft-spoken man was selected one of the 50 most powerful people in Asia for 2000. And 50 per cent of the respondents in an online poll conducted by The Economic Times voted him the best CEO of India.

Heading a company with the largest market capitalization hasn't changed Murthy's life-style much. The man still doesn't know how to drive a car! On Saturdays-his driver's weekly off-the Infosys chief is driven to the bus stop by his wife, from where he boards a company bus to work! Incidentally, Sudha Murthy is now chief of the Infosys Foundation, which channels Rs 50 million into charity every year.

Simplicity, humility and maintaining a low profile are the hallmarks of this super-rich Bangalorean. And the man is principled to a fault. Murthy's unprecedented wealth has catapulted him into the public glare. After the kidnapping of Dr Rajkumar by forest brigand Veerappan, the Home Ministry has sounded out the local government about providing Z-category security to Murthy and Premji. Both characteristically turned down the offer.

In a letter to the police top brass last month, Murthy said he was a simple man who had no intentions of annoying his neighbors and disturbing traffic with an intrusive entourage of security vehicles and personnel.

That's Narayana Murthy for you.

NARAYANA MURTHY ON LEADERSHIP

2008-08-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

At the Gartner Summit India last fortnight, Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy discussed the role Information Technology plays in creating a developed India with Gartner Asia-Pacific Vice-President Bob Hayward, Research Vice-President (India) Partha Iyengar and Vice-President and Chief of Research (Asia-Pacific) John Roberts.

We have great honour in reproducing the transcript of that discussion for our readers, the first part of which we published on Thursday.

Partha Iyengar: What can India Inc do to embrace IT, something that hasn't happened as much as in countries like China?

N R Narayana Murthy: I think it is happening in the last ten years. Indian enterprises and even the government are embracing IT much more warmly than ever before. The reason is competition is increasing. There is a focus on productivity. Secondly, the democracy is demanding more transparency and accountability from the government.

Bob Hayward: But the difference here is that there has to be a different justification for IT-induced automation that reduces jobs in a country with a large population like India.

N R Nayarana Murthy: I am of the opinion that every enterprise must operate at the highest level of productivity, which means that fewer and fewer people can produce more and more wealth. With better productivity, the salaries will increase, the workers have more disposable income, and they spend more in the market. In the end, by enhancing productivity, you are actually creating more jobs. It's a myth here that employing more people and resourcing productivity per worker, we are making the economy better for our citizens. The right way would be to improve productivity.

Bob Hayward: Is the contribution of IT in improving the living standard of a large chunk of its people being recognized as it should be?

N R Narayana Murthy: In the last couple of years, India has done a very good job in IT. But we are still a nation of billion people so a million or so people working in IT or related areas don't get as much noticed. That's where we need to create better enthusiasm by creating visible signs of growth like world class airports and highways. We owe it to our children because we want to be much confident about their country.

Bob Hayward: In your interaction with politicians, what do you see are the major challenges in making them aware about the potential of this sector in India?

N R Narayana Murthy: Leadership is all about courage, courage to dream big, to take tough decisions, etc. Second, it is the ability to raise the aspirations of people and third, to be open minded and to accept great ideas from different countries and cultures across the world and fourth, like I earlier said, to recognize that there are two Indias, rural and urban and to work towards the growth of both of them.

Partha Iyengar: What needs to be done to bring about that change?

N R Narayana Murthy: Once again that takes me to what I mentioned, the visible signs of growth. Let me give you an example: When Baby Noor, the Pakistani child came to India, and I saw that news splashed across the newspapers, I was very happy. I think we need a few more examples like that. Not only will this change our leaders' mindset but it will create confidence in Pakistan.

The point is, we need more such signs of growth, like that Nasscom experiment or the fishermen in the Pondicherry using data from US satellites to enhance their catch. In every movie theater, if we can show a few of these examples, the common Indian will have confidence in India and will say that well, India is on the move now.

Bob Hayward: I may be a little pessimistic, but there's a negativism and cynicism existing in the Indian media that if this industry is growing, there must be some problem with that…

N R Narayana Murthy: You are using data so I can't argue with you. But let me tell you I was in Delhi and Prannoy Roy, my friend, took me to his studio. I saw these enthusiastic guys and I was highly impressed. If we use that enthusiasm, we can beat anybody in the world.

When a lot of my friends went to IBM, people said it's the end, but I said if I can't find MNCs in India, how can we fight them in their own backyard?

Secondly, there is a lot of value that these MNCs bring into India. With their HR policies etc. We have to play the game their way. I am very hopeful.

John Roberts: With the offshore backlash, what do you think should be the strategy of the industry to address that right now?

N R Narayana Murthy: Globalization is about producing where it is most cost effective, sourcing capital from where it's cheapest and selling it where it is most profitable. We shouldn't be constrained by an international backlash.

A smart journalist in Australia asked me a question at a press conference, "You guys are taking all our jobs to India. You should be thrown out." I told him I use an LG refrigerator at home in India, I drink Pepsi and Coke though we had our own Indian drinks, I use a GM car where we had a vibrant automobile industry, and so forth. I use Cisco routers and a Toshiba tablet PC which are imported, so do you think we should throw all these companies out?

I gave him the positive side of all this.

Prior to 1991, we all felt exactly the same like that young journalist did. Initially, it was a very painful phase for our Indian companies but at the end of it we became stronger. At the end of the day the consumers benefit the most, and even the minority that will suffer in the short run, will benefit at the end of the day.

John Roberts: Where do you see IT in the next 5 years?

N R Narayana Murthy: I think IT will move, IT will focus more on enhancing productivity at home. So far we've limited ourselves to enhancing productivity at the workplace. Thanks to increasing computing power I believe IT will move to ubiquitous computing.

John Roberts: Do you think India will move from using existing technology to inventing new technologies?

N R Narayana Murthy: It will happen. Let us remember that the concept of a free market is still new in India, we are not used to leading from the front. Just 15 years compared to 200 years elsewhere in terms of the Industrial Revolution. You need to have a little more patience with India, but that will happen.

Partha Iyengar: There are indications that IT will be a major driver taking India into the league of developed nations by 2020. What's your vision of what India will be like in that timeframe?

N R Narayana Murthy: I have great respect for our President Dr Abdul Kalam and his vision of making India a developed nation by 2020 is a great one. My view is IT alone will not be able to do that. We need world class manufacturing, we need world class financial services, healthcare, education, etc. Only then can we make progress and become a great nation. IT alone cannot do that; it will definitely be a driver, a case study of India's potential.

Whenever I am down, I recall what the late Robert Kennedy once said, which he borrowed from George Bernard Shaw, 'Most people see things as they are and wonder why. I see things that never were and say why not.' Once our leaders start with this mindset, the solution is very simple. We have to see beyond the constraint, using it as an opportunity. It's all in the mind.

NARAYANA MURTHY SUCCESS STORY

2008-08-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

N.R. Narayana Murthy, the founder and Chairman of India's spectacular technology success story, Infosys Technologies, visited New York recently and met with a team of Business Week editors, including International Managing Editor Bob Dowling, Assistant International Managing Editor Christopher Power, and Asia Editor Sheri Prasso. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation:

Q: We hear you've become quite a philanthropist, that you're making large donations with money from sales of your personal Infosys stock. Can you tell us about the money you're giving away?
A: I'm somewhat reticent talking about it. I'd be happier skipping to another topic.

Q: Can you give us an idea of how much it is? Millions? Tens of millions?
A: Well, more, but let me not talk about it. These are topics that are best not discussed. They're best done.

Q: At least, what is the objective of the donations you're making?
A: The objective is to make sure our institutions of higher learning regain their glory of the '60s and '70s. In India, the cost of inflation has far exceeded the increased support that government gives to the institutions. We [my wife and I] feel there is quite a lot of work that needs to be done in making sure that there are new buildings, and for faculty members, for scholarships.

Q: Do you want to discuss where you see Infosys going in the next five years?
A: I would be very happy if the company becomes globally respected. It's very highly respected in India today. In January, when there was a survey among 1,600-plus general managers of all industries asking them to vote their most admired company, they voted for Infosys among 7,500 listed companies, plus an equal or higher number of unlisted companies.

I think in India we have been fairly successful in gaining respect and our reputation. But the real challenge is to get respect and reputation in a market like this [the U.S.] with a lot of smart companies, a lot of role models, a lot of high performers.

Secondly, we obviously want to provide best services to our customers, so we have to enhance our knowledge and make sure we provide core solutions.

Thirdly, in our mission statement is employing best practices, to attract good talent...[and] to make the company more multicultural. Obviously, our objective is to create an environment where people of different nationalities come together and work in an environment of intense competition but mutual respect, to add greater and greater value to our customers.

Q: What are you doing to achieve this?
A: I believe in synergizing the organizational objectives and individual aspirations. The organizational objectives are in some senses nonnegotiable. The company has to grow. Having done that, how do we make sure individuals are enthusiastic about that? Some people may want better compensation. Some people may want more recognition. Some people may want more free time to learn new things, etcetera. We try to see how the organizational objectives are maintained while the individual aspirations are being met. Most of it has happened in India. Now our challenge is to bring it outside of India.

Q: This is a pretty competitive job culture here, and you have to meet the demands of the market. How do you do that?
A: We have an options plan. In fact, when we went public, one of the major reasons was to create an option plan. The stock doing well has been a double-edged sword. People who have been given options are very happy, but what about new options that you want to give people? At what seems high levels, how do you make sure people have capital appreciation? We were the first ones to [introduce share options in India] in a formal way on a reasonable scale. Many, many companies are following now. We got the Exchange Board of India to come out with a new legal framework, modeled on the U.S., last year.... My view is that God is still not finished with Infosys, and we are in the initial stages.

Q: How likely is it that the IT revolution in India can really have an impact economically?
A: I'm a heretic in many, many ways. For example, I'm the only corporate leader in India, who says companies who make export profits must pay taxes. I've become absolutely unpopular. So even here, I say technology has as much relevance to the poor as it has to the rich.

I'll tell you why I say that: A couple of months ago, I was coming out of my office and one of the attendants, one of the people who bring coffee and tea and clean tables, he was coming out, and he was smiling. He was very happy. I said, "What, man, why are you so happy? What has happened?"

He said, "I got this urgent call from my village, I have to go back and go to see my father, somebody is not well."
I said, "This couldn't make you happy."

He said, "No, I could get money. I went to the ATM and got money."
I said, "That's no big deal."

He explained, "When I go to a bank counter, first of all I am not dressed suitably, and the counter clerk does not show as much interest in serving me. Second, if I go to the counter at 3:55 because they close at 4:00, they don't serve me because they want to close up and go. "On the other hand, this machine is a great leveler. I stand in the queue. It doesn't matter whether it's me or the Chairman. We all stand in the queue. We put in our cards. We get the money."

In some senses, technology is a great leveler. Secondly, if technology is to reduce costs, if technology is to improve productivity, who needs these things more than the poor? So I've been having a big battle with my government, saying we need technology much more than anybody else.

The poor need technology! In Bombay, 50% of the taxi drivers are from the villages. They come to the city, they are away from their families, they get to go back once in six months. So we said, "Let's conduct an experiment: Take a taxi driver in Bombay, and use Internet technology to keep them in touch." I personally believe technology has tremendous impact on the Indian economy.

Q: Is the government becoming more cooperative?
A: I think the history of 200 years can't be wiped out in a hurry. I find that the mindset of bureaucracy in India is changing, but is still one of maximization of revenue for the government and is against any scheme that, in the short term, will reduce revenue for the government. So I think that's a big issue in India.

LIFE LESSSON FROM NARAYANA MUTHY

2008-08-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

N R Narayana Murthy, chief mentor, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

N R Narayana Murthy, chief mentor and chairman of the board, Infosys Technologies, delivered a pre-commencement lecture at the New York University (Stern School of Business) on May 9. It is a scintillating speech, Murthy speaks about the lessons he learnt from his life and career. We present it for our readers:

Dean Cooley, faculty, staff, distinguished guests, and, most importantly, the graduating class of 2007, it is a great privilege to speak at your commencement ceremonies.

I thank Dean Cooley and Prof Marti Subrahmanyam for their kind invitation. I am exhilarated to be part of such a joyous occasion. Congratulations to you, the class of 2007, on completing an important milestone in your life journey.

After some thought, I have decided to share with you some of my life lessons. I learned these lessons in the context of my early career struggles, a life lived under the influence of sometimes unplanned events which were the crucibles that tempered my character and reshaped my future.

I would like first to share some of these key life events with you, in the hope that these may help you understand my struggles and how chance events and unplanned encounters with influential persons shaped my life and career.

Later, I will share the deeper life lessons that I have learned. My sincere hope is that this sharing will help you see your own trials and tribulations for the hidden blessings they can be.

The first event occurred when I was a graduate student in Control Theory at IIT, Kanpur, in India. At breakfast on a bright Sunday morning in 1968, I had a chance encounter with a famous computer scientist on sabbatical from a well-known US university.

He was discussing exciting new developments in the field of computer science with a large group of students and how such developments would alter our future. He was articulate, passionate and quite convincing. I was hooked. I went straight from breakfast to the library, read four or five papers he had suggested, and left the library determined to study computer science.

Friends, when I look back today at that pivotal meeting, I marvel at how one role model can alter for the better the future of a young student. This experience taught me that valuable advice can sometimes come from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors.

The next event that left an indelible mark on me occurred in 1974. The location: Nis, a border town between former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and Bulgaria. I was hitchhiking from Paris back to Mysore, India, my home town.

By the time a kind driver dropped me at Nis railway station at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, the restaurant was closed. So was the bank the next morning, and I could not eat because I had no local money. I slept on the railway platform until 8.30 pm in the night when the Sofia Express pulled in.

The only passengers in my compartment were a girl and a boy. I struck a conversation in French with the young girl. She talked about the travails of living in an iron curtain country, until we were roughly interrupted by some policemen who, I later gathered, were summoned by the young man who thought we were criticising the communist government of Bulgaria.

The girl was led away; my backpack and sleeping bag were confiscated. I was dragged along the platform into a small 8x8 foot room with a cold stone floor and a hole in one corner by way of toilet facilities. I was held in that bitterly cold room without food or water for over 72 hours.

I had lost all hope of ever seeing the outside world again, when the door opened. I was again dragged out unceremoniously, locked up in the guard's compartment on a departing freight train and told that I would be released 20 hours later upon reaching Istanbul. The guard's final words still ring in my ears -- "You are from a friendly country called India and that is why we are letting you go!"

The journey to Istanbul was lonely, and I was starving. This long, lonely, cold journey forced me to deeply rethink my convictions about Communism. Early on a dark Thursday morning, after being hungry for 108 hours, I was purged of any last vestiges of affinity for the Left.

