George Boole

:For the mathematical logician of a similar name, see George Boolos.

Legacy

Boole's work was relatively obscure outside of philosophical circles, and seemed to have little practical use to the common man.

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Approximately seventy years after Boole's death, Claude Shannon attended a philosophy class in his senior year at the University of Michigan where he was introduced to the works of George Boole. Shannon graduated from the university in 1936 with two bachelor's degrees, one in electrical engineering and one in mathematics, and he then moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for graduate school, where he worked on Vannevar Bush's differential analyser, an analog computer.

Related Topics:
Claude Shannon - University of Michigan - 1936 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Vannevar Bush - Differential analyser - Analog computer

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While studying the complicated ad hoc arrangments and wirings of the circuits in the computer, Shannon realized that Boole's concepts could be used to great utility. In his 1937 MIT master's thesis, A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits, Shannon proved that Boolean algebra and binary arithmetic could be used to simplify the arrangement of the electromechanical relays then used in telephone routing switches, then turned the concept upside down and also proved that it should be possible to use arrangements of relays to solve Boolean algebra problems. This concept, of utilizing the properties of electrical switches to do logic, is the basic concept that underlies all modern electronic digital computers, and the thesis became the foundation of practical digital circuit design.

Related Topics:
1937 - MIT - A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits - Boolean algebra - Binary arithmetic - Relays - Digital computer - Digital circuit

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Professor Howard Gardner, of Harvard University, called Shannon's thesis "possibly the most important, and also the most famous, master's thesis of the century". A version of the paper was published in the 1938 issue of the Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and in 1940, it earned Shannon the Alfred Noble American Institute of American Engineers Award.

Related Topics:
Howard Gardner - Harvard University - 1938 - 1940 - Alfred Noble American Institute of American Engineers Award

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Thus Shannon birthed the Digital Age and thrust Boole and his works into the spotlight of the modern era.

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