Andrew Donald Booth

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Andrew Donald Booth

| birth_name =

| image = Andrew Booth 2008.jpg

| caption = Booth in 2008

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1918|2|11|df=yes}}

| birth_place = East Molesey, Surrey, England{{cite book|date=November 1995|title=International Biographical Dictionary of Computer Pioneers

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ocx4Jc12mkgC|publisher=John A.N. Lee|page=115|isbn=1-884964-47-8|quote=Born February 11 1918, East Molesy, Surrey, UK; early computer developer at the University of London who worked with John von Neumann; with Warren Weaver in 1946, first conceived of machine translations, and manufactured magnetic drum memories for many early computers.}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|2009|11|29|1918|2|11|df=yes}}

| death_place = Sooke, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

| citizenship =

| nationality = English

| ethnicity =

| fields = Computer science, Physics, Electric engineering

| workplaces = Birkbeck College, University of London, Lakehead University

| alma_mater = Jesus College

| known_for = Booth's multiplication algorithm

| awards =

| spouse = Kathleen Booth

| signature =

| footnotes =

}}

Andrew Donald Booth (11 February 1918 – 29 November 2009)[https://web.archive.org/web/20110604143128/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6983892.ece Andrew Booth: scientist who invented the magnetic storage device], The Times, 12 January 2010.{{Cite magazine|last = Johnson|first = Roger|date =Summer 2010|title = Pioneer Profile: Andrew Booth|url = https://www.computerconservationsociety.org/resurrection/res51.htm#c|magazine = Resurrection – Computer Conservation Society|access-date = 29 July 2010|volume = 51|issn = 0958-7403}} was a British electrical engineer, physicist and computer scientist, who was an early developer of the magnetic drum memory for computers. He is known for Booth's multiplication algorithm. In his later career in Canada he became president of Lakehead University.

Early life

Andrew Donald Booth was born on February 11, 1918, in East Molesy, Surrey, UK.{{Cite web|url=https://history.computer.org/pioneers/booth-ad.html|title=Andrew Donald Booth|website=IEEE Computer Society|access-date=2023-09-04}} He was the son of Sidney Booth (died 1955) and a cousin of Sir Felix Booth.

He was raised in Weybridge, Surrey, and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School. In 1937, he won a scholarship to read mathematics at Jesus College, Cambridge. Booth left Cambridge without taking a degree, having become disaffected with pure mathematics as a subject. He chose an external degree from the University of London instead, which he obtained with a first.

Career

From 1943 to 1945, Booth worked as a mathematical physicist in the X-ray team at the British Rubber Producers' Research Association (BRPRA), Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, gaining his PhD in crystallography from the University of Birmingham in 1944. In 1945, he moved to Birkbeck College, University of London, where his work in the crystallography group led him to build some of the first electronic computers in the United Kingdom[http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/about/history/booth.php The work of Professor Andrew D. Booth] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923213102/http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/about/history/booth.php |date=23 September 2015 }}, Department of Computer Science, Birkbeck College, London, UK.Collin, Andrew. [http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/CCS/res/res05.htm Andrew Booth's Computers at Birkbeck College]. Resurrection, Issue 5, Spring 1993. London: Computer Conservation Society. including the All Purpose Electronic Computer, first installed at the British Rayon Research Association.{{cite web|url=http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/~rgj/Computer%20Science%20at%20Birkbeck%20College%20comp |title=Archived copy |access-date=2 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110506150300/http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/~rgj/Computer%20Science%20at%20Birkbeck%20College%20comp |archive-date=6 May 2011 }} Computer Science at Birkbeck College Booth founded Birkbeck's department of numerical automation and was named a fellow at the university in 2004.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbk.ac.uk/about-us/obituaries/obituary-professor-andrew-booth |title=Obituary: Professor Andrew Booth |access-date=17 September 2023}} He also did early pioneering work in machine translation.{{cite book

|title=Mechanical Translation

|first=Andrew |last=Booth

|authorlink=Andrew Donald Booth

|series=Readings in machine translation

|editor=H. L. Somers

|year=2003

|publisher=MIT Press

|isbn=9780262140744 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yx3lEVJMBmMC&pg=PA18

}}

After World War II, he worked on crystallographic problems research at Birkbeck College and constructed a fourier synthesis device. He was then introduced to the work of Alan Turing and John von Neumann on logical automata by Douglas Hartree.