I concluded that entrepreneurship, resulting in large-scale job creation, was the only viable mechanism for eradicating poverty in societies.

Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist! Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding of INFOSYS in 1981.

While these first two events were rather fortuitous, the next two, both concerning the Infosys journey, were more planned and profoundly influenced my career trajectory.

On a chilly Saturday morning in winter 1990, five of the seven founders of Infosys met in our small office in a leafy Bangalore suburb. The decision at hand was the possible sale of Infosys for the enticing sum of $1 million. After nine years of toil in the then business-unfriendly India, we were quite happy at the prospect of seeing at least some money.

I let my younger colleagues talk about their future plans. Discussions about the travails of our journey thus far and our future challenges went on for about four hours. I had not yet spoken a word.

Finally, it was my turn. I spoke about our journey from a small Mumbai apartment in 1981 that had been beset with many challenges, but also of how I believed we were at the darkest hour before the dawn. I then took an audacious step. If they were all bent upon selling the company, I said, I would buy out all my colleagues, though I did not have a cent in my pocket.

There was a stunned silence in the room. My colleagues wondered aloud about my foolhardiness. But I remained silent. However, after an hour of my arguments, my colleagues changed their minds to my way of thinking. I urged them that if we wanted to create a great company, we should be optimistic and confident. They have more than lived up to their promise of that day.

In the seventeen years since that day, Infosys has grown to revenues in excess of $3.0 billion, a net income of more than $800 million and a market capitalisation of more than $28 billion, 28,000 times richer than the offer of $1 million on that day.

In the process, Infosys has created more than 70,000 well-paying jobs, 2,000-plus dollar-millionaires and 20,000-plus rupee millionaires.

A final story: On a hot summer morning in 1995, a Fortune-10 corporation had sequestered all their Indian software vendors, including Infosys, in different rooms at the Taj Residency hotel in Bangalore so that the vendors could not communicate with one another. This customer's propensity for tough negotiations was well-known. Our team was very nervous.

First of all, with revenues of only around $5 million, we were minnows compared to the customer.

Second, this customer contributed fully 25% of our revenues. The loss of this business would potentially devastate our recently-listed company.

Third, the customer's negotiation style was very aggressive. The customer team would go from room to room, get the best terms out of each vendor and then pit one vendor against the other. This went on for several rounds. Our various arguments why a fair price -- one that allowed us to invest in good people, R&D, infrastructure, technology and training -- was actually in their interest failed to cut any ice with the customer.

By 5 p.m. on the last day, we had to make a decision right on the spot whether to accept the customer's terms or to walk out.

All eyes were on me as I mulled over the decision. I closed my eyes, and reflected upon our journey until then. Through many a tough call, we had always thought about the long-term interests of Infosys. I communicated clearly to the customer team that we could not accept their terms, since it could well lead us to letting them down later. But I promised a smooth, professional transition to a vendor of customer's choice.

This was a turning point for Infosys.

Subsequently, we created a Risk Mitigation Council which ensured that we would never again depend too much on any one client, technology, country, application area or key employee. The crisis was a blessing in disguise. Today, Infosys has a sound de-risking strategy that has stabilised its revenues and profits.

I want to share with you, next, the life lessons these events have taught me.

1. I will begin with the importance of learning from experience. It is less important, I believe, where you start. It is more important how and what you learn. If the quality of the learning is high, the development gradient is steep, and, given time, you can find yourself in a previously unattainable place. I believe the Infosys story is living proof of this.

Learning from experience, however, can be complicated. It can be much more difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail, we think carefully about the precise cause. Success can indiscriminately reinforce all our prior actions.

2. A second theme concerns the power of chance events. As I think across a wide variety of settings in my life, I am struck by the incredible role played by the interplay of chance events with intentional choices. While the turning points themselves are indeed often fortuitous, how we respond to them is anything but so. It is this very quality of how we respond systematically to chance events that is crucial.

3. Of course, the mindset one works with is also quite critical. As recent work by the psychologist, Carol Dweck, has shown, it matters greatly whether one believes in ability as inherent or that it can be developed. Put simply, the former view, a fixed mindset, creates a tendency to avoid challenges, to ignore useful negative feedback and leads such people to plateau early and not achieve their full potential.

The latter view, a growth mindset, leads to a tendency to embrace challenges, to learn from criticism and such people reach ever higher levels of achievement (Krakovsky, 2007: page 48).

4. The fourth theme is a cornerstone of the Indian spiritual tradition: self-knowledge. Indeed, the highest form of knowledge, it is said, is self-knowledge. I believe this greater awareness and knowledge of oneself is what ultimately helps develop a more grounded belief in oneself, courage, determination, and, above all, humility, all qualities which enable one to wear one's success with dignity and grace.

Based on my life experiences, I can assert that it is this belief in learning from experience, a growth mindset, the power of chance events, and self-reflection that have helped me grow to the present.

Back in the 1960s, the odds of my being in front of you today would have been zero. Yet here I stand before you! With every successive step, the odds kept changing in my favour, and it is these life lessons that made all the difference.

My young friends, I would like to end with some words of advice. Do you believe that your future is pre-ordained, and is already set? Or, do you believe that your future is yet to be written and that it will depend upon the sometimes fortuitous events?

Do you believe that these events can provide turning points to which you will respond with your energy and enthusiasm? Do you believe that you will learn from these events and that you will reflect on your setbacks? Do you believe that you will examine your successes with even greater care?

I hope you believe that the future will be shaped by several turning points with great learning opportunities. In fact, this is the path I have walked to much advantage.

A final word: When, one day, you have made your mark on the world, remember that, in the ultimate analysis, we are all mere temporary custodians of the wealth we generate, whether it be financial, intellectual, or emotional. The best use of all your wealth is to share it with those less fortunate.

I believe that we have all at some time eaten the fruit from trees that we did not plant. In the fullness of time, when it is our turn to give, it behooves us in turn to plant gardens that we may never eat the fruit of, which will largely benefit generations to come. I believe this is our sacred responsibility, one that I hope you will shoulder in time.

Thank you for your patience. Go forth and embrace your future with open arms, and pursue enthusiastically your own life journey of discovery

LOVE STORY OF INFOSYS NARAYANA MURTHY

2008-08-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

The Love Story

It was in Pune that I met Narayan Murty through my friend Prasanna who is now the Wipro chief, who was also training in Telco (TataMotors). Most of the books that Prasanna lent me had Murty's name on them which meant that I had a preconceived image of the man. Contrary to expectation, Murty was shy, bespectacled and an introvert. When he invited us for dinner, I was a bit taken aback as I thought the young man was making a very fast move. I refused since I was the only girl in the group. But Murty was relentless and we all decided to meet for dinner the next day at 7.30p.m. at
Green Fields hotel on the Main Road, Pune.

The next day I went there at 7 o’ clock since I had to go to the tailor near the hotel. And what do I see? Mr. Murty waiting in front of the hotel and it was only seven. Till today, Murty maintains that I had mentioned (consciously! ) that I would be going to the tailor at 7 so that I could meet him...And I maintain that I did not say any such thing consciously or unconsciously because I did not think of Murty as anything other than a
friend at that stage. We have agreed to disagree on this matter.

Soon, we became friends. Our conversations were filled with Murty's experiences abroad and the books that he has read. My friends insisted that Murty as trying to impress me because he was interested in me. I kept denying it till one fine day, after dinner Murty said, I want to tell you something. I knew this as it. It was coming. He said, I am 5'4" tall. I come from a lower middle class family. I can never become rich in my life and I can never give you any riches. You are beautiful, bright, and intelligent and you can get anyone you want. But will you marry me? I asked Murty to give me some time for an answer. My father didn't want me to marry a wannabe politician, (a communist at that) who didn't have a steady job and wanted to build an orphanage...

When I went to Hubli I told my parents about Murty and his proposal. My mother was positive since Murty was also from Karnataka, seemed intelligent and comes from a good family. But my father asked: What's his job, his salary, his qualifications etc? Murty was working as a research assistant and was earning less than me. He was willing to go dutch with me on our outings. My parents agreed to meet Murty in Pune on a particular day at 10 a. m sharp. Murty did not turn up. How can I trust a man to take care
of my daughter if he cannot keep an appointment, asked my father.

At 12noon Murty turned up in a bright red shirt! He had gone on work to Bombay, was stuck in a traffic jam on the ghats, so he hired a taxi (though it was very expensive for him) to meet his would-be father-in-law. Father was unimpressed. My father asked him what he wanted to become in life.

Murty said he wanted to become a politician in the communist party and wanted to open an orphanage. My father gave his verdict. NO. I don't want my daughter to marry somebody who wants to become a communist and then open an orphanage when he himself didn't have money to support his family.

Ironically, today, I have opened many orphanages something, which
Murty wanted to do 25 years ago. By this time I realized I had developed a liking towards Murty which could only be termed as love. I wanted to marry Murty because he is an honest man. He proposed to me highlighting the negatives in his life. I promised my father that I will not marry Murty without his blessings though at the same time, I cannot marry anybody else. My father said he would agree if Murty promised to take up a steady job. But Murty refused saying he will not do things in life because somebody wanted him to. So, I was caught between the two most important people in my life.

The stalemate continued for three years during which our courtship took us to every restaurant and cinema hall in Pune. In those days, Murty was always broke. Moreover, he didn't earn much to manage. Ironically today, he manages Infosys Technologies Ltd., one of the world's most reputed companies. He always owed me money. We used to go for dinner and he would say, I don't have money with me, you pay my share and I will return it to you later. For three years I maintained a book on Murty's debt to me. No,
he never returned the money and I finally tore it up after my wedding.

The amount was a little over Rs 4000. During this interim period Murty quit his job as research assistant and started his own software business. Now, I had to pay his salary too! Towards the late 70s computers were entering India in a big way. During the fag end of 1977 Murty decided to take up a job as General Manager at Patni Computers in Bombay. But before he joined the company
he wanted to marry me since he was to go on training to the US after joining. My father gave in as he was happy Murty had a decent job, now.

WE WERE MARRIED IN MURTY'S HOUSE IN BANGALORE ON FEBRUARY 10, 1978 WITH ONLY OUR TWO FAMILIES PRESENT. I GOT MY FIRST SILK SARI. THE WEDDING EXPENSES CAME TO ONLY RS 800 (US $17) WITH MURTY AND I POOLING IN RS.400 EACH.

I went to the US with Murty after marriage. Murty encouraged me to see America on my own because I loved travelling. I toured America for three months on backpack and had interesting experiences which will remain fresh in my mind forever. Like the time when the New York police took me into custody because they thought I was an Italian, trafficking drugs in Harlem. Or the time when I spent the night at the bottom of the Grand Canyon with an old couple. Murty panicked because he couldn't get a response from my hotel room even at midnight. He thought I was either killed or kidnapped.

IN 1981 MURTY WANTED TO START INFOSYS. HE HAD A VISION AND ZERO CAPITAL...initially I was very apprehensive about Murty getting into business. We did not have any business background. Moreover we were living a comfortable life in Bombay with a regular pay check and I didn't want to rock the boat. But Murty was passionate about creating good quality software. I decided to support him. Typical of Murty, he just had a dream and no money. So I gave him Rs 10,000 which I had saved for a rainy day, without his knowledge and told him, this is all I have. Take it. I give you three years sabbatical leave. I will take care of the financial needs of our house. You go and chase your dreams without any worry. But you have only three years!

Murty and his six colleagues started Infosys in 1981, with normous
interest and hard work. In 1982 I left Telco and moved to Pune with Murty. We bought a small house on loan which also became the Infosys office. I was a clerk-cum-cook- cum-programmer. I also took up a job as Senior Systems Analyst with Walchand group of Industries to support the house.

In 1983 Infosys got their first client, MICO, in Bangalore. Murty moved to Bangalore and stayed with his mother while I went to Hubli to deliver my second child, Rohan. Ten days after my son was b! orn, Murty left for the US on project work. I saw him only after a year, as I was unable to join Murty in the US because my son had infantile eczema, an allergy to vaccinations. So for more than a year I did not step outside our home for fear of my son contracting an infection. It was only after Rohan got all his
vaccinations that I came to Bangalore where we rented a small house in Jayanagar and rented another house as Infosys headquarters. My father presented Murty a scooter to commute. I once again became a cook, programmer, clerk, secretary, office assistant et al. Nandan Nilekani (MD of Infosys) and his wife Rohini stayed with us. While Rohini babysat my son, I wrote programs for Infosys. There was no car, no phone, and just two kids and a bunch of us working hard, juggling our lives and having fun while Infosys was taking shape. It was not only me but also the wives of other partners too who gave their unstinted support. We all knew that our men were trying to build something good.

It was like a big joint family,taking care and looking out for one
another. I still remember Sudha Gopalakrishna looking after my daughter Akshata with all care and love while Kumari Shibulal cooked for all of us. Murty made it very clear that it would either be me or him working at Infosys. Never the two of us together... I was involved with Infosys initially.

Nandan Nilekani suggested I should be on the Board but Murty said he
did not want a husband and wife team at Infosys. I was shocked since I had the relevant experience and technical qualifications. He said, Sudha if you want to work with Infosys, I will withdraw, happily. I was pained to know that I will not be involved in the company my husband was building and that I would have to give up a job that I am qualified to do and love doing.

It took me a couple of days to grasp the reason behind Murty's request. I realized that to make Infosys a success one had to give one's 100 percent. One had to be focussed on it alone with no other distractions. If the two of us had to give 100 percent to Infosys then what would happen to our home and our children? One of us had to take care of our home while the other took care of Infosys.

I opted to be a homemaker, after all Infosys was Murty's dream. It was a big sacrificebut it was one that had to be made. Even today, Murty says, Sudha, I stepped on your career to make mine. You are responsible for my success.

Great, isn't it? .... That's the Power of Love.

NARAYANA MURTHY PROFILE (INFOSYS FOUNDER)

2008-08-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

Born: August 20, 1946
Achievement: One of the founders of Infosys Technologies Limited; Chosen as the World Entrepreneur of the Year - 2003 by Ernst and Young

Narayana Murthy is the Non-Executive Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Limited. He is a living legend and an epitome of the fact that honesty, transparency, and moral integrity are not at variance with business acumen. He set new standards in corporate governance and morality when he stepped down as the Executive Chairman of Infosys at the age of 60.

Born on August 20, 1946, N.R. Narayana Murthy is a B.E. Electrical from University of Mysore (1967) and M.Tech from IIT Kanpur (1969). Narayan Murthy began his career with Patni Computer Systems in Pune. In 1981, Narayana Murthy founded Infosys with six other software professionals. In 1987, Infosys opened its first international office in U.S.A.

