Scope and Contents From the Collection: The Papers of John V. McMillin II primarily chronicle developments at the Measurement Research Center (MRC), which was founded in 1952 by Prof. Everett F. Lindquist of the University of Iowa College of Education. Prof. Lindquist pioneered the design and use of standardized tests in American public schools, beginning in the late 1920's. By 1953, he and his staff developed an optical mark reader (OMR) for scoring students' test answer sheets. The electronic brain, as the OMR was called at the time, was a breakthrough in providing, for the first time, large-scale high-speed test scoring. However, its vacuum-tube technology was becoming obsolete, and by 1959 MRC began work on the design and development of solid-state, or transistorized, circuitry to replace the less stable vacuum tubes. The bulk of the papers document activities at the MRC from 1959 to about 1980 from the perspective of a project engineer, and later engineering manager, who was closely involved with...

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Including a handwritten page of Lindquist's analysis. I suspect this is the only surviving copy of what I feel should rightly be regarded as a historical document. The success of this machine spawned a lot of jobs in Iowa City, IA!

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Through a JVM-paid subscription to an online searchable data-base, I was able to find several references to Dr. E. F. Lindquist, the founder of ITP, MRC, the co-founder of ACT, and the President of MRC when it was acquired by Westinghouse Learning Corporation in June 1968. The JPEG Image files I have downloaded, and the image-CLIPS and 3 MS Word files I have subsequently created are available in the JVM Archival Media Disc on a folder named: [1926_1946_1951_1952_PRESS-CITIZEN_EFL]

Scope and Contents Julia J. Peterson's 1983 book, "THE IOWA TESTING PROGRAMS - The First Fifty Years" gives an account of how Dr. Lindquist's tireless efforts to develop and put into practical use the world's first high-speed OMR test-scoring machine during the mid-1950s almost came to naught because of severe signal-drift problems with the 'Lucite rod and vacuum-tube photocell scheme' that was incorporated into the original design. As she quotes Professor Lindquist's colleague, Dr. Rulen, "the intervention of Providence" [Page 114] saved the day! Actually, it was the 'last minute' availability of a new miniature germanium-based solid-state photodiode, the 1N77B, from Sylvania Electric that 'saved the day'. The Archival DVD Folder named as above contains a JPEG-image scan of the 'savior' and my related MS Word File 1955_Spring_1N77B Sylvania Germanium Photo-diode_Mod I_ORG.doc which explains more details. The hard-copy printout of this file is included - on one inch thick caliper stock with a...

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This Accession item is a 32-page high-quality color-reproduction of an ACT (American College Testing Program) Brochure which describes the time-line history from its founding by Professor E. F. Lindquist and Ted McCarrel in 1959 on through 1999. The JVM Archival DVD Folder 1959_1999_ACT at 40 Years contains JPEG-Image scans of the cover and the first 16 pages, so that a future researcher may examine these files before accessing the hard-copy version of the brochure for further information on the 1980s-90s timeline

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The world of electronics design has changed almost beyond imagination from the late 1950s and through the 1960s when the young engineers at MRC were busy designing new solid-state circuits to replace/enhance various modules and components of Dr. Lindquist's creation - the first high-speed electronic test-scoring machine - based primarily on vacuum tube design. The Folder on the Archival DVD, named as above, contains a JPEG-image file of several of the typical solid-state components (transistors, diodes, etc.).  The accompanying MS Word file 1960s_Solid-State components used by MRC_ORG.doc offers a few more tidbits about this era, and the hard-copy printout also has a small packet of transistor specimens attached

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This is one of the earlier articles publicizing Dr. Lindquist's vintage Test Scoring Machine. An earlier JVM Accession to the U of I provided one of the Original Copies of the Times Democrat's article, dated April 10, 1960, and included a folder on the companion DVD entitled 1960_04_10_Sunday Times DEMOCRAT_MRC Scanner, which is repeated on the JVM Archival Media disc provided with this group of material. Also included in this set is a hard-copy printout from the JVM MS Word file 1960_04_10_SUNDAY TIMES_No Mistakes by MRC Machine_ORG2, including embedded JPEG-scanned photos appearing in the original article

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Other JVM-to-UI Accession Documents* describe the major early-1960's MRC project of designing this highly complex OMR Processing System for SRA, a test publisher in Chicago. This Original Copy document describes a relay-laden switching box to toggle between peripherals. The document contains two large drawings as well as two photos of the hardware. *Refer to Folder 1960s_early_SRA Docutran Files

Scope and Contents During the early 1960s, various publications referred to this era as "The Golden Age of Electronics", as Electronics Technology was in a state of rapid flux and transition from the former decades-old vacuum-tube era to the dawn of 'transistorized' circuitry, printed-circuit transistor modules, early computer-type logic, and similar solid-state products. My role at MRC as Project Engineer in those days was to 'attack' the old way of doing things, and begin to replace vacuum-tube modules of the first several MRC Test Scoring Machines (Dr. E. F. Lindquist's pioneering invention) with greatly improved, less expensive solid-state components and sub-systems. My opportunity to do this task en-mass came about in 1960-61 when Dr. Lindquist committed MRC Engineering resources to design and construct a specialized test-scoring machine for Professor John C. Flanagan's nation-wide Project Talent, requiring the processing of test sheets from 400,000 students. Shortly after this successful...

