The Synthesis of Two-Terminal Switching Circuits [Bell Monograph]

New York: Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc, 1949. First Separate Edition. Wraps. Very Good. First Separate Edition. 1-40 pages. 10 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches (275 x 213 mm) Original wrappers, printed in grey, light blue, and black. Stapled with five holes punched at the spine as issued. Minor creasing and soiling to the covers, some minor spotting internally. Wraps. The Bell System Technical Journal, Vol 28, pp 59-98, January 1949 first published this article. We are not aware of a Bell System Technical Journal offprint for this article. Unless one exists, this Bell Telephone System Monograph issue #B-1672 constitutes the first separate edition.

"The Summer of 1940 was spent [ by Shannon ] at Bell Telephone Laboratories doing further research on switching circuits. A new method of design was developed, which greatly reduced the number of contacts needed to synthesize complex switching functions from earlier realizations. This was later published in a paper [ as here ]" Sloane/Wyner p xii.

"The theory of switching circuits may be divided into two major divisions, analysis and synthesis. The problem of analysis, determining the manner of operation of a given switching circuit, is comparatively simple. The inverse problem of finding a circuit satisfying certain given operating conditions, and in particular the _best_ circuit, is, in general, more difficult and more important from a practical standpoint. A basic part of the general synthesis problem is the design of a two-terminal network with given operating characteristics, and we shall consider some aspects of this problem." (page 1) Shannon goes on to describe Boolean Algebra and how it might be interpreted in terms of switching circuits (referencing his own 1938 thesis in the footnotes, among other papers).

PROVENANCE: The personal files of Claude E. Shannon (unmarked). There were seven copies of this item in Shannon's files.

REFERENCES:
Sloane and Wyner, "Claude Elwood Shannon Collected Papers," #50

COLLECTORS NOTE: The Bell Telephone System Monograph series offered a way to obtain individual articles by Bell scientists regardless of where their work was first published. Many Monographs significantly postdate the original article publication. Because of this, they rarely constitute the coveted (and traditional) article offprint. If the journal of record issued no offprint, the Monograph might be the first separate publication - the closest the collector can come to a traditional offprint. We have done our best to place each Monograph properly in the article's publishing history and welcome any corrections or additional information, especially regarding issues unknown to us.