With the liberalization of Indian economy in 1990s, Infosys grew rapidly. In 1993, the company came up with its IPO. In 1995, Infosys set up development centers across cities in India and in 1996, it set up its first office in Europe in Milton Keynes, UK. In 1999, Infosys became the first Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ. Today (in 2006), Infosys has a turnover of more than $ 2billion and has employee strength of over 50,000. In 2002, Infosys was ranked No. 1 in the "Best Employers in India 2002" survey conducted by Hewitt and in the Business World's survey of "India's Most Respected Company." Conducted in the same year.

Along with the growth of Infosys, Narayana Moorthy too has grown in stature. He has received many honors and awards. In June 2000, Asiaweek magazine featured him in a list of Asia's 50 Most Powerful People. In 2001, Narayana Murthy was named by TIME/CNN as one of the 25 most influential global executives. He was the first recipient of the Indo-French Forum Medal (2003) and was voted the World Entrepreneur of the Year - 2003 by Ernst and Young. The Economist ranked Narayana Murthy eighth on the list of the 15 most admired global leaders (2005) and Narayan Murthy also topped the Economic Times Corporate Dossier list of India's most powerful CEOs for two consecutive years - 2004 and 2005.

A STATUE IN MUSEUM

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A STATUE IN MUSEUM LOOKS LIKE A REAL HUMAN

SALARJAUNG MUSEUM

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The Salar Jung Museum is located on Musi river in Hyderabad. It is the third largest museum in India having one of the biggest one-man collections of antiques in the world. This museum was set up by Yusuf Ali Salar Jung, the prime minister of Nizam of Hyderabad. He collected objects that are now presented in the museum. The museum is open every day except Friday, from 10.00 a.m. To 5.00 p.m. This museum displays an impressive collection of European and Indian paintings.

¤ Establishment of The Museum

The outstanding Salarjung Museum set up by Mir Yusuf Ali Khan was popularly known as Salar Jung III. At the age of 23, he became the Prime Minister to Nizam in 1912, but he resigned two and a half years later. After this, he started collecting antiques and art pieces. Collection of objects wasn't his hobby, it was his passion. He spent a sizable amount of his wealth on collection. In his entire lifespan he collected art objects, rare manuscripts and paintings from all over the world. This collection was basically started by his father and grandfather.

In the year 1961, this museum was declared as the "Institution of National Importance" by an Act of Parliament. This act is known as the Salar Jung Museum Act, 1961. Earlier, it was set up in Diwan Devdi. Later, the museum was re-established at the present building in 1968, situated on the banks of the Musi.

¤ A Valuable Collection

The Salar Jung museum at Hyderabad is famous for its wide collection of rare items. The museum has a wonderful collection on Indian Art, Children's Art, Middle Eastern Art, Far Eastern Art and European Art. Here, you can see sculptures, wood carvings, religious objects, manuscripts, furniture, vases, snuff boxes, utensils, archer's rings and ornaments. There are other items also like pottery, clocks, miniature paintings, portraits, silver and costumes. The museum also owns some toys, collected from countries like France, England, Switzerland, Germany, Persia, China, Japan, Burma, and Sri Lanka.

There is a vast collection of printed books on various subjects. Interested scholars can also go through a rich collection of thousands of manuscripts in Persian, Arabic and Urdu languages.

¤ The Clock Room, Highlight of The Museum

The highlight of the museum is the clock room, which is one of the best galleries here. It has a collection of more than 300 clocks. of special interest is a musical clock, sold by Cook and Kelvy of England.

¤¤ Other Attractions of The Museum

The Jade Room of the museum has some outstanding objects, belonging to the ancient Indian rulers like Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan. The museum also has world's largest private collections of art and artifacts. The Salar Jung Museum has a huge collection of over 43000 art objects, 9000 manuscripts and 47000 printed books. Some exquisite objects of art like Chinese Porcelain, Aurangazeb's Sword, and Daggers belonging to Queen Noor Jehan, Emperor Jahangir and Shah Jahan are also on display. Apart from these, sculptures, Indian paintings and Persian carpets are also exhibited. Other highlights in the museum include the "veiled Rebecca", "Mestophiles" and "the Lady with the lamp". Thus, attracting innumerable tourists.

TOURIST INFORMATION FOR GOLCONDA FORT

2008-08-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

The architecture and grandeur is not the only attraction of the fort. There is a light and sound show as well that displays the rich history of Golconda. The 55 minute show virtually brings back the glorious past to life. The show is presented in three different languages, English, Hindi and Telugu. In summers, the show timing is 7.00 PM and in winters it is showed at 6.30 PM. On Wednesday and Sunday, it is in English. On Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday it is in Hindi and on Thursday, it is in Telugu. There is no show on Mondays.

Golconda Fort possesses a unique charm which is further highlighted by the barren vast lying landscape and surrounding hills. Towering over the low lying Hyderabad, Golconda Fort has only few challengers in India when it comes to presence and grandeur. Visit Golconda Fort whose exquisiteness has to be seen to be believed.

ARCHITECTURE OF THE FORT

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Golconda Fort consists of four different forts inside a 10 Km long outer wall. There are 87 bastions, eight gateways, four drawbridges and numerous temples, beautiful palaces and mosques. You enter the fort through the outermost gateway which is called 'Fateh Darwaza', The Victory Gate. It is called so as it is through this gate that Aurangzeb marched in with his army after his victory. This humongous gate is laden with huge iron spikes which proved helpful in saving it from being knocked down by elephants. Not only is the gate an attraction, the archway dome too is a marvel in itself. It is famous for the acoustics effect that is produced inside the dome. It is said that if you clap your hands inside the dome, it can be heard a kilometer away. This effect was used to send a warning of an approaching attack to 'Bala Hisar', which is the highest point of the fort. The gate at 'Bala Hisar' is decorated with many carvings and designs. The fort was said to have impressive water supply system and this is evident from the clay pipes that are spread out throughout the fort.

GOLCONDA HISTORY

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An interesting legend is there behind the construction of Golconda Fort. In the year 1143, a shephard boy found an idol on a hill called 'Mangalavarm'. When the news reached the ears of the Kakatiya king who was ruling at that time, he decided to build a mud fort around the spot where the idol was found. And the hill was named 'Gola Konda' which means Shephard's hill. The construction of the fort was completed in the 13th century. Golconda Fort exchanged hands from Kakatiyas to State of Warangal to Qutb Shahi Dynasty. When Qutb Shahi Kings came into power around 1507 , they decided to change the entire structure of the fort and turn it into their strong hold. The first three Qutb Shahi kings turned the fort into a huge structure of granite and expanded the area covered by the fort to 5 Km in circumference. In 1687, it was attacked by Ruler Aurangzeb and during the war, major parts of the fort turned to ruins. The fort remained in service to Aurangzeb. Even in ruins, the fort was utterly difficult to penetrate. It was last sieged by Mughals after a traitor in the Aurangzeb army opened a side gate to the fort.

GOLCONDA FORT HYDERABAD

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The Golconda Fort is located about 11 Kms away, on the Western outskirts of Hyderabad city. It is located on a granite hill having a height of 120m.

¤ History of Golconda

Before the advent of Hyderabad, Deccan was ruled from Golconda fort. It was earlier established by the Kakatiya's in the 13th century and the existing structure was constructed by the Qutub Shahi kings. It was renovated by the first three Qutub Shahi kings, over a span of 62 years.

Golconda is also known as Shepherd's Hill" or "Golla Konda", in Telugu. According to a legend, a shepherd boy found an idol on the rocky hill called 'Mangalavaram'. This news reached the Kakatiya king, who was then ruling Golconda. He ordered the construction of a mud fort around the holy spot. Later, the fort was expanded by the Qutub Shahi kings into a huge structure made of granite.

¤ Attractions Within The Fort

The fort of Golconda is known for its magical acoustic system. The highest point of the fort is the 'Bala Hissar', which is located a kilometer away. The palaces, factories, water supply system and the famous 'Rahban' cannon, within the fort are some of the major attractions.

It is believed that there is a secret underground tunnel which leads from the 'Durbar Hall' and ends in one of the palaces at the foot of the hill. The fort also has the tombs of the Qutub Shahi kings. These tombs have Islamic architecture and are located about 1-km north of the outer wall of Golconda. They are encircled by beautiful gardens and numerous exquisitely carved stones.

The two individual pavilions on the outer side of Golconda are also major attractions of fort. It is built on a point which is quite rocky. The 'Kala Mandir' is also located in the fort. It can be seen from the king's durbar (king's court) which was on top of the Golconda Fort.

¤ Architectural Splendor

The wonderful acoustic system of Golconda fort speaks volumes about the architecture of the fort. This majestic structure has beautiful palaces and an ingenious water supply system. Sadly, the unique architecture of the fort is now loosing its charm.

The ventilation of the fort is absolutely fabulous having exotic designs. They were so intricately designed that cool breeze could reach the interiors of the fort, providing a respite from the heat of summer.

The Huge gates of the fort are decorated with large pointed iron spikes. These spikes prevented Elephants from damaging the fort. The fort of Golconda is encircled by a 11-km long outer wall. This was build in order to fortify the fort.

¤ The Highlight of The Fort

The highlight of the Golconda fort is a sound and light show. It depicts the glorious past of this grand fortress. This audio - visual extravaganza is presented in English, Hindi and Telugu. It is a worth watching show.

¤ Timings of The Sound and Light Show

The timings of the show are different for winters and summers. In winters, that is from the months of November to February, the show starts at 6:30 pm. In summers, that is in the months of March to October, the show starts at 7:00 pm.

The English version of the show is presented on Wednesdays and Sundays and the Hindi version is presented on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Apart form these, the Telugu version is presented on Thursdays. There is no show on Mondays. The duration of the show is about 55 minutes.

¤ Reach Golconda Fort
By Air : Hyderabad can be reached by air, from all the major cities of the country.
By Rail : Hyderabad is well connected by rail to all parts of the country.
By Road : There is a regular bus service to Hyderabad from many cities in southern, central and southeastern parts of the country.
Local Transport : Golconda Fort is around 11-km from Hyderabad. Auto rickshaws and Taxis are available apart from luxury/semi-luxury buses, for local transportation.

HYDERABAD CITY HISTORY

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Hyderabad the capital of Andhra Pradesh, founded in the year 1591 by Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah, the fifth sultan of Qutb Shahi dynasty, offers a fascinating panorama of the past, with richly mixed cultural and historical tradition spanning over 400 years. It is one of the fastest growing cities of India and has emerged as a strong industrial, commercial, technology center, gives a picture of glimpses of past splenders and the legacy of its old history.The history of Hyderabad begins with the establishment of the Qutb Shahi dynasty. Quli Qutb Shah seized the reins of power from the Bahamani kingdom in 1512 and established the fortress city of Golconda. Inadequacy of water, and frequent epidemics of plague and cholera persuaded Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah to venture outward to establish new city with the Charminar at its centre and with four great roads fanning out four cardinal directions. Hyderabad's fame, strategic location and Golconda's legendary wealth attracted Aurangazeb who captured Golconda after a long seize in 1687.

After this defeat the importance of Hyderabad declined and the city fell into partial ruins. As the Moghul empire decayed and began to disintegrate, the viceroy, Asaf Jah I proclaimed himself the Nizam and established independence rule of the Deccan. Hyderabad once again became a major capital city, ruled by successive Nizams of the Asaf Jahi dynasty until the state was merged into Indian Union in 1948.

SECUNDERABAD: In 1798, a subsidiary alliance for military and political cooperation was signed between the Nizam and the British East India company.

There after an area north of what is now the Hussain Sagar was established as a cantonment. The area was named Secunderabad after the then Nizam, Sikander Jah.

From nawabs and pearls to the world's hi-tech happening point, the city's journey is fascinating. The sprawling metropolis is coming to terms with itself at the start of the new millenium. The Qutb Shahi dynasty founded the Kingdom of Golconda, one of the five kingdoms that emerged after the break up of the Bahamani Kingdom. The Qutb Shahis ruled the Deccan for almost 171 years.All the seven rulers were patrons of learning and were great builders. They contributed to the growth and development of Indo-Persian and Indo-Islamic literature and culture in Hyderabad. During the Qutb Shahi reign Golconda became one of the leading markets in the world of diamonds, pearls, steel for arms, and also printed fabric. The glory of the Golconda kingdom ended in 1687, after a valiant struggle. Aurangzeb, the last great Mughal ruler, captured Golconda after a siege that lasted eight months.

Abul Hasan Tana Shah, the last king of Golconda, was imprisoned at Daulatabad, where he died after twelve years in captivity. With the conquest of the Deccan and the South, Aurangzeb succeeded in expanding the Mughal Empire to cover the entire sub-continent. However, after his death in 1707, the Empire rapidly declined. At that time , the Deccan was administered by a Subedar or viceroy of the Mughal Emperor. Mir Quamaruddin, the Governor of the Deccan, who bore the title of Nizam-ul-Mulk Feroze Jung Asif Jah, declared his independence from Mughal rule in 1724.

He thus became the first Nizam and the founder of the Asif Jahi dynasty. Asif Jah I continued to maintain Aruangabad, which had been founded by the Mughal rulers as the capital of his new state. In 1769, Nizam Ali Khan Asif Jah II, shifted the capital to Hyderabad. The seven Nizam's of the Asif Jahi dynasty ruled the Deccan for nearly 224 years, right up to 1948. During the Asif Jahi period, Persian, Urdu, Telugu and Marathi developed simultaneously. The highest official positions were given to deserving persons irrespective of their religion.

Persian was the official language up to 1893 and then Urdu up to 1948. When the British and the French spread their hold over the country, the Nizam soon won their friendship without bequeathing his power. The title "Faithful. Ally of the British Government" was bestowed on Nizam VII. The British stationed a Resident at Hyderabad, but the state continued to be ruled by the Nizam.

The rule of the seven Nizam's saw the growth of Hyderabad both culturally and economically. Huge reservoirs, like the Nizam Sagar, Tungabadra, Osman Sagar, Himayath Sagar, and others were built. Survey work on Nagarjuna Sagar had also begun during this time. Hyderabad, under the Nizam's, was the largest princely state in India. Area wise it was as big as England and Scotland put together. The State had its own currency, mint, railways, and postal system. There was no income tax. Soon after India gained independence, Hyderabad State merged with the Union of India. On November 1, 1956 the map of India was redrawn into linguistic states, and Hyderabad became the capital of Andhra Pradesh.

CHARMINAR HISTORY

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">FACTS & FIGURES

Built in	:	1591 AD
Built by	:	Mohammad Quli Qutub Shah
Location	:	Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh)

JEWEL OF HYDERABAD

Hyderabad, the capital city of the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, is famous all over the world for its magnificent Charminar (four minarets). Often called "The Arc de triomphe of the East", Charminar was built by Mohammad Quli Qutub Shah, the erstwhile Qutub Shahi Sultan of Golconda, in 1591. It was the centre of attraction of the magnificent capital city of Mohammad Quli Qutub Shah. In spite of it being dwarfed by present day buildings, the Charminar has not lost its erstwhile majesty and continues to attract travellers. Presently, Charminar stands with pride, at the centre of the old city.