Scope and Contents At the time, the early 1960's were referred to as the 'golden age' of electronics, as the seminal 1947 invention of the point-contact transistor by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley at the Bell Telephone Labs soon revolutionized forever the world of electronics design and ensuing products. The early 1960's foresaw the last vestige of vacuum-tube logic and amplifier circuit designs, which were rapidly being replaced by a wider and wider variety of emerging solid-state designs incorporating germanium and silicon transistors. As a young engineer myself, I was 'swept up' in this revolution, and as a project engineer at Measurement Research Center (MRC) in Iowa City, Iowa my task was to 'transistorize' various components in the first high-speed electronic scoring machine invented by Dr. E. F. Lindquist, President and Founder of MRC. My first of several "Ideas for Design" (pages #146 & 147), "Holding Resistor Allows Narrow Pulse Triggering of SCR Circuit", was...

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Similar in scope and contents to the above JVM-to-UI Accession, this issue contains my Idea for Design (pages #192 & 193), "Versatile Transistorized Alarm Detects Pulse Dropouts". I was pleased to receive a letter from ED on May 12, 1961 informing me that my idea had been voted the "most valuable of issue" award, and I was awarded a $50 check. The Original Copy of this magazine is also included

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Similar in scope and contents to the two previous issues included in the JVM-to-UI Accession materials. This issue announce that an "Iowa Engineer's Idea Pays $50" on page #1. Again, the folder in the included JVM Archival media disc contains a number of JPEG image scans of electronic/logic components being advertised in the early 1960's. The Original Copy of this magazine is also included

Scope and Contents EDN was another popular magazine subscribed to by electronic/logic designers, such as myself, back in the early 1960's. Refer to pages #72 & 73 for my EDN Packaging Idea article, "Hinged Connector Plate Adds Flexibility to Card Files", which includes four photos of the MRC module being described. Original Copy is provided. The so-called 'hinged plate' was a rather trivial design point, but I used this means to get the article published - replete with the photos - to 'show off' a complex MRC design module incorporated into the early 1960 's innovative OMR DOCUTRAN system designed for MRC's important customer, Science Research Associates, Chicago, Illinois. The module, as shown, contains nearly 50 printed-circuit cards, each containing numerous transistors and related components - all of this support circuitry necessary to drive the 960-bit core-memory module shown in the photograph! A single tiny integrated-circuit chip today (or portion thereof!) could readily handle all of the...

Scope and Contents During 1960/61 MRC designed and constructed a large, complex Optical Mark Read Scanner for an important customer, Science Research Associates. We were forced to hire quite a few SUI Electrical Engineering students (Juniors & Seniors), and as their supervisor, I became exasperated with seemed to me to be their 'common sense' approach to Engineering Practices, in spite of their good grades. Accordingly, on Memorial Day, May 30, 1961, I sat down at my dining room table for about two hours, and scribbled out a 'tongue in cheek' article which I entitled, "DESIGNING MARGINAL CIRCUITS", that 'defined' the Ten Rules (in jest) to 'succeed' in such endeavors - rather a parody of the kinds of miscues I was seeing my SUI students perform. I showed the manuscript to Theodore 'Ted' A. Hunter, a prominent local electrical engineer, who among his many accomplishments had established the well-known LION CLUB's Eye Bank, had founded the Student Quarterly Journal as a new publication within the...

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This Original Copy 50-page document (Bibliography on pages 49, 50), plus 21 Drawings, describes the theory of operation, design characteristics, mathematical analysis, and usage of the various newly emerging solid-state devices becoming available to logic-design engineers in the early 1960's, such as diodes, transistors, and silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCR's). This typewritten copy, on onion-skin, is the only known surviving copy. The Archival DVD Folder 1962_01_05_A SURVEY OF 4-LAYER DEVICES contains only a few JPEG-Image files: The Report Cover page, the 2-page introduction, and the Bibliography on pages 49 and 50

Scope and Contents A 16-page typewritten Original Copy of a document, plus several MRC Drawings and photos, prepared by the MRC Engineering Division, Iowa City, Iowa, which outlines the steps necessary to repackage a prototype document reader built for the 'Project Talent' program, such that two large 'Relay Racks' of electronic and logic hardware could be reduced to a single rack. A portion of the repackaged logic/core-memory module was depicted in an article in the January 1962 ELECTRICAL DESIGN NEWS (EDN), a leading technical publication of the day, Pages #72 & 73, by JVM. [an Original Copy of EDN, with related JPEG-scanned images files, is included in this set of JVM-to-UI Accession documents]. The Archival DVD Folder 1962_01_29_MRC Document Reader Repkg contains 24 JPEG Image files, which represent virtually the entire set of documents in this Report. All 18 text pages, and six other images representing several photos and drawings. The logic circuitry and packaging design was used in the SRA...

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Similar in scope and contents to the three previous issues included in the JVM-to-UI Accession materials. This issue contains my Idea for Design (pages #96 & 97), "Testing Field-Effect Devices On Transistor Curve Tracers", along with numerous JPEG scans of typical products being offered in this issue. The Original Copy of the magazine is also provided in this set of U of I Accession items