Frederic C. Williams Explained

F.C. Williams
Birth Name:Frederic Calland Williams
Birth Date:26 June 1911
Birth Place:Romiley, Stockport
Death Place:Manchester
Other Names:F.C. Williams
Freddie Williams
Nationality:English
Citizenship:British
Education:Stockport Grammar School
Thesis Title:Problems of spontaneous oscillation in electrical circuits
Thesis Url:http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.673482
Thesis Year:1936

Sir Frederic Calland Williams, [1] (26 June 1911  - 11 August 1977),[2] [3] known as F.C. Williams or Freddie Williams,[4] was an English engineer, a pioneer in radar and computer technology.[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Education

Williams was born in Romiley, Stockport, and educated at Stockport Grammar School.[2] He gained a scholarship to study engineering at the University of Manchester where he was awarded Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees. He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1936[11] for research carried out as a postgraduate student of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Research and career

Working at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE), Williams was a substantial contributor during World War II to the development of radar.[12]

In 1946 he was appointed as head of the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Manchester. There, with Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill, he built the first electronic stored-program digital computer, the Manchester Baby.

Williams is also recognised for his invention of the Williams tube, an early memory device. He supervised the research of his PhD students Richard Grimsdale[13] and Tom Kilburn.

Awards and honours

Williams was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1950. His nomination reads

Personal life

Williams died in Manchester in 1977, aged 66.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: EC/1950/25 Williams, Sir Frederic Calland: Library and Archive Catalogue . The Royal Society . 8 July 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190708174409/https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=%28RefNo%3D%3D%27EC%2F1950%2F25%27%29 . London . dead.
  2. Kilburn . T. . Tom Kilburn. Piggott . L. S. . 10.1098/rsbm.1978.0020 . Frederic Calland Williams. 26 June 1911 – 11 August 1977 . . 24 . 583–604 . 1978 . free .
  3. 10.1098/rsbm.1979.0001 . Corrigenda: Frederic Calland Williams. 26 June 1911 – 11 August 1977 . . 25 . 0–1 . 1979 . free .
  4. Web site: Frederic Calland Williams (1911–1977). dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100107045908/http://www.computer50.org/mark1/williams.html. 7 January 2010.
  5. Williams . Frederic . Frederic Calland Williams . Kilburn . Tom . Tom Kilburn . 10.1038/162487a0 . Electronic Digital Computers . Nature . 162 . 4117 . 487 . 1948 . 4110351 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090406014626/http://www.computer50.org/kgill/mark1/natletter.html . 6 April 2009. free .
  6. Anderson David, Delve Janet (2007) Frederic Calland Williams: the Manchester Baby's chief engineer IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 29 (4): 90-102
  7. Williams . F.C. . Kilburn . T. . 1949 . A storage system for use with binary-digital computing machines . Proceedings of the IEE - Part II: Power Engineering . 96. 50. 183–200. 10.1049/pi-2.1949.0078 .
  8. 10.1145/1562164.1562180. Interview An interview with Maurice Wilkes. Communications of the ACM. 52. 9. 39–42. 2009. Anderson . D. P. . 31699280.
  9. 10.1109/85.707570. Early programs on the Manchester Mark I Prototype. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 20. 3. 4. 1998. Shelburne . B. J. . Burton . C. P. .
  10. 10.1049/ir:19980302. The Manchester baby reborn. IEE Review. 44. 3. 113–117. 1998. Burton . C..
  11. DPhil . Frederic Calland. Williams . Problems of spontaneous oscillation in electrical circuits . University of Oxford . solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. 1936 . . Frederic Calland Williams.
  12. Web site: Napper. Brian. Frederic Calland Williams (1911–1977). University of Manchester. October 2000. 11 December 2015.
  13. PhD. exlibrisgroup.com . Transistor Digital Computer . . Richard Lawrence . Grimsdale . 19 April 2016. 1955 .

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