"> INDO-ISLAMIC STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE

Indo-Islamic style of architecture is neither a local variant of Islamic architecture that reached India in the middle ages, nor a modification of Hindu art, but it is an assimilation of both the styles, though not always in an equal degree. It is so because each region in India has its own form of Indo-Islamic architecture, which varies from place to place and there is no standardization. On the other hand Islamic art itself was a composite style, which had various Muslims influences like Turkish, Persian and Arabic.

Rulers from different parts of the Muslim world, who came and settled in India, brought with them the artistic traditions of their regions. The intermingling of such traditions with local Indian practices resulted in different forms of Indo-Islamic art. In Delhi, Islamic influences dominated while in the Deccan, local styles were more prominent in the buildings. In Bengal, the indigenous practice of using bricks for building was adopted and the monuments were richly decorated with chiselled and moulded decorations typical of Hindu temples.

Though both the Indian and Islamic styles have their own distinctive features, there are some common characteristics, which made fusion and adaptation easy. Both the styles favour ornamentation, and buildings belonging to both these styles are marked by the presence of an open court encompassed by chambers or colonnades.

The Charminar is an excellent example of the Indo-Islamic style of architecture. The four arched gates and the four towering minarets of this building reflect its Islamic lineage but the overall rendering of the building reflects a strong local influence. The decorations on the main structure and the minarets are ample evidence of local architectural traditions.

"> CHARMINAR

The Charminar is an imposing monument, which reflects the glory of the Qutub Shahi dynasty. It is a massive square structure, 56 m (183.72 ft) high and 30 m (98.42 ft) wide. This monument is built entirely of granite and lime mortar. It has 4 minarets one on each of its corners. These fluted minarets are attached to the main building and rise towards the sky to a height of 56 m (183.72 ft). Each minaret of the Charminar has a double balcony. A small bulbous cupola crowns each of these beautiful minarets, which is decorated with petal like formations. A short pointed spire crowns all the minarets.

The four grand arches of the Charminar face the four cardinal directions. Once upon a time each of these arches led to four royal roads. Each of the four arches is decorated on its sides with a row of small arched niches. The Charminar is a two-storied building with the first floor being covered. The elegant balconies on this floor provide excellent vantage point for viewing the surrounding areas. There is a small mosque on the top floor of the building, which can be reached by climbing a total of 149 steps. The mosque is situated on the western side facing the Muslim holy city of Mecca. There are as many as 45 prayer spaces on this floor, which does not have a roof on top of it. It is said that people thronged this mosque to offer Friday prayers, during the reign of the Qutub Shahi dynasty in Hyderabad. This mosque is the oldest surviving mosque in the city of Hyderabad. The panoramic view of the city from the top is simply breathtaking.

The Charminar is a unique blend of the Indo-Islamic style of architecture that flourished in India during the medieval period. The beauty of this enchanting monument is accentuated every evening when it is illuminated.

">HOW TO REACH

Hyderabad and Secunderabad are twin cities, and share the same airport - Begumpet airport that is well connected by air with important Indian cities. It is located at a distance of six kilometres from Secunderabad and is 15 km from Old City (Old City of Hyderabad), where Charminar is situated. Taxis are easily available from the airport for the twin cities.

Hyderabad is also well connected by train and road with important destinations in India. To travel to the Charminar, you can make use of local buses (that ply on fixed routes within the city), taxis or auto-rickshaws. Rented cars available in Hyderabad are ideally suited for exploring the city and places around it.

INTANGIBLE MONEY

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The break with precious metals helped to make money a more elusive entity. Another trend in the same direction is the growing interest in forms of electronic money from the 1990s onwards. In some ways e-money is a logical evolution from the wire transfers that came about with the widespread adoption of the telegraph in the 19th century but such transfers had relatively little impact on the everyday shopper.

The evolution of money has not stopped. Securitisation, the turning of illiquid assets into cash, developed in new directions in the 1990s. One much publicised development was the invention of bonds backed by intangible assets such as copyright of music, e.g.BOWIE BONDS, named after those issued by the popstar David Bowie. (See also something wild, the first novel dealing with Bowie bonds).

BILLS OF EXCHANGE

2008-08-03T08:53:00.002-07:00

With the revival of banking in western Europe, stimulated by the Crusades, written instructions in the form of bills of exchange, came to be used as a means of transferring large sums of money and the Knights Templars and Hospitallers functioned as bankers. (It is possible that the Arabs may have used bills of exchange at a much earlier date, perhaps as early as the eighth century). The use of paper as currency came much later.

PAPER MONEY

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In China the issue of paper money became common from about AD 960 onwards but there had been occasional issues long before that. A motive for one such early issue, in the reign of Emperor Hien Tsung 806-821, was a shortage of copper for making coins. A drain of currency from China, partly to buy off potential invaders from the north, led to greater reliance on paper money with the result that by 1020 the quantity issued was excessive, causing inflation. In subsequent centuries there were several episodes of hyperinflation and after about 1455, after well over 500 years of using paper money, China abandoned

MONEY EXCHANGE AND CREDIT TRANSFER

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The great variety of coinages originally in use in the Hellenic world meant that money changing was the earliest and most common form of Greek banking. Usually the money changers would carry out their business in or around temples and other public buildings, setting up their trapezium-shaped tables (which usually carried a series of lines and squares for assisting calculations), from which the Greek bankers, the trapezitai derived their name, much as our name for bank comes from the Italian banca for bench or counter. The close association between banking, money changing and temples is best known to us from the episode of Christ's overturning the tables in the Temple of Jerusalem (Matthew 21.12).

Money changing was not the only form of banking. One of the most important services was bottomry or lending to finance the carriage of freight by ships. Other business enterprises supported by the Greek bankers included mining and construction of public buildings. The most famous and richest of all was Pasion who started his banking career in 394 BC as a slave in the service of two leading Athenian bankers and rose to eclipse his masters, gaining in the process not only his freedom but also Athenian citizenship. In addition to his banking business he owned the largest shield factory in Greece and also conducted a hiring business lending domestic articles such as clothes, blankets, silver bowls etc. for a lucrative fee.

When Egypt fell under the rule of a Greek dynasty, the Ptolemies (323-30 BC) the old system of warehouse banking reached a new level of sophistication. The numerous scattered government granaries were transformed into a network of grain banks with what amounted to a central bank in Alexandria where the main accounts from all the state granary banks were recorded. This banking network functioned as a giro system in which payments were effected by transfer from one account to another without money passing. As double entry booking had not been invented credit transfers were recorded by varying the case endings of the names involved, credit entries being in the genitive or possessive case and debit entries in the dative case.

Credit transfer was also a characteristic feature of the services provided in Delos which rose to prominence in banking during the late second and third centuries BC. As a barren offshore island its inhabitants had to live off their wits and make the most of their two great assets - the island's magnificent natural harbour and the famous temple of Apollo - around which their trading and financial activities developed. Whereas in Athens banking, in its early days, had been carried on exclusively in cash, in Delos cash transactions were replaced by real credit receipts and payments made on simple instructions with accounts kept for each client.

The main commercial rivals of Delos, Carthage and Corinth, were both destroyed by Rome and consequently it was natural that the Bank of Delos should become the model most closely imitated by the banks of Rome. However their importance was limited by the Roman preference for cash transactions with coins. Whereas the Babylonians had developed their banking to a sophisticated degree because their banks had to carry out the monetary functions of coinage (since coins had not been invented), and the Ptolemaic Egyptians segregated their limited coinage system from their state banking system to economise on the use of precious metals, the Romans preferred coins for many kinds of services which ancient (and modern) banks normally provided. After the fall of the Roman Empire banking was forgotten and had to be re-invented much later.

Banking re-emerged in Europe at about the time of the Crusades. In Italian city states such as Rome, Venice and Genoa, and in the fairs of medieval France, the need to transfer sums of money for trading purposes led to the development of financial services including bills of exchange. Although it is possible that such bills had been used by the Arabs in the eighth century and the Jews in the tenth, the first for which definite evidence exists was a contract issued in Genoa in 1156 to enable two brothers who had borrowed 115 Genoese pounds to reimburse the bank's agents in Constantinople by paying them 460 bezants one month after their arrival.

The Crusades gave a great stimulus to banking because payments for supplies, equipment, allies, ransoms etc. required safe and speedy means of transferring vast resources of cash. Consequently the Knights of the Temple and the Hospitallers began to provide some banking services such as those already being developed in some of the Italian city states.

GREEK COINAGE

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One of the smaller Greek coins was the silver obol. In the Attic standard of weights and coinage six silver obols were worth one silver drachma. It is interesting to note that before the development of coinage six of the pointed spits or elongated nails used as tool currency constituted a customary handful similar to that of the even earlier grain-based methods. Therefore one of the early Greek coins, the obol, was simply a continuation of a primitive form of money - the iron spit or pointed rod.

Inflation was a problem even in the early days of coin production. In 407 BC Sparta captured the Athenian silver mines at Laurion and released around 20,000 slaves. As a result Athens was faced with a grave shortage of coins and in 406 and 405 BC issued bronze coins with a thin plating of silver. The result was that the shortage became even worse. Good coins tended to disappear from circulation since people naturally kept them and used the new coins instead in order to get rid of them.

This gave rise to what is probably the world's first statement of Gresham's law, that bad money drives out good, in Aristophanes' play, The Frogs, produced in 405 BC. Aristophanes wrote "the ancient coins are excellent...yet we make no use of them and prefer those bad copper pieces quite recently issued and so wretchedly struck." These base coins were demonetized in 393 BC.

Considerable rivalry developed between different currencies. "In coinage as in other matters the Greek city-states strove desperately for predominance, as did their arch-rivals the Persian emperors."

City-states with strong and widely accepted currencies would have gained prestige. In the 1960s newly independent countries in the Third World took pride in the trappings of nationhood - their own airlines, national banks, and currency. The city states of ancient Greece took a similar pride in their currencies - as is suggested by the beauty of their coins. Glyn Davies quotes another author, J. Porteous, who wrote " the fifth century saw the minting of the most beautiful coins ever made." He also quotes two historians, Austin and Vidal-Naquet, who claimed that "in the history of Greek cities coinage was always first and foremost a civic emblem. To strike coins with the badge of the city was to proclaim one's political independence."

Coercion played a role in establishing monetary uniformity. In 456 BC Athens forced Aegina to take Athenian 'owls' and to stop minting her own 'turtle' coinage and in 449 BC Athens issued an edict ordering all 'foreign' coins to be handed in to the Athenian mint and compelling all her allies to use the Attic standard of weights, measures and money. The conquests of Alexander the Great brought about a large degree of monetary uniformity over much of the known world. His father, Philip, had issued coins celebrating his triumph in the chariot race in Olympic games of 356 BC - an example of the use of coins as propaganda.

The Roman emperors made even more extensive use of coins for propaganda, one historian going so far as to claim that "the primary function of the coins is to record the messages which the emperor and his advisers desired to commend to the populations of the empire."

On pages 85-86, Glyn Davies points out that "coins were by far the best propaganda weapon available for advertising Greek, Roman or any other civilization in the days before mechanical printing was invented."

THE INVENTION OF BANKING AND COINAGE

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The invention of banking preceded that of coinage. Banking originated in Ancient Mesopotamia where the royal palaces and temples provided secure places for the safe-keeping of grain and other commodities. Receipts came to be used for transfers not only to the original depositors but also to third parties. Eventually private houses in Mesopotamia also got involved in these banking operations and laws regulating them were included in the code of Hammurabi.

In Egypt too the centralization of harvests in state warehouses also led to the development of a system of banking. Written orders for the withdrawal of separate lots of grain by owners whose crops had been deposited there for safety and convenience, or which had been compulsorily deposited to the credit of the king, soon became used as a more general method of payment of debts to other persons including tax gatherers, priests and traders. Even after the introduction of coinage these Egyptian grain banks served to reduce the need for precious metals which tended to be reserved for foreign purchases, particularly in connection with military activities.

Precious metals, in weighed quantities, were a common form of money in ancient times. The transition to quantities that could be counted rather than weighed came gradually. On page 29 of A History of Money Glyn Davies points out that the words "spend", "expenditure", and "pound" (as in the main British monetary unit) all come from the Latin "expendere" meaning "to weigh". On page 74 the author points out that the basic unit of weight in the Greek speaking world was the "drachma" or "handful" of grain, but the precise weight taken to represent this varied considerably, for example from less than 3 grams in Corinth to more than 6 grams in Aegina. Throughout much of the ancient world the basic unit of money was the stater, meaning literally "balancer" or "weigher". The talent is a monetary unit with which we are familiar with from the Parable of the Talents in the Bible. The talent was also a Greek unit of weight, about 60 pounds.

Many primitive forms of money were counted just like coins. Cowrie shells, obtained from some islands in the Indian Ocean, were a very widely used primitive form of money - in fact they were still in use in some parts of the world (such as Nigeria) within living memory. "So important a role did the cowrie play as money in ancient China that its pictograph was adopted in their written language for money." (page 36) Thus it is not surprising that among the earliest countable metallic money or "coins" were "cowries" made of bronze or copper, in China.

In addition to these metal "cowries" the Chinese also produced "coins" in the form of other objects that had long been accepted in their society as money e.g. spades, hoes, and knives. Although there is some dispute over exactly when these developments first took place, the Chinese tool currencies were in general use at about the same time as the earliest European coins and there have been claims that their origins may have been much earlier, possibly as early as the end of the second millennium BC. The use of tool coins developed (presumably independently) in the West. The ancient Greeks used iron nails as coins, while Julius Caesar regarded the fact that the ancient Britons used sword blades as coins as a sign of their backwardness. (However the Britons did also mint true coins before they were conquered by the Romans).

These quasi-coins were all easy to counterfeit and, being made of base metals, of low intrinsic worth and thus not convenient for expensive purchases. True coinage developed in Asia Minor as a result of the practice of the Lydians, of stamping small round pieces of precious metals as a guarantee of their purity. Later, when their metallurgical skills improved and these pieces became more regular in form and weight the seals served as a symbol of both purity and weight. The first real coins were probably minted some time in the period 640 - 630 BC. Afterwards the use of coins spread quickly from Lydia to Ionia, mainland Greece, and Persia.

PRIMITIVE FORMS OF MONEY

2008-08-03T08:49:00.001-07:00

The use of primitive forms of money in the Third World and North America is more recent and better documented than in Europe and its study sheds light on the probable origins of modern money. Among the topics treated are the use of wampum and the custom of the potlatch or competitive gift exchange in North America, disc-shaped stones in Yap, cowrie shells over much of Africa and Asia, cattle, manillas and whales teeth.

