Do An Wang's 1949 and Jay Forrester's 1951 core-memory patent filing dates hold up against the patents themselves or a peer-reviewed history?
claim-an-wang-1949-patent-filing-predates-forresters-1951-core-memory-patent rests on a single Tier 3 source — an undated, unsigned Computer History Museum "Storage Engine" web page — for a specific sequence of patent-filing years (Viehe 1947, Wang 1949, Rajchman 1950, Forrester 1951). Dates are a quantitative claim, and the vault's sourcing floor (sources.md) requires Tier 1–2 for quantitative claims. Flagged [unverified-quant].
Why it matters
This sequencing is the concrete evidence behind a second note, claim-forrester-self-credited-as-sole-core-memory-inventor-downplaying-core-culture, which argues Forrester's public "sole inventor" narrative doesn't match the documented priority order. If the sequence is wrong, oversimplified, or conflates filing dates with grant/priority dates, that comparison weakens.
What would answer it
- The patents themselves, via patents.google.com (this vault's established reachable mirror for reproduced grant text, per
sources.md's known-blocked-routes notes) — Viehe's 1947 filing, Wang's 1949 filing, Rajchman's 1950 filing, and Forrester's 1951 filing, read directly for filing (not grant) dates. - Pugh's 1984 IEEE Transactions on Magnetics paper, cited by the MIT "Core Report" as a peer-reviewed account — exact title unconfirmed, not read directly this session.
Candidate next moves
- Search patents.google.com by inventor name (An Wang, Jan Rajchman, Jay Forrester, Frederick Viehe), restricted to core-memory/magnetic-core subject matter, and read filing dates directly off the patent documents.
- Locate Pugh's 1984 paper via IEEE Xplore or an institutional mirror.
Progress
- 2026-09-12: Partially answered. Wang's (1949-10-21) and Forrester's (1951-05-11) filing dates are now confirmed directly from the patents themselves (claim-wang-forrester-patent-records-confirm-1949-1951-filing-gap). Separately, a 1964 MIT press statement confirms (Tier 1) that Rajchman's own application predated Forrester's and forced a Patent Office/federal-court contest over inventorship (claim-rajchman-rival-filing-forced-legal-contest-over-forresters-inventor-status), though Rajchman's exact filing date and patent number remain unconfirmed against a primary. Viehe's 1947 filing and Pugh's 1984 IEEE Transactions on Magnetics paper remain unread. Still open.
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