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Guide to the William Ross Aiken Papers
2009-42.
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Title: William Ross Aiken Papers
Date: 1944-2007
Date (bulk): (bulk 1955-1996)
Collection number: 2009-42.
Creator:
Aiken, William Ross, 1919-2007
Extent:
1.5 linear feet
Repository:
History San Jose Research Library
San Jose, CA 95112
Abstract: Professional papers regarding inventions and patents, with some personal papers. Of particular interest are Aiken's original
research journals. The collection contains photographs, photographic negatives, and a biography of Kurt von Tauchendorf, Aiken's
patent attorney, written jointly by Aiken and von Tauchendorf.
Physical location: History San Jose Collection Center
Languages:
English
French
Italian
Chinese
German
The Records are available to the public for research by appointment.
Property rights reside with History San Jose. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact History San Jose
Research Library.
William Ross Aiken Papers 2009-42, History San Jose Research Library, San Jose, California 95112-2599.
The collection was donated in 2009 by Aiken's wife, Harriette H. Aiken.
Received and accessioned by History San Jose in August, 2009. Processed and cataloged by History San Jose volunteers, October
2009-March 2010. The documents in the collection were cataloged at folder and item level; some photographs were cataloged
individually. All catalog records are held in the Research Library's database.
William Ross Aiken was born February 19, 1919, in Maui, Hawaii. He attended Los Angeles City College for two years, but his
education was interrupted by war work. From 1941-1947, he worked in the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, California, as an electrical
and mechanical draughtsman and supervisor of communications. In 1946, he founded Ross Radio Corporation, wich produced high
quality radio-phonographs. Aiken graduated in 1947 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California
at Berkeley, and subsequently joined the University of California Radiation Laboratory (now Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory),
where he developed instrumentation and controls for nuclear accelerators.
In 1940 Aiken took a leave of absence at the request of the Laboratory's director, Dr. Ernest O. Lawrence, to help develop
the Lawrence color tube. Upon returning to the Lab in 1951, Aiken led a group working on instrumentation for nuclear devices
for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission as part of Project Greenhouse. He applied this experience to his work in Livermore,
California, and Mercury, Nevada, where he developed devices and techniques for nuclear research while working on a prototype
of the thin cathode ray tube.
In the early 1950s, Aiken became Director of Research at Kaiser Aircraft and Electronics (now a part of Rockwell-Collins).
There he further developed the Kaiser-Aiken Thin Cathode Ray Tube, used in aircraft instrumentation and other flat screen
displays. Mr. Aiken formed Electronics Ten, Inc., in the early 1960s to improve on the Kaiser-Aiken thin tube, and produce
an automatic audio control he designed. In the 1970s, he became Vice President of Research and Development for Display Technology
Corporation (DTC) of Cupertino, California, which produced an indoor/outdoor electrostatic sign developed by Aiken.
In 1959, Aiken successfully ran for city councilman in his home town of Los Altos Hills, California. He served as a councilman
from 1960-1970, during which time he served one term as mayor. He was a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) and a fellow of the Society for Information Display. Aiken held over 100 patents. Of particular interest
are those for the thin cathode-ray tube, quadular modulation audio control, an electrostatic display system, and solid state
displays. In the early 1980s, after his retirement, he wrote and published two computer manuals,
Hard Disk, Made Easy, and
Cheatbook for Wordstar.
Aiken died in Los Altos Hills in February 2007.
The collection is arranged into three series:
- Series 1. Biographical information, professional associations, career history, 1944-2007. 7 folders.
- Series 2. Thin Cathode-Ray Tube: Invention, Development, Promotion, 1955-1996. 9 folders.
- Series 3. Patents and Research Notes, 1949-1978. 10 folders (includes 1 book and 7 journals).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in History San Jose's archives catalog.
Aiken, William R.
von Tauchendorf, Kurt
Lawrence, Ernest O.
Display Technology Corporation (DTC)
Distec System, The
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Kaiser Aerospace and Electronics Corporation
Kaiser Industries Corporation
Kaiser Shipyards (Richmond, Calif.)
Ross Radio Corporation
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
Biographies.
Black-and-white photographs.
Brochures.
Color photographs.
Correspondence.
Diaries.
Patents.
Related Materials at History San Jose Research Library
- 2009-1: Perham Collection of Early Electronics
Related Collections at Other Repositories
- William Ross Aiken. An interview conducted by Jamieson Cobleigh, IEEE History Center, 30 October 1996 (Interview No. 322 for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey). Available online at http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Oral-History:William_Ross_Aiken.
- William Ross Aiken Papers, 1944, 1996 (1 folder), AR36, Maui Historical Society, Wailuku, Hawaii (Accession 1997.014.001-.003).
- Thin cathode ray tube c. 1955, The Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Inventory 1997-1-0628, Dept. of the History of Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.