Manillas were ornamental metallic objects worn as jewelry in west Africa and used as money as recently as 1949. They were an ostentatious form of ornamentation, their value in that role being a prime reason for their acceptability as money. Wampum's use as money in north America undoubtedly came about as an extension of its desirability for ornamentation. Precious metals have had ornamental uses throughout history and that could be one reason why they were adopted for use as money in many ancient societies and civilizations.

In Fijian society gifts of whales teeth were (and in certain cases still are) a significant feature of certain ceremonies. One of their uses was as bride-money, with a symbolic meaning similar to that of the engagement ring in Western society. Whales teeth were "tambua" (from which our word "taboo" comes) meaning that they had religious significance, as did the fei stones of Yap which were still being used as money as recently as the mid 1960s.

The potlatch ceremonies of Native Americans were a form of barter that had social and ceremonial functions that were at least as important as its economic functions. Consequently when the potlatch was outlawed in Canada (by an act that was later repealed) some of the most powerful work incentives were removed - to the detriment of the younger sections of the Indian communities. This form of barter was not unique to North America. Glyn Davies points out that the most celebrated example of competitive gift exchange was the encounter, around 950 BC, of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. "Extravagant ostentation, the attempt to outdo each other in the splendour of the exchanges, and above all, the obligations of reciprocity, were just as typical in this celebrated encounter, though at a fittingly princely level, as with the more mundane types of barter in other parts of the world." (page 13).

Cattle are described by the author as mankind's "first working capital asset" (page 41). The religious use of cattle for sacrifices probably preceded their adoption for more general monetary purposes. For sacrifice quality - "without spot or blemish" - was important but for monetary purposes quantity was of more significance since cattle, like coins, can be counted. Obviously there were very practical reasons for the association between cattle and wealth but anthropological evidence from Africa in very recent times shows that when cattle are regarded as a form of money, not only health cattle but also scrawny ones will be valued to the detriment of the environment supporting them and their owners.

Glyn Davies quotes linguistic evidence to show how ancient and widespread the association between cattle and money was. The English words "capital", "chattels" and "cattle" have a common root. Similarly "pecuniary" comes from the Latin word for cattle "pecus" while in Welsh (the author's mother tongue) the word "da" used as an adjective means "good" but used as a noun means both "cattle" and "goods".

The author also cautions that "one should not confuse the abstract concept of an ox as a unit of account or standard of value, which is its essential but not only monetary function, with its admittedly cumbersome physical form. Once that is realized (a position quickly reached by primitive man if not yet by all economists or anthropologists), the inclusion of cattle as money is easily accepted, in practice and logic." (Page 41). He also points out that until well into the present century the Kirghiz of the Russian steppes used horses as their main monetary unit with sheep as a subsidiary unit. Small change was given in lambskins.

CAUSES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF MONEY

2008-08-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

"Money originated very largely from non-economic causes: from tribute as well as from trade, from blood-money and bride-money as well as from barter, from ceremonial and religious rites as well as from commerce, from ostentatious ornamentation as well as from acting as the common drudge between economic men."

One of the most important improvements over the simplest forms of early barter was the tendency to select one or two items in preference to others so that the preferred items became partly accepted because of their qualities in acting as media of exchange. Commodities were chosen as preferred barter items for a number of reasons - some because they were conveniently and easily stored, some because they had high value densities and were easily portable, and some because they were durable. These commodities, being widely desired, would be easy to exchange for others and therefore they came to be accepted as money.

To the extent that the disadvantages of barter provided an impetus for the development of money that impetus was purely economic but archaeological, literary and linguistic evidence of the ancient world, and the tangible evidence of actual types of primitive money from many countries demonstrate that barter was not the main factor in the origins and earliest development of money.

Many societies had laws requiring compensation in some form for crimes of violence, instead of the Old Testament approach of "an eye for an eye". The author notes that the word to "pay" is derived from the Latin "pacare" meaning originally to pacify, appease, or make peace with - through the appropriate unit of value customarily acceptable to both sides. A similarly widespread custom was payment for brides in order to compensate the head of the family for the loss of a daughter's services. Rulers have since very ancient times imposed taxes on or exacted tribute from their subjects. Religious obligations might also entail payment of tribute or sacrifices of some kind. Thus in many societies there was a requirement for a means of payment for blood-money, bride-money, tax or tribute and this gave a great impetus to the spread of money.

Objects originally accepted for one purpose were often found to be useful for other non-economic purposes and, because of their growing acceptability began to be used for general trading also, supplementing or replacing barter.

Thus the use of money evolved out of deeply rooted customs; the clumsiness of barter provided an economic impulse but that was not the primary factor. It evolved independently in different parts of the world. About the only civilization that functioned without money was that of the Incas.

FUNCTIONS OF MONEY

2008-08-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

Unit of account (abstract)
Common measure of value (abstract)
Medium of exchange (concrete)
Means of payment (concrete)
Standard for deferred payments (abstract)
Store of value (concrete)

General functions (mostly macro-economic and abstract)

Liquid asset
Framework of the market allocative system (prices)
A causative factor in the economy
Controller of the economy

The table above comes from page 27 of A History of Money.

Not everything used as money as all the functions listed above. Furthermore the functions of any particular form of money may change over time. As Glyn Davies points out on page 28:

"What is now the prime or main function in a particular community or country may not have been the first or original function in time, while what may well have been a secondary or derived function in one place may have been in some other region the original which gave rise to a related secondary function... The logical listing of functions in the table therefore implies no priority in either time or importance, for those which may be both first and foremost reflect only their particular time and place."

what is money ?

2008-08-03T08:27:00.000-07:00

At first sight the answer to this question seems obvious; the man or woman in the street would agree on coins and banknotes, but would they accept them from any country? What about cheques? They would probably be less willing to accept them than their own country's coins and notes but bank money (i.e. anything for which you can write a cheque) actually accounts for by far the greatest proportion by value of the total supply of money. What about I.O.U.s (I owe you), credit cards and gold? The gold standard belongs to history but even today in many rich people in different parts of the world would rather keep some of their wealth in the form of gold than in official, inflation-prone currencies. The attractiveness of gold, from an aesthetic point of view, and its resistance to corrosion are two of the properties which led to its use for monetary transactions for thousands of years. In complete contrast, a form of money with virtually no tangible properties whatsoever - electronic money - seems set to gain rapidly in popularity.

All sorts of things have been used as money at different times in different places. The alphabetical list below, taken from page 27 of A History of Money by Glyn Davies, includes but a minute proportion of the enormous variety of primitive moneys, and none of the modern forms.

Amber, beads, cowries, drums, eggs, feathers, gongs, hoes, ivory, jade, kettles, leather, mats, nails, oxen, pigs, quartz, rice, salt, thimbles, umiacs, vodka, wampum, yarns, and zappozats (decorated axes).

It is almost impossible to define money in terms of its physical form or properties since these are so diverse. Therefore any definition must be based on its functions.

Functions of Money

Specific functions (mostly micro-economic)

Unit of account (abstract)
Common measure of value (abstract)
Medium of exchange (concrete)
Means of payment (concrete)
Standard for deferred payments (abstract)
Store of value (concrete)

General functions (mostly macro-economic and abstract)

Liquid asset
Framework of the market allocative system (prices)
A causative factor in the economy
Controller of the economy

The table above comes from page 27 of A History of Money.

Not everything used as money as all the functions listed above. Furthermore the functions of any particular form of money may change over time. As Glyn Davies points out on page 28:

PURPOSE OF WORLD BANK

2008-08-02T04:25:00.000-07:00

The World Bank is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge to support governments of member countries in their efforts to invest in schools and health centers, provide water and electricity, fight disease, and protect the environment.

The World Bank is not a "bank" in the common sense. The World Bank is an international organization owned by the 184 countries¾both developed and developing¾that are its members.

Since it was set up in 1944 as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The number of member countries increased sharply in the 1950s and 1960s, when many countries became independent nations. As membership grew and their needs changed, the World Bank expanded and is currently made up of five different agencies.

All support to a borrowing countries is guided by a single strategy (in the case of Afghanistan it is the "Transitional Support Strategy") that the country itself designs with help from the World Bank and many other donors, aid groups, and civil society organizations.

DEFINITION OF BANK ON WEB

2008-08-02T04:24:00.001-07:00

sloping land (especially the slope beside a body of water); "they pulled the canoe up on the bank"; "he sat on the bank of the river and watched ...

depository financial institution: a financial institution that accepts deposits and channels the money into lending activities; "he cashed a check at the bank"; "that bank holds the mortgage on my home"

tip laterally; "the pilot had to bank the aircraft"

a long ridge or pile; "a huge bank of earth"

enclose with a bank; "bank roads"

an arrangement of similar objects in a row or in tiers; "he operated a bank of switches"

do business with a bank or keep an account at a bank; "Where do you bank in this town?"

a supply or stock held in reserve for future use (especially in emergencies)

act as the banker in a game or in gambling

the funds held by a gambling house or the dealer in some gambling games; "he tried to break the bank at Monte Carlo"

a slope in the turn of a road or track; the outside is higher than the inside in order to reduce the effects of centrifugal force

be in the banking business

deposit: put into a bank account; "She deposits her paycheck every month"

savings bank: a container (usually with a slot in the top) for keeping money at home; "the coin bank was empty"

a building in which the business of banking transacted; "the bank is on the corner of Nassau and Witherspoon"

cover with ashes so to control the rate of burning; "bank a fire"

a flight maneuver; aircraft tips laterally about its longitudinal axis (especially in turning); "the plane went into a steep bank"

trust: have confidence or faith in; "We can trust in God"; "Rely on your friends"; "bank on your good education"; "I swear by my grandmother's recipes"

RATAN TATA PROFILE

2008-08-02T04:11:00.000-07:00

Born: December 28, 1937
Achievement: Honored with Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian awards in 2000.

Ratan Tata is presently the Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group. Ratan Naval Tata is also the Chairman of the major Tata companies such as Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Tea, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels and Tata Teleservices. He has taken Tata Group to new heights and under his leadership Group's revenues have grown manifold.

Ratan Tata was born on December 28, 1937, in Bombay. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in architecture from Cornell University in 1962. Ratan Tata had a short stint with Jones and Emmons in Los Angeles, California, before returning to India in late 1962. He joined the Tata Group and was assigned to various companies before being appointed director-in-charge of The National Radio & Electronics Company (NELCO) in 1971. Ratan Tata was appointed Chairman of Tata Industries in 1981. He was assigned the task of transforming the company into a Group strategy think-tank, and a promoter of new ventures in high technology businesses.

In 1991, Ratan Tata took over the Chairmanship from JRD Tata. Under him Tata Consultancy Services went public and Tata Motors was listed in the New York Stock Exchange. In 1998, Tata Motors came up with Tata Indica, the first truly Indian car. The car was the brainchild of Ratan Tata.

Ratan Tata was honored with Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian awards in 2000. He was also conferred an honorary doctorate in business administration by Ohio State University, an honorary doctorate in technology by the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, and an honorary doctorate in science by the University of Warwick.

LARRY ELLISON NAME&SPOUSE NAME

2008-08-02T04:04:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth

17August 1944,Bronx,Newyork,Usa

Birth Name

Lawrence Joseph Ellison

Spouse

Melanie Craft	(18December2003 - present)
Barbara Boothe	(1983 - 1986) (divorced) 2 children
Nancy Wheeler	(1977 - 1978) (divorced)
Adda Quinn	(1967 - 1974) (divorced)

larry ellison(founder of oracle) biography

2008-08-02T03:58:00.000-07:00

Lawrence J. Ellison was born in the Bronx, New York. At nine months, he contracted pneumonia, and his unmarried 19-year-old mother gave him to her aunt and uncle in Chicago to raise. Lawrence was raised in a two-bedroom apartment on the city's South Side. Until he was twelve years old he did not know that he was adopted. His adoptive father had lost his real estate business in the Great Depression and made a modest living as an auditor for the public housing authority. As a boy, Larry Ellison showed an independent, rebellious streak and often clashed with his adoptive father. From an early age, he showed a strong aptitude for math and science, and was named science student of the year at the University of Illinois.

During the final exams in his second year, Larry Ellison's adoptive mother died, and he dropped out of school. He enrolled at the University of Chicago the following fall, but dropped out again after the first semester. His adoptive father was now convinced that Larry would never make anything of himself, but the seemingly aimless young man had already learned the rudiments of computer programming in Chicago. He took this skill with him to Berkeley, California, arriving with just enough money for fast food and a few tanks of gas. For the next eight years, Ellison bounced from job to job, working as a technician for Fireman's Fund and Wells Fargo bank. As a programmer at Ampex, he participated in building the first IBM-compatible mainframe system.

In 1977, Ellison and two of his Ampex colleagues, Robert Miner and Ed Oates, founded their own company, Software Development Labs. From the beginning, Ellison served as Chief Executive Officer. Ellison had come across a paper called "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks" by Edgar F. ("Ted") Codd, describing a concept Codd had developed at IBM. Codd's employers saw no commercial potential in the concept of a Structured Query Language (SQL), but Larry Ellison did.

Ellison and his partners won a two-year contract to build a relational database management system (RDBMS) for the CIA. The project's code name: Oracle. They finished the project a year ahead of schedule and used the extra time to develop their system for commercial applications. They named their commercial RDBMS Oracle as well. In 1980, Ellison's company had only eight employees, and revenues were less than $1 million, but the following year, IBM itself adopted Oracle for its mainframe systems, and Oracle's sales doubled every year for the next seven years,. The million dollar company was becoming a billion dollar company. Ellison renamed the company Oracle Corporation, for its best-selling product.

Oracle went public in 1986, raising $31.5 million with its initial public offering, but the firm's zealous young staff habitually overstated revenues, and in 1990 the company posted its first losses. Oracle's market capitalization fell by 80 percent and the company appeared to be on the verge of bankruptcy. Accepting the need for drastic change, he replaced much of the original senior staff with more experienced managers. For the first time, he delegated the management side of the business to professionals, and channeled his own energies into product development. A new version of the database program Oracle 7, released in 1992, swept the field and made Oracle the industry leader in database management software. In only two years the company's stock had regained much of its previous value.

Even as Oracle's fortunes rose again, Ellison suffered a series of personal mishaps. Long an enthusiast of strenuous outdoor activities, Ellison suffered serious injuries while body surfing and mountain biking. He recovered from major surgery, and continued to race his 78-foot yacht, Sayonara, and to practice aerobatics in a succession of private jets, including decommissioned fighter planes. In 1998, Ellison and Sayonara won the Sydney to Hobart race, overcoming near-hurricane winds that sank five other boats, drowning six participants. Ellison is a principal supporter of the BMW Oracle Racing team, which has been a significant force in America's Cup competition. His own yacht, Rising Sun, over 450 feet long, is one of the largest privately owned vessels in the world.

