IEEE History Center: Edward de Laet Abstract

Edward de Laet worked as a draftsman and technician for Joe Desch at N.C.R. 1940-1945, 1946-1950. He was born and raised in Dayton; spent a year at the University of Dayton; and worked at a radio wholesale supplier before joining Desch’s group. He worked for Desch during NCR’s war-work, on a variety of projects. After eighteen months in the Navy, he returned to NCR, though he soon shifted to the Styling Department. De Laet mentions his ham radio interest as a qualification for the job, since it was shared by many of Desch’s technicians. He notes particularly Louie de Rosa’s still unsurpassed work on sound-engineering, and the upbeat attitude at the department, instilled by Joe Desch and particularly strong among the technicians.

1.	Born in Dayton in 1917; went Chaminade High School and had one year at University of Dayton; interested in radio, electronics, ham radio, commercial arts; went to work for Standard Radio, a radio wholesale supplier.
2.	Got job in Joe Desch’s department at N.C.R. in 1940 as an electronic technician: met them via Standard Radio job, ham radio interest. Technicians largely ham radio operators with can-do attitude. Engineers more negative attitude: anecdote of contrasting attitudes re building short-range wireless telephone.
3.	Miniaturizing tubes: shrunk from 2/3 the size of a ketchup bottle to 1 ½ inches tall by ½ to ¾ inch in diameter. Designed and built in department, especially by Jack Kern: not yet commercially available. De Laet designed base for tubes, so could be plugged into equipment.
4.	Worked as draftsman for many engineers; worked under Ed Carey, chief draftsman; did final drawings for patent applications.
5.	Working for N.C.R.: good job, model factory, good spirit in department. Initially usually routine stuff, deadlines increase with war work, Navy project. Norton bombsight, muzzle velocity measurement in other departments.
6.	Louie de Rosa project before war: PA system with constant volume around auditorium. Automatic volume control. Still ahead of today’s technology. Never commercialized. De Rosa also figure out synthetic way to record full dynamic range. Synthesizing never equaled in record era.
7.	Got top security clearance to do war work; doesn’t remember exact projects; trouble-shooter. Plant did round-the-clock three shifts; analyzed poor record of midnight shift; recommended it be eliminated, consolidated into other two shifts; recommendation followed, production and quality went up within 30 days.
8.	Staggered union jobs—millwrights, plumbers, carpenters, etc.—so no-one sat around waiting for someone else to finish. Workers hated him: had liked downtime.
9.	Shipped stationary supplies to Meader in Washington, to avoid time and expense of requisitioning bureaucracy.
10.	Bldg. 26 did design, planning, manufacture, assembly; but smoothly run, no chaos. The normal technical problems with complex equipment. Most people didn’t know what working on; e.g., rotor project. Not much mutual gab, even within departments, as per orders.
11.	Normally automatic draft deferment for people on project; draft boards jealous that didn’t know reasons for deferment; eventually drafted de Laet; most others slipped through cracks. But given letter to go into Navy project. Navy early 1945—August 1946. Returned to NCR, Desch’s group.
12.	Drafting work, design work; then to Styling Department to design cash register cases. Looking at visibility of color contrasts. At NCR till 1950.
13.	Desch: challenging group to do the impossible.