astronomy

Reynold B. Johnson

Reynold B. Johnson is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Reynold B. Johnson rather than just read about it. In short: Reynold Benjamin Johnson (July 16, 1906 – September 15, 1998) was an American inventor and computer pioneer. A long-time employee of IBM, Johnson is said to be the "father" of the hard disk drive.

Key takeaways

Reynold B. Johnson belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Reynold B. Johnson to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Reynold B. Johnson from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Reynold Benjamin Johnson (July 16, 1906 – September 15, 1998) was an American inventor and computer pioneer. A long-time employee of IBM, Johnson is said to be the "father" of the hard disk drive. Other inventions include automatic test scoring equipment and the videocassette tape.

Early life, family and education Reynold Johnson was born in Minnesota to Swedish immigrants. He had at least two brothers and a sister. He graduated from Minnehaha Academy in 1925, then attended University of Minnesota, obtaining his bachelor of science degree in Educational Administration in 1929.

Career Johnson was a high school science teacher in Michigan in 1932 when he invented an electronic test scoring machine that sensed pencil marks on a standardized form. IBM bought the rights to Reynold's invention and hired him as an engineer to work in their Endicott, New York laboratory. The test scoring machine was sold as the IBM 805 Test Scoring Machine beginning in 1937. One of Reynold's early assignments was to develop technology that allowed cards marked with pencil marks to be converted into punched cards. That allowed punched card data to be recorded by people using only a pencil. That "mark sense" technology was widely used by businesses in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. For example, the Bell System used mark sense technology to record long-distance calls, and utility companies used it to record meter readings. The US government used it under the name "electrographic" technology. In 1952, IBM sent Johnson to San Jose, California, to create and manage its West Coast Laboratory. In 1956, a research team led by Johnson developed disk data storage technology, which IBM released as the IBM 350 disk storage unit. Although the first disk drive was crude by modern standards, it launched a multibillion-dollar industry. Johnson was working with Sony on another project when he developed the prototype for a half-inch videocassette tape. Lou Stevens noted that "Sony was using wider tape on reels. He cut the tape to a half an inch, and put it in a cartridge. The larger tapes weren't easy enough for kids to use, and his interest was in education and building a video textbook for kids." When Johnson retired from IBM in 1971, he had obtained more than 90 patents. After his retirement, he developed the microphonograph technology used in the Fisher-Price Talk to Me Books which won a Toy of the Year award. The technology was also used by the National Audubon Society to aid bird watchers with songbird identification. Johnson received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Ronald Reagan in 1986. The IEEE Reynold B. Johnson Information Storage Systems Award was established in 1991, and is each year presented to a small team or an individual that has made outstanding contributions to information storage systems. Johnson was awarded the Franklin Institute's Certificate of Merit in 1996.

Personal life and demise

Johnson and his wife Beatrice had two sons and a daughter. Johnson died in 1998, at age 92, of melanoma at Palo Alto, California.

References

Further reading Lundstrom, Mack (September 17, 1998). "Reynold, father of disk drive, dies at 92". San Jose Mercury News. p. 1A. "Reynold B. Johnson". National Academy of Engineering. 2001. Memorial Tributes. Vol. 9. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The National Academies Press. 2001. doi:10.17226/10094.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Reynold B. Johnson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Reynold B. Johnson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Reynold B. Johnson before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Reynold B. Johnson ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Reynold B. Johnson

In research: Reynold B. Johnson appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Reynold B. Johnson in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Reynold B. Johnson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1906 births, 1998 deaths, 20th-century American inventors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Reynold B. Johnson outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Reynold B. Johnson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Reynold B. Johnson means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Reynold B. Johnson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Reynold B. Johnson in simple terms?

Reynold Benjamin Johnson (July 16, 1906 – September 15, 1998) was an American inventor and computer pioneer. A long-time employee of IBM, Johnson is said to be the "father" of the hard disk drive.

Why does Reynold B. Johnson matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Reynold B. Johnson?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Reynold B. Johnson.