Oracle's fortunes continued to rise throughout the 1990s. America's banks, airlines, automobile companies and retail giants all came to depend on Oracle's database programs. Under Ellison's leadership, Oracle became a pioneer in providing business applications over the Internet. Oracle benefited hugely from the growth of electronic commerce; its net profits increased by 76 percent in a single quarter of the year 2000. As the stocks of other high tech companies fluctuated wildly, Oracle held its value, and its largest shareholder, founder and CEO Larry Ellison, came close to a long-cherished goal, surpassing Microsoft's Bill Gates to become the richest man in the world.

Beginning in 2004, Ellison set out to increase Oracle's market share through a series of strategic acquisitions. Oracle spent more than $25 billion in only three years to buy a flock of companies and large and small, makers of software for managing data, identity, retail inventory and logistics. The first major acquisition was PeopleSoft, purchased at the end of 2004 for $10.3 billion. No sooner was the ink dry on the PeopleSoft deal than Ellison trumped rival SAP to acquire retail software developer Retek. Within the following year, Oracle also acquired competitor Siebel Systems. Ellison capped his buying spree with the acquisition of business intelligence software provider Hyperion Solutions in 2007.

Today, Lawrence Ellison has his principal home in Woodside, California. He served as President of Oracle from 1978 to 1996, and undertook two stints as Chairman of the Board, from 1990 to 1992, and again from 1995 to 2004. Since its founding, he has been Oracle's only Chief Executive Officer.

BILL GATES SIGNATURE

2008-08-01T04:29:00.000-07:00

THE BIRTH OF MICROSOFT

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In December of 1974, Allen was on his way to visit Gates when along the way he stopped to browse the current magazines. What he saw changed his and Bill Gates's lives forever. On the cover of Popular Electronics was a picture of the Altair 8080 and the headline "World's First Microcomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models." He bought the issue and rushed over to Gates's dorm room. They both recognized this as their big opportunity. The two knew that the home computer market was about to explode and that someone would need to make software for the new machines. Within a few days, Gates had called MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), the makers of the Altair. He told the company that he and Allen had developed a BASIC that could be used on the Altair [Teamgates.com, 9/29/96]. This was a lie. They had not even written a line of code. They had neither an Altair nor the chip that ran the computer. The MITS company did not know this and was very interested in seeing their BASIC. So, Gates and Allen began working feverishly on the BASIC they had promised. The code for the program was left mostly up to Bill Gates while Paul Allen began working on a way to simulate the Altair with the schools PDP-10. Eight weeks later, the two felt their program was ready. Allen was to fly to MITS and show off their creation. The day after Allen arrived at MITS, it was time to test their BASIC. Entering the program into the company's Altair was the first time Allen had ever touched one. If the Altair simulation he designed or any of Gates's code was faulty, the demonstration would most likely have ended in failure. This was not the case, and the program worked perfectly the first time [Wallace, 1992, p. 80]. MITS arranged a deal with Gates and Allen to buy the rights to their BASIC.[Teamgates.com, 9/29/96] Gates was convinced that the software market had been born. Within a year, Bill Gates had dropped out of Harvard and Microsoft was formed.

BILL GATES-FAMILY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD

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Family and Early Childhood

On October 28, 1955, shortly after 9:00 p.m., William Henry Gates III was born. He was born into a family with a rich history in business, politics, and community service. His great-grandfather had been a state legislator and mayor, his grandfather was the vice president of a national bank, and his father was a prominent lawyer. [Wallace, 1992, p. 8-9] Early on in life, it was apparent that Bill Gates inherited the ambition, intelligence, and competitive spirit that had helped his progenitors rise to the top in their chosen professions. In elementary school he quickly surpassed all of his peer's abilities in nearly all subjects, especially math and science. His parents recognized his intelligence and decided to enroll him in Lakeside, a private school known for its intense academic environment. This decision had far reaching effects on Bill Gates's life. For at Lakeside, Bill Gates was first introduced to computers.

First computing Experience

In the Spring of 1968, the Lakeside prep school decided that it should acquaint the student body with the world of computers [Teamgates.com, 9/29/96]. Computers were still too large and costly for the school to purchase its own. Instead, the school had a fund raiser and bought computer time on a DEC-PDP-10 owned by General Electric. A few thousand dollars were raised which the school figured would buy more than enough time to last into the next school year. However, Lakeside had drastically underestimated the allure this machine would have for a hand full of young students.

Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and a few other Lakeside students (many of whom were the first programmers hired at Microsoft) immediately became inseparable from the computer. They would stay in the computer room all day and night, writing programs, reading computer literature and anything else they could to learn about computing. Soon Gates and the others started running into problems with the faculty. Their homework was being turned in late (if at all), they were skipping classes to be in the computer room and worst of all, they had used up all of the schools computer time in just a few weeks. [Wallace, 1992, p. 24]

In the fall of 1968, Computer Center Corporation opened for business in Seattle. It was offering computing time at good rates, and one of the chief programmers working for the corporation had a child attending Lakeside. A deal was struck between Lakeside Prep School and the Computer Center Corporation that allowed the school to continue providing it's students with computer time. [Wallace, 1992, p. 27] Gates and his comrades immediately began exploring the contents of this new machine. It was not long before the young hackers started causing problems. They caused the system to crash several times and broke the computers security system. They even altered the files that recorded the amount of computer time they were using. They were caught and the Computer Center Corporation banned them from the system for several weeks.

Bill Gates, Paul Allen and, two other hackers from Lakeside formed the Lakeside Programmers Group in late 1968. They were determined to find a way to apply their computer skills in the real world. The first opportunity to do this was a direct result of their mischievous activity with the school's computer time. The Computer Center Corporation's business was beginning to suffer due to the systems weak security and the frequency that it crashed. Impressed with Gates and the other Lakeside computer addicts' previous assaults on their computer, the Computer Center Corporation decided to hire the students to find bugs and expose weaknesses in the computer system. In return for the Lakeside Programming Group's help, the Computer Center Corporation would give them unlimited computer time [Wallace, 1992, p. 27]. The boys could not refuse. Gates is quoted as saying "It was when we got free time at C-cubed (Computer Center Corporation) that we really got into computers. I mean, then I became hardcore. It was day and night" [Wallace, 1992, p. 30]. Although the group was hired just to find bugs, they also read any computer related material that the day shift had left behind. The young hackers would even pick employees for new information. It was here that Gates and Allen really began to develop the talents that would lead to the formation of Microsoft seven years later.

Roots of Business Career

Computer Center Corporation began to experience financial problems late in 1969. The company finally went out of business in March of 1970. The Lakeside Programmers Group had to find a new way to get computer time. Eventually they found a few computers on the University of Washington's campus where Allen's dad worked. The Lakeside Programmers Group began searching for new chances to apply their computer skills. Their first opportunity came early the next year when Information Sciences Inc. hired them to program a payroll program. Once again the group was given free computer time and for the first time, a source of income. ISI had agreed to give them royalties whenever it made money from any of the groups programs. As a result of the business deal signed with Information Sciences Inc., the group also had to become a legal business [Wallace, 1992, p. 42-43]. Gates and Allen's next project involved starting another company entirely on their own, Traf-O-Data. They produced a small computer which was used to help measure traffic flow. From the project they grossed around $20,000. The Traf-O-Data company lasted until Gates left for college. During Bill Gates' junior year at Lakeside, the administration offered him a job computerizing the school's scheduling system. Gates asked Allen to help with the project. He agreed and the following summer, they wrote the program. In his senior year, Gates and Allen continued looking for opportunities to use their skills and make some money. It was not long until they found this opportunity. The defense contractor TRW was having trouble with a bug infested computer similar to the one at Computer Center Corporation. TRW had learned of the experience the two had working on the Computer Center Corporation's system and offered Gates and Allen jobs. However thing would be different at TRW they would not be finding the bugs they would be in charge of fixing them. "It was at TRW that Gates began to develop as a serious programer," and it was there that Allen and Gates first started talking seriously about forming their own software company [Wallace, 1992, p. 49-51].

In the fall of 1973, Bill Gates left home for Harvard University [Teamgates.com, 9/29/96]. He had no idea what he wanted to study, so he enrolled as prelaw. Gates took the standard freshman courses with the exception of signing up for one of Harvard's toughest math courses. He did well but just as in high school, his heart was not in his studies. After locating the school's computer center, he lost himself in the world of computers once again. Gates would spend many long nights in front of the school's computer and the next days asleep in class. Paul Allen and Gates remained in close contact even with Bill away at school. They would often discuss ideas for future projects and the possibility of one day starting a business. At the end of Gates's first year at Harvard, the two decided that Allen should move closer to him so that they may be able to follow up on some of their ideas. That summer they both got jobs working for Honeywell [Wallace, 1992, p. 59]. As the summer dragged on, Allen began to push Bill harder with the idea that they should open a software company. Gates was still not sure enough to drop out of school. The following year, however, that would all change.

BILL GATES(CHAIRMAN OF MICRO SOFT) BIOGRAPHY

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William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft had revenues of US$51.12 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2007, and employs more than 78,000 people in 105 countries and regions.

On June 15, 2006, Microsoft announced that effective July 2008 Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After July 2008 Gates will continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor on key development projects. The two-year transition process is to ensure that there is a smooth and orderly transfer of Gates’ daily responsibilities. Effective June 2006, Ray Ozzie has assumed Gates’ previous title as chief software architect and is working side by side with Gates on all technical architecture and product oversight responsibilities at Microsoft. Craig Mundie has assumed the new title of chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft and is working closely with Gates to assume his responsibility for the company’s research and incubation efforts.

Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.

Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at age 13.

In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft's chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.

In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. Gates' foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.

Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of approximately $7.1 billion on research and development in the 2007 fiscal year.

In 1999, Gates wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Business @ the Speed of Thought has received wide critical acclaim, and was listed on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com. Gates' previous book, The Road Ahead, published in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times' bestseller list for seven weeks.

Top row: Steve Wood (left), Bob Wallace, Jim Lane. Middle row: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin. Bottom row: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen. December 7, 1978.

Gates has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development.

In addition to his love of computers and software, Gates founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world's largest resources of visual information - a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe. He is also a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which invests in companies engaged in diverse business activities.

Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $28.8 billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will be available for all people. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $3.6 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $2 billion to improve learning opportunities, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada; more than $477 million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest; and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns.

Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. They have three children. Gates is an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.

COMPUTER INVENTOR

2008-08-01T04:17:00.002-07:00

English mathematician Charles Babbage (1792–1871) designed a mechanical computing machine called the "analytical engine." It is considered the forerunner of the digital computer, a programmable electronic device that stores, retrieves, and processes data.

While attending Cambridge University in 1812, Babbage conceived of the idea of a machine that could calculate data more rapidly than existing computing methods, and without human error. The Industrial Revolution (a period of technological development; c. 1750–c. 1850) had been underway for more than half a century, and the world was becoming increasingly complex. Human errors in mathematical tables posed serious problems for many rapidly growing industries. After graduating from Cambridge, Babbage returned to the idea of developing a device to facilitate computation. Beginning work in 1834, he spent the rest of his life and much of his...

SIGNATURE OF CHARLES BABBAGE

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PICTURE OF CHARLES BABBAGE

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PAPERS ON BABAGE

2008-08-01T04:14:00.000-07:00

Whiggism in the History of Science and the Study of the Life and Work of Charles Babbage

In a recent article in the Annals of the History of Computing (Vol. 10, 1988, p 171) I. Bernard Cohen raised the question of Whiggism in the study of the life and work of Charles Babbage. Although the question of Whiggism is of the greatest interest to the history of science more generally, it has hardly been discussed at all in connection with the history of computing. For 20th century computing Whiggism is perhaps a matter of less urgent concern, though it should be said that there has been comparatively little attempt to study modern computing against a more general historical background. When we turn to the 19th century, and particularly to Charles Babbage, the question of Whiggism insistently demands attention. Many articles and-- one is tempted to say--most comments about Babbage go widely astray because of their profoundly Whiggish approach.

By their very nature problems of Whiggishness can not be solved in general. They require, besides detailed study, the setting of each problem in its proper and many-sided historical context. Thus what one hopes to achieve in a general article is primarily to help in stating the problem.

First I consider what Whiggism is, then I have chosen some general historical questions to illustrate the subject. This seems essential because if specific questions relating directly to Babbage were posed in the first instance, consideration of the general problems would become inextricably involved with matters of detail. For reasons which I hope to make clear, Whiggism not only poses difficult conceptual problems, it also raises serious difficulties in connection with vested intellectual interests.

For general discussion I have chosen questions which are still controversial. To have taken a well established case, such as the 19th century idea that Giordano Bruno[1] was an early scientist, would hardly have sufficed. This is because dealing with Whiggism involves altering the whole way of looking at some subject, and it is one of Whiggism's curious features that once a new mode of thinking about some subject is established the old approach often comes to seem so absurd that one pauses to wonder how it was possible to hold such views. Nowadays no one would seriously think of Bruno, who was a hermeticist of the deepest Egyptian hue, as the prototype of a scientist; though he certainly had an important part in the history of science. By taking currently controversial questions I hope to illustrate how very difficult removing Whiggism can be.

The Whig interpretation of history was given its classic form by Lord Macaulay and other 19th century English historians mainly of Whig political persuasion. It pictured the history of mankind as a continued advance, albeit interrupted by periods of retreat, including the Dark Ages after the decline and fall of the Roman empire, at last reaching its apotheosis in the liberal ladies and gentlemen of Victorian England. To later historians such an approach has come to seem naive, even though some Whig historians were first rate. Whiggish history has two main features: it defines history in terms of an ideal result, rather than investigating how things actually happened; more generally it implies wrenching historical events from their actual historical context. In a sense the complete elimination of Whiggism is impossible. Perfectly neutral history is a meaningless concept. Every generation necessarily writes history in terms of current preconceptions, and as more is learned about any subject understanding of the historical context is gradually enriched. Thus today's `relevant historical context' is liable to become tomorrow's Whiggism. That does not, however, in any way alter the fact that a determined attempt to reduce or eliminate Whiggism is essential to improved historical understanding.

By the 1940s and 1950s Herbert Butterfield, Alexander Korye and others had come to feel strongly that the history of science was fundamentally Whiggish in character[2] and seriously distorted. So powerful was the image of modern science that historians of science were looking back and finding modern science in prototype where it never existed, and were claiming to discover early scientific procedures in historical work which actually had entirely different motivation. In the field of the history of science it is now generally agreed that Whiggism is naughty. However, a Whiggish approach may not be so easily avoided. In the first place it is not simple for someone who has developed a particular historical approach to alter it radically, so that intellectual vested interests may be involved. Then again a many-sided approach to a subject can mean people learning new and unfamiliar subjects, which can involve a great deal of work. For example computer scientists[3] are not always familiar with 18th and 19th century history. Indeed a historical approach may in itself be quite unfamiliar. In the case of Babbage the problem is exacerbated because of the widely varied nature of his interests. None the less, the historical aspects cannot be ignored even when reading other people's studies. Sometimes Babbage's work gives a spurious feeling of modernity so that computer scientists turning to Babbage, and concentrating overmuch on technical detail, not infrequently come to conclusions which may come to seem little more than silly as soon as the context of the work is taken properly into account.