The first assembly code in which a language is used to represent machine code instructions is found in Kathleen and Andrew Donald Booth's 1947 work, Coding for A.R.C..{{cite book |last1=Booth |first1=Andrew D |last2=Britten |first2=Kathleen HV |title=Coding for A.R.C. |date=1947 |publisher=Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton |url=https://albert.ias.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.12111/7941/Booth_Britten_Coding_for_ARC_1947.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=4 November 2022}} Assembly code is converted into executable machine code by a utility program referred to as an assembler. The term "assembler" is generally attributed to Wilkes, Wheeler and Gill in their 1951 book The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer, who, however, used the term to mean "a program that assembles another program consisting of several sections into a single program". The conversion process is referred to as assembly, as in assembling the source code. The computational step when an assembler is processing a program is called assembly time.

Dr. Booth served as President of Lakehead University from 1972 to 1978.

Personal life

Booth married mathematician and computer engineer Kathleen Britten in 1950, and had two children, Amanda and Ian;{{Cite web|url = https://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-province/20100103/282467115010593|title = Pioneer of the hard drive|date = 3 January 2010|via = PressReader|publisher = Susan Lazaruk|access-date = 28 March 2021|quote = Booth and his wife raised two children, Amanda, a veterinarian, and Ian, a physicist.}} between 1947 and 1953, together they produced three computing machines.

Bibliography

{{Citation | publisher = Birkbeck School of Computing | title = School of computer science and information systems: A short history | place = UK | series = 50 years of Computing | year = 2008 | url = http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/50years/50yearsofcomputing.pdf}}
{{Citation | title = Coding system for the APE(X)C | url = http://hopl.murdoch.edu.au/showlanguage.prx?exp=770&name=APE(X)C | publisher = Murdoch | place = AU | access-date = 2 November 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110607122725/http://hopl.murdoch.edu.au/showlanguage.prx?exp=770&name=APE(X)C | archive-date = 7 June 2011 | url-status = dead }}.
Booth, A.D. and Britten, K.H.V. (1947) [https://albert.ias.edu/entities/publication/27e8d743-e430-4d4d-821c-b7a7944607a7/details Coding for A.R.C.], Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Booth, A.D. and Britten, K.H.V. (1947) [https://albert.ias.edu/entities/publication/c1ad71b7-655b-420a-9a73-56cb8cceecc8/details General considerations in the design of an all-purpose electronic digital computer], Institute for Advance Study, Princeton
Booth, A.D. and Britten, K.H.V. (1948) The accuracy of atomic co-ordinates derived from Fourier series in X-ray crystallography Part V, Proc. Roy. Soc. Vol A 193 pp305–310
The Electronic Principles of Digital Computers, Electronics Forum (1948);
{{Citation | title = Principles and Progress in the Construction of High-Speed Digital Computers | url = http://bobmackay.com/Booth/Booth.html | journal = Quart. Journ. Mech. And Applied Math. |date=September 1947 | last1 = Booth | first1 = Andrew D | last2 = Britten | first2 = Kathleen HV | doi=10.1093/qjmam/2.2.182 | volume=2 | issue = 2 | pages=182–197| url-access = subscription }}.
Booth, A.D (1949) A Magnetic Digital Storage System, Electronic Engineering
Booth, A.D. (1950) The Physical Realization of An Electronic Digital Computer, Electronic Engineering
Booth, A.D. (1952) On Optimum Relations Between Circuit Elements and Logical Symbols in the Design of Electronic Calculators, Journal of British Institution of Radio Engineers
Booth, A.D. and Booth K.H.V. (1953) Automatic Digital Calculators, Butterworth-Heinmann (Academic Press) London

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070127041254/http://pytheas.club.fr/english/apexc.html The APEXC driver page]
[http://bobmackay.com/Booth/Booth.html Principles and Progress in the Construction of High-Speed Digital Computers]
[https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/manchesteruniversity/data/gb133-nahc/boo Andrew Booth Collection], University of Manchester Library.

Category:1918 births

Category:2009 deaths

Category:People educated at Haberdashers' Boys' School

Category:Academics of Birkbeck, University of London

Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge

Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham

Category:Alumni of the University of London

Category:British electrical engineers

Category:British computer scientists

Category:Computer designers

Category:History of computing in the United Kingdom

Category:Academic staff of Lakehead University