In a sense the very term `the history of science' has itself profoundly Whiggish implications. One may be reasonably clear what `science' means in the 19th century and most of the 18th century. In the 17th century `science' has very different meaning. For example chemistry is inextricably mixed up with alchemy. Before the 17th century dissecting out such a thing as `science' in anything like the modern sense of the term involves profound distortions.

With the concept of `scientist' the case is even worse. The English term was not coined until 1840. It may, doubtfully, apply to some men of science in the second half of the 18th century, though it certainly does not apply to Charles Babbage.[4] For the 17th century the term `scientist' is thoroughly misleading. Nor is it easy to find accurate alternatives. Robert Boyle, for example, is often called a `mechanical philosopher', yet is the term really valid? Boyle was, and remained, an alchemist all his life.[5]

In classical Greece there were indeed doctors, mathematicians, astronomers, though Ptolemy for example was an astrologer as well as an astronomer. Scientists, in any meaningful sense of the term, were nonexistent in antiquity, though the term is all too often used. In my view, despite the caveats which often accompany its use, the term `scientist' when applied to the philosophers of antiquity is, in practice, seriously misleading.

Not only such general terms as `science' and `scientist' cause problems. In the history of science the whole language of discourse needs careful assessment. Consider, for example, the first philosophers of 6th century BC Milesia, that is to say the earliest individuals discussed in the history of science. The Milesians were engaged in taking tribal and immediately post-tribal beliefs, developing their inherited beliefs and giving them a new content. The very words used cannot be understood without considering their tribal background. Yet it is hard to find such questions even considered[6] since the work of Francis Cornford[7] and the Marxist historian George Thomson.[8]

To make a proper assessment of historical scientific developments it is necessary to take into account the general cultural milieu in which the developments took place. Joseph Needham has quoted approvingly the comment that Taoism was `the only system of mysticism, which the world has ever seen which was not profoundly anti-scientific.'[9] However, the same could also be said of Renaissance neoplatonism with its hermetic core, which also had a positive scientific content.[10] Many historians of science have been reluctant to acknowledge the positive part played in 16th and 17th century science by mystical neoplatonism, preferring to look for work which is `more scientific', `cool and rational', or whatever. Such a stance is profoundly Whiggish. For example the terms `mathematician' and `magician' were commonly synonymous in the 16th and early 17th century. Computer scientists straying into the early 17th century should tread carefully. This is very treacherous ground indeed.

A case can be made that the whole history of the scientific revolution needs to be reconsidered to take into account the central role of Renaissance neoplatonism. There had been an important Platonic tradition in Europe[11] which was not interrupted by the development of Aristotelian scholasticism in the 13th century. In the 15th century a new development was launched with the translation of the Corpus Hermeticum by Marsilio Ficino, and developed rapidly with the introduction of cabalistic traditions and the establishment of Christian Cabala by Pico della Mirandola. The ideas spread rapidly and profoundly affected the sciences. The case of Paracelsus has long been known but its importance was conveniently minimized by dismissing him as a charlatan in spite of his obvious enormous influence on medicine.[12] Hermeticism also influenced Copernicus, though how far his adoption of the heliocentric system was influenced by hermetic sun worship is still an entirely open question.[13] In England John Dee,[14] the founder of the English tradition of mathematical navigation, educator of the navigators, inspirer of the mathematical crafts, was a deeply hermetic figure. Jacobean audiences would have immediately recognised John Dee in Prospero when they saw The Tempest.

That Kepler was profoundly influenced by neoplatonism has long been clear, but so also was that sober minded leader of the scientific revolution, Galileo Galilei, who was the leading scientific figure of the neoplatonic Academia dei Lincei. Indeed a strong case has recently been made[15] that Galileo was not tried so much for his Copernican opinions as for his neoplatonic views on the nature of light and the substance of matter.

Although it is becoming quite clear that the picture of the scientific revolution needs fundamental reworking in the light of Renaissance neoplatonism, such suggestions often rouse strenuous opposition. In the first place people who have developed the views which have become standard in the last thirty or forty years, and which in their time represented a major advance in scholarship, are not always happy to see their work requiring fundamental revision. In the second place, as has been indicated above, study of Renaissance neoplalonism rapidly takes one into fields which are not the normal pastures of historians of science. To give one further example to emphasize this point, the Académie Baïf of 16th century Paris was certainly concerned with science but it is more commonly thought of as an academy of poetry.[16]

A great reaction look place in the 16th and early 17th century in both Protestant and Catholic Europe against neoplatonism, which became involved with the witch craze.[17] To be historically just it may be noted that, although the Roman Church and the Inquisition played a major part in later persecution, credit for launching the savage persecution probably goes to the Protestant clergy. Dramatically in England the reaction was represented by Marlow's Dr. Faustus.[18] The neoplatonists who represented the continuing tradition of Renaissance culture simply could not accept the fact that the Council of Trent had irretrievably cleft the soul of Europe in two, and neoplatonism acquired a deeply eirenic character. The neoplatonist current of the English Renaissance was represented not only by Spencer's Fairie Queen but by A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and above all by The Tempest.[19] It is not always realised how bold Shakespeare was in writing The Tempest and presenting the play at prince Henry's court;[20] as also were his friends in placing The Tempest at the front of the first folio.

The reaction also had a most far reaching effect on the development of science. It was the climate of the martyrdom of Giordano Bruno, the roasting of Servetus, the torture and continued imprisonment of Campanella. It was surely also the background to Thomas Harriot's cri de coeur to Kepler: `our situation is such that I still can not philosophise freely; we are still stuck in the mud.'[21] Passing across the Alps, after the brief interlude during the 1620s of the `Marvelous Conjecture'[22] reaction reasserted itself and led to the trial of Galileo, which has come to symbolize for posterity the reaction against science.

The above examples should suffice to show into what wide fields one is led as soon as one begins to set science in its more general background, but the outstanding example is Isaac Newton. Looking backwards to Newton's calculus, to his whole mathematical method of approaching physical problems, Newton may seem modem enough. Was not Principia the very basis of physical science for nearly two centuries? In terms of Newton's own approach to his work, however, we get a very different picture. It is not only that he was deeply involved in prophetical studies, but Newton's alchemy[23] took up more of his time and interest than physical science, and alchemy--'the hermetic art'--profoundly affected Newton's whole approach to the theory of the structure of matter. In terms of his own motivation Newton was not at all the modern idea of a scientist, but the last and greatest of the Renaissance magi.

If we now turn to consider Charles Babbage the same three classes of problem appear: terminology, vested interests, and the great breadth of knowledge required. The Analytical Engines form a semantic minefield which can indeed be negotiated safely, but only if the problems are clearly identified. Although it is still early days, there is the beginning of a habit of discussing both the technical details of the Engines and of his other work out of context, and insistence that discussion of technical detail by itself rarely suffices is not always welcome. Finally, in solving these problems computer scientists, who have thus far shown most interest in Babbage, are faced with the need to study not only the work itself but also the science and technology of his time, his personal life, and the many historic fields into which his rich and varied life leads. To complicate matters further an important part of his life was concerned with the Continent, particularly with France, Italy and Prussia. It is certainly true that one is not here faced with such recondite subjects as tribal belief or Renaissance neoplatonism. However, I am not sure that it is greatly easier for a computer scientist, who may be entirely innocent of the habit of historical thought, to learn his way about late 18th and 19th century history than it is for a professional historian of science to tackle neoplatonism.

Discussion of the Analytical Engines poses semantic problems because of the many features they have in common with modem computers. These abstract features of logical organisation are almost impossible to discuss without using concepts which have been developed in modern computing. Such concepts as the stored program, programming, or array processing carry many implications to a modern computer person which may or may not in some measure have been clear to Babbage. Even to pose such a question as `Did Babbage consider the idea of using a set of registers or scratchpad store in his mill?' raises many problems.[24] Generally it seems more sensible to describe precisely what Babbage did, so far as possible in his own terms, rather than to set up skittles from modern computing and then knock them down. It is reasonable enough, for example, to see in Babbage's Engines the separate store and mill, but Babbage himself uses those terms. I have myself suggested that Babbage developed the concept of array processing,[25] but I use the term with considerable reservation. How far were the many associated ideas which array processing raises in the mind of a modern computer person clear to Babbage? With even more reservation I have discussed the question of how close Babbage came to the Concept of the stored program.[26] This was really unavoidable, if only because it has been discussed so often, but there can only be one possible genera! conclusion: we don' t know, and in the absence of much further information we never shall know.

Professor Cohen has discussed the question of whether Babbage developed the concept of a standard interface between programmer (if that is the right term) and Engine.[27] The period when one might expect to find indications of such a development is Babbage's work on the Analytical Engines between say 1840 and 1847, but there are good reasons why he might have hesitated before defining a formal standard interface even if he did develop the concept. It is not only that he had no real need of one at that stage, but he would probably have preferred to keep the greater flexibility which might have enabled him to save Engine time in particular operations. Perhaps this is also the reason why he seems to have kept his options open for the card control system itself. To the question of whether Babbage developed the concept of a formal standard interface, once again there can really only be one answer: we don't know.[28] Generally one must be very careful before drawing from the detailed plans insecurely founded conclusions about Babbage's general concepts.[29] During this period one can often see Babbage moving away from more general concepts in the detailed plans for Analytical Engines in the interest of practical efficiency. For example his original idea of binary-coded store addressing was abandoned in favour of the one hole per store address used in the variable cards.

To return to the circumstances surrounding the government sponsored project to construct the first Difference Engine, the point that needs to be emphasised is that Babbage's Engine was caught up in dramatic political events which altered fundamentally the political structure of England, and with it the government's approach to science. As Babbage had to deal with government ministers, and often directly with prime ministers (a very different matter from approaching the grant-awarding bodies of today), the Difference Engine project was directly affected by these political events.

The battle for the Great Reform Bill was by far the hardest fought political battle of 19th century Britain. The widest social classes were in action, not only in the towns and cities, including the radical middle classes and the City of London, but involving also the poor in the countryside.[30] To force through this fundamental shift in power from the landowners towards the new manufacturing classes, the landowners had to be assured that the Great Reform Act would not be followed by further radical political change. Introducing the Reform Bill in the Commons Lord John Russell assured the members that it was definitely the last change in the franchise; and he acquired the name `Finality Jack' for his pains.

However, the radicals thought that the Great Reform Act would indeed be a prelude to radical social reform, including backing for science. Thus Babbage was encouraged to hope for greatly increased support for his Engines and for many other scientific projects. The radicals were speedily disillusioned. Reaction set in very rapidly. During the first Melbourne administration lip service was still paid to the desirability of many changes. By the second Melbourne administration all pretence of further radical reform had vanished.

The 1830s witnessed a profound shift in the attitude of government, and of society as a whole towards science. Arnold of Rugby established the public school system[31] with its muscular Christianity and profoundly anti-scientific ethos. The point is not that before the 1830s support for science had been enthusiastic, but rather that science was seen merely as a fringe matter. With the growth of manufacturing, science and technology came to be seen as a terrible threat to the whole way of life of the country based gentleman. Similarly when the professional civil service was later established it too had a profoundly anti-scientific culture. The malign consequences of the developments have affected Britain to the present day.[32] Unfortunately we still want a really thorough analysis of the radical shift in attitudes towards science which occurred during the 1830s. What is certain is that no proper discussion of the fate of the project to construct the first Difference Engine is possible unless it is set against the turbulent contemporary political events.

Babbage studies are beginning to develop quite widely, and it is now time to raise them to a proper professional historical level.[33] This requires a determined assault on Whiggism in all its many manifestations.

I should like to offer my thanks to Prof. I. Bernard Cohen for suggesting this paper, which joins the many studies in the history of science owing their inception to Professor Cohen's encouragement.

R. Anthony Hyman

PUBLICATIONS BY BABBAGE

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Based on Babbage's own list printed in Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, corrected by A. W. Van Sinderen (Annals of the History of Computing (1980), 2, no. 2, 169-85).We have followed Babbage in including articles which he directly inspired, even though he was not the nominal author.

1813

Memoirs of the Analytical Society; 1 Preface, in collaboration with John Herschel, i-xxii; 2 on Continued Products, 1-31, Cambridge.

1815

`An Essay Towards the Calculus of Functions', Phil. Trans. 105, 389 423.

1816

`An Essay Towards the Calculus of Functions', Part II, Phil. Trans. 106, 179-256.

`Demonstrations of Some of Dr. Matthew Stewart's General Theorems; To Which is Added, An Account of Some New Properties of the Circle', Journal of Science, 1, 6-24.

S. F. LaCroix, An Elementary Treatise on the Differential and Integral Calculus, Tr. Charles Babbage, John Herschel, and George Peacock, Cambridge, J. Deighton.

1817

`Observations on the Analogy Which Subsists Between the Calculus of Functions and the Other Branches of Analysis', Phil. Trans. 107, 197-216.

`Solutions of Some Problems by Means of the Calculus of Functions', Journal of Science, 2, 371-79.

`An Account of Euler's Method of Solving a Problem Relative to the Move of the Knight at the Game of Chess', Journal of Science, 3, 72-7.

`Note Respecting Elimination', Journal of Science, 3, 355-7.

1819

`On Some New Methods of Investigating the Sums of Several Classes of Infinite Series', Phil. Trans. X, 09, 249-82.

`Demonstration of a Theorem Relating to Prime Numbers', Edin. Phil. Jrl .1,46-9

1820

Examples to the Differential and Integral Calculus, in collaboration with John Herschel and George Peacock. Part 111, `Examples of the Solutions of Functional Equations', was by Babbage, Cambridge, J. Deighton.

1821

`An Examination of Some Questions Connected with Games of Chance', Trans. Roy Soc. I din. 9, 153-77.

1822

`Observations on the Notation Employed in the Calculus of Functions, Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc. 1, 63-76.

`Barometrical Observations Made at the Fall of the Staubbach', in collaboration with John Herschel, Edin. Phil. Jrl. 6, 224-7.

`A Note Respecting the Application of Machinery to the Calculation of Astronomical Tables', Mem. Astron. Soc. 1, 309.

`A Letter to Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. PRS, on the Application of Machinery to the Purpose of Calculating and Printing Mathematical Tables', J. Booth, London.

`Observations on the Application of Machinery to the Computation of Mathematical Tables', Mem. Astron. Soc. 1, 311-14.

1823

`On the Theoretical Principles of the Machinery for Calculating Tables', Edin. Phtl. Jrl. 8, 122-8.

`On the Application of Analysis to the Discovery of Local Theorems and Porisms', Trans. Roy. Son. Edin. 9, 337-52.

Scriptores Optici; or, A Collection of Tracts Relating to Optics, edited in collaboration with Francis Maseres; preface by Babbage. Baldwin, Craddock & Joy, London.

1824

`Observations on the Measurement of Heights by the Barometer', Edin. Jrl. Sci. 85-7.

`Rates of the Protector Life Assurance Company', privately printed, London.

1825

`Account of the Repetition of Mr. Arago's Experiments on the Magnetism Manifested by Various Substances During the Act of Rotation', in collaboration with John Herschel, Phil. Trans. 115, 467-96.

1826

`On a New Zenith Micrometer', Mem. Astron. Soc. 2, 101-3.

A Comparative View of the Various Institutions for the Assurance of Lives, J. Mawman, London.

`On a Method of Expressing by Signs the Action of Machinery', Phil. Trans. 116, 250-65.

`On Electrical and Magnetic Rotations', Phil. Trans. 116, 494-528.

`On the Determination of the General Term of a New Class of Infinite Series', Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc. 2, 217-25.

`Diving Bell', Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, 18, 157 -67.

1827

`On the Influence of Signs in Mathematical Reasoning', Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc. 2, 325-77-

`Notice respecting some Errors Common to many Tables of Logarithms', Mem. Astron. Soc. 3, 65-7.

`Evidence on Savings Banks, before a Committee of the House of Commons', Reports from the Committees of the House of Commons, III, 1826-7, 869-558.

Table of Logarithms of the Natural Numbers from 1 to 108000, J. Mawman, London.

1829

`Account of the Great Congress of Philosophers at Berlin on the 18th September 1828', Edin. Jrl. Sci. 10, 225-34.

`A Letter to the Right Hon. T. P. Courtenay, on the Proportionate Number of Births of the Two Sexes under Different Circumstances', Edin. Jrl. Sci. NS, 1, 85-104.

`On the General Principles which Regulate the Application of Machinery to Manufacture and the Mechanical Arts', Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, 8, 1-84.

1830

`Notation', Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, 15, 394-9.

`Porisms', op. cit.,17, 106-14.

Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and some of its Causes, (dedicated to `a nobleman', probably Lord Ashley, later Earl of Shaftesbury) B. Fellowes, London.

Sketch of the Philosophical Characters of Dr. Wollaston and Sir Humphry Davy, B. Fellowes, London.

`Mathematical Questions,' Mathematical Repository, New Series, 5, 51, 63-4, 66-7, 71-2, 178-80.

1831

`Sur l'emploi plus ou moins frequent des memes lettres dans les differentes langues', (in a letter to L. A. J. Quetelet), Corr. mathematique et physique, 7, 135-7

Specimen of Logarithm Tables (21 vols.): two pages from Babbage's edition of the logarithmic tables printed in many different coloured inks on many different colours and shades of paper - a single copy was printed (now in the Crawford Library), B. Fellowes, London.

Table of Logarithms of the Natural Numbers from 1-108,000, on Different Coloured Papers, single copy printed (28 volumes are now in the Crawford Library. Babbage said 35 were originally printed), B. Fellowes, London.

1832

`On the Advantage of a collection of Numbers, to be Entitled the Constants of Nature and Art', Edin. Jrl. Sci. NS6, 334-40. (Expanded versions of this paper were later published in: Compte Rends des Travaux du Congres General de Statistique, 1835, 222-30, Bruxelles; and The Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 1856, 289-302).

On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, Charles Knight, London. A second and third edition were published in 1832, and a fourth edition with index in 1835; translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Swedish. (In 1833 three chapters were published as a pamphlet, On Currency, on a Near System of Manufacturing, and on the Effect of Machinery on Human Labour, Charles Knight, London; a further extract was published in 1899 as How to Invent Machinery, ed. William H. Atherton, Manchester.)

1833

A Word to the Wise, John Murray, London. (reprinted in 1856 and subtitled: Observations on Peerage for Life.)

1834

Abstract of a Paper Entitled: `Observations on the Temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli; with Remarks on Certain Causes which May Produce Geological Cycles of Great Extent' (full paper published in 1847), Richard Taylor, London.

1835

`Une lettre a M. Quetelet de M. Ch. Babbage relativement a la machine a calculer', . Acad. Roy. Bruxelles, Bulletins, 2, 123-6.

`Letter from Mr. A. Sharp to Mr. J. Crosthwait, Hoxton, Feb. 2, 1721-2, Decyphered by C. Babbage, Esq. From the Original Letter in Shorthand'; in An Account of the Revd John Flamsteed, the First Astronomer-Royal, 348, by Francis Baily, Admiralty, London.

1837

The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise; A Fragment, John Murray, London. 2nd. ed. 1838.

`On the Mathematical Powers of the Calculating Engine' (Ms. in Museum of History of Science, Oxford); published 1973, Brian Randell (ed), The Origins of Digital Computers, 17-52, Springer.

1838

`On Impressions in Sandstone Resembling Those of Horses' Hoofs', Proc. Geol Soc. 2, 439.

1839

`Letter from Mr. Babbage to the Members of the British Association for the Promotion of Science', Richard Clay, London.

1842-3

`Notions sur la Machine Analytique de M. Charles Babbage' (by L. F. Menabrea), Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve, 41, 352-76; tr. with additional notes by Ada Lovelace as `Sketch of the Analytical Engine', (1843) Scientific Memoirs, iii, 666-731. (On page 373 of the Menabrea paper le cas n = [infinity], was misprinted as le cos n = [infinity]. Ada translated this as `when the cos of n = [infinity]`, which is nonsense.).

1843

`Statement of the Circumstances Respecting Mr. Babbage's Calculating Engines' (by Sir Harris Nicolas), privately printed, London.

`Statement of the Circumstances attending the Invention and Construction of Mr. Babbage's Calculating Engines', Phil. Mag. 23, 234-5.

`Addition to the Memoir of M. Menabrea on the Analytical Engine', Ibid, 235-9.

`Description of the Boracic Acid Works of Tuscany'; Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy, 178-9, John Murray, London.

1847

`On the Principles of Tools for Turning and Planing Metals'; in Turning and Mechanical Manipulation, by Charles Holtzapffel, 2, 984-7, Holtzapffel, London.

`Observations on the Temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli, Near Naples', Taylor, London.

`The Planet Neptune and the Royal Astronomical Society's Medal', The Times, 15 March.

1848

Thoughts on the Principles of Taxation with Reference to a Property Tax, and its Exceptions, John Murray, London. 2nd ed.1851; 3rd ed. 1852.

1851

`Laws of Mechanical Notation', privately printed, London.

The Exposition of 1851; or Views of the Industry, the Science, and the Government o/England, John Murray, London.2nd ed. 1851.

`Notes Respecting lighthouses', privately printed, London.

1852

`Note Respecting the Pink Projections from the Sun's Disc Observed during the Total Solar Eclipse in 1851', Monthly Notices Astron. Soc. 12, 209-10.

1853

`On the Statistics of Lighthouses', Compte Rends des travaux du Congres Generals de Slatistique, 230-7, Bruxelles.

1854

`Report on the Opthalmoscope', (by T. Wharton Jones), British and Foreign Medical Rev. 14, 425-32.

`Mr. Thwaites's Cypher', Jrl. Soc. Arts, 90, 663-4, 93, 707-8, 95, 732-3, 98, 776-7.

1855

`Submarine Navigation', Illustrated London News, 749, 623-4.

`On the Possible Use of the Occulting Telegraph at Sebastapol', The Times, 16 July, 6 f

`A Method of Laying the Guns of a Battery Without Exposing the Men to the Shot of the Enemy', Illustrated London News, no.757, 210.

`Sur la machine suedoise de MM. Scheutz pour calculer les tables mathematiques', Comptes rendus hebdomadaires, 41, 557-60, Academie des Sciences, Paris.

`Cypher Writing', Jrl. Soc. Arts, 159, 40-1.

1856

`Scheutz's Difference Engine and Babbage's Mechanical Notation' (by Henry Babbage), Proc. Inst. Civil Eng. 15, 497-514. Also published as separate pamphlet.

`On the Action of Ocean Currents in the Formation of the Strata of the Earth', Quart. Jrl. Geol. Soc. 12, 366-8.

`Analysis of the Statistics of the Clearing House During the Year 1839', Jrl. Stat. Soc. 19, 28-48. Also published as a separate pamphlet.

Observations Addressed at the Last anniversary to the President and Fellows o/'the Royal Society, John Murray, London.

1857

`Table of the Relative Frequency of Occurrence of the Causes of Breaking of Plate Glass Windows', Mechanics Mag. 66, 82.

1860

`Observations on the Discovery in Various Localities of the Remains of Human Art Mixed with the Bones of Extinct Races of Animals', Proc. Roy. Soc. 10, 59-72.

`On Easily Recognisable Signs in Drawings', Proc. Fourth International Statistical Congress, 380, London.

`Letter to Dr. Farr, on the Origin of the International Statistical Congresses', Proc. Fourth International Statistical Congress, 505-7, London.

1864

Passages on the Life of a Philosopher, Longman, Green, London. (`A Chapter on Street Nuisances' was published by John Murray prior to publication of the book.)

1865

Thoughts upon an Extension of the Franchise, Longman, Green, London.

1868

`Observations on the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy', Quart. Jrl. Geol. Soc. 24, 273-7.

(1889)

`History of the Analytical Engine' (incomplete), published posthumously with additions by Henry Prevost Babbage as Babbage's Calculating Engines, Spon, London.

FRIENDS OF BABBAGE

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Herschel, Sir John Frederisck William,: member of the Analytical Society, and close friend of Babbage for many years
Peacock, Revd. George,: member of the Analyical Society and close friend of Babbage for may years.

BABAGE FAMILY

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Babbage, Benjamin, Sr.,: was Babbages grandfather, and mayor of Totnes
Babbage, Benjamin,: Babbage`s father, merchant and banker.
Babbage, Benjamin Herschel,: Babbage`s eldest son, always known as Herschel.
Babbage, Elizabeth Plumleigh (née Teape),: Babbage`s mother.
Babbage, Georgiana (née Whitmore),: Babbage`s wife.
Babbage, Georgiana,: Babbage`s daughter.
Babbage, Major General Henry Prevost,: Babbage`s youngest surviving son.
Memoirs and Correspondence, privately printed, London, 1910.
Babbage, John,: Babbage`s great-grandfather.
Babbage, Dr. John,: Babbage`s Uncle.
Babbage, Mary Anne (later Hollier),: Babbage`s sister.
Babbage, John Herchel and Sir John Josiah Guest (the great steel master) were trustees for Mary Anne Hollier's marriage settlement.

CHARLES BABBAGE BIO GRAPHY

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Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

Charles Babbage was one of the key figures of a great era of British history. Born as the industrial revolution was getting into its swing, by the time Babbage died Britain was by far the most industrialized country the world had ever seen. Babbage played a crucial rôle in the scientific and technical development of the period.

Although born in London, Babbage came from an old Totnes family, and retained close links with the region all his life. The West Country, with its mining and engineering was particularly important in the early stages of the industrial revolution, and from the extraordinarily wealthy Totnes region, with its port at Dartmouth, came also Newcomen and Savery, pioneers of the steam engine.

Babbage went up to Cambridge in 1810 and with some friends effected the crucial introduction of the Leibnitz notation for the calculus, which transformed mathematics in Cambridge and thus throughout Britain.

In 1814 Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore, from a landowning Shropshire family. Her half brother, Wolryche Whitmore, was the M.P. who rose year after year in the House of Commons to move the repeal of the Corn Laws. He was also a leading member of the Political Economy Club, and played an important part in Babbage's life.

Babbage's greatest achievement was his detailed plans for Calculating Engines, both the table-making Difference Engines and the far more ambitious Analytical Engines, which were flexible and powerful, punched-card controlled general purpose calculaters, embodying many features which later reappeared in the modern stored program computer. These features included: punched card control; separate store and mill; a set of internal registers (the table axes); fast multiplier/divider; a range of peripherals; even array processing.

It has often been asked whether Babbage's Engines would have worked if they had been built. This may not be an entirely meaningful question: much can go wrong during such a project, while on the other hand new solutions may be found to any problems which might appear during construction. However the question can be put slightly differently: would it have been technically feasible for, say, Babbage and Whitworth to construct an Analytical Engine during the 1850s?

Twenty five years ago, after a careful investigation, Anthony Hyman and the late Maurice Trask formed the opinion that construction of Babbage's Engines would have been quite possible. The problems were financial and organizational, but technically the project in itself was perfectly feasible. They proposed a plan. :first construct DE2 (the Second Difference Engine; then, if wished DE1, or a version of DE2 with `travelling platforms'; and finally a complete Analytical Engine, probably following plan 28A.

After much work by many people, and particularly by Dr. Allan Bromley, a team at the Science Museum led by Doron Swade built a complete version of DE2. It was a triumphant success, vindicating Babbage's technical work. However, the far more ambitious task of constructing an Analytical Engine remains to be undertaken.

Besides the Calculating Engines Babbage has an extraordinary range of achievements to his credit: he wrote a consumer guide to life assurance; pioneered lighthouse signalling; scattered technical ideas and inventions in magnificent profusion; developed mathematical codebreaking (Prof. Franksen has plausibly suggested that Babbage ran a private Bletchley Park for the British government in the middle of the +19th century).

Babbage was also an important political economist. Where Adam Smith thought agriculture was the foundation of a nation's wealth; where Ricardo's ideas were focused on corn: Babbage for the first time authoritatively placed the factory on centre stage. Babbage gave a highly original discussion of the division of labour, which was followed by John Stuart Mill. Babbage's discussion of the effect of the development of production technology on the size of factories was taken up by Marx, and was fundamental to Marxist theory of capitalist socio-economic development. A case can also be made that Babbage had an influence on William Stanley Jevons, and was thus also a pioneer of marginal value theory. However, the latter remains to be proved.

For twenty five years Charles Babbage was a leading figure in London society, and his glorious Saturday evening soirées, attended by two or three hundred people, were a meeting place for Europe's liberal intelligencia.

Further references

Charles Babbage, Pioneer of the Computer (1982),: Princeton/Oxford University Press, by Anthony Hyman,
is the standard biography of Babbage.
Science and Reform, Selected works of Charles Babbage, (1989),: with commentary and notes, Cambridge University Press, by Anthony Hyman, (in print);
complements Pioneer of the Computer, treating in detail aspects of Babbages work which were treated more cursorarily in the latter, and vice versa.
Together they give a clear and coherent introduction to Babbage`s life and work.