DEAR JOHN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79-01093A001200100009-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: October 18, 1957
• Content Type: LETTER

A roved For Release 1999 IA-RDP79-01093AO01200100009-6
.4 W_ V
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18th October, 1957
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1 was .vary glad to hear from that you are keeping fit and are
still engaged in the study of Soviet automation. I was very impressed with your
report P.}2.-161) which expressed so olear]y x7 own views on the
trends in U.S.S.R. on automation - that word has been responsible for so much
muddled thinking that I am now using the terms rmeohanisation' and 'control
engineering' wherever possible to cover the two branches of the very wide field.
Frank told me that you were anxious to get some critical oomments from no on
the report,*so with the proviso that I am in general agreement, here goes,
went and has been running since 1950, with no immediate military significance.
Page 2. para. 2. This implies that there is no stage between the transfer
machine line and the fully oonruterised automatic factory, In fact, there is no
doubt that ooaaputer-ocn trolled automatic lines, as distinct from whole factories,
are likely to be extensively used within only a few years. The need to study
control engineering is evident now, aril nowhere is its absence mfr noticeable
than in the Western machine tool induct which et to make full use of feed-
back control JW 25X6
Page 2. para. 3. Although U.S. has automatic lines for melting most of the
engine components, none of the lines is in fact as ocmpletely automatin as the
Soviet piston line - it may be for too automatic for economic operation but
nevertheless it is automatic to the nU'degree.
Page 6, line 4.. Soviet research on overall systems involving new methods of
forming metals is perhaps a little played down here. - the essential feature of
Soviet thought is the overall concept of a ,principle at control irrespective of
the means of achieving it, as distinct from an adaptation of existing methais to
a control system.
Page 1, Zara, 1 The essential point is not made, namely that although
earlier applications of automation were military, the U.S.S.R. realised from the
start that the basic Principles were the same whether the application was to be
military or civil, and text'took8 setting out these basic principles as applicable
to industrial automation were available in U.S.S.R. long before coniitiona
permitted the implementation of the principles. In the West much of the design
and research data has even now not been written down in a form suitable for teach-
ing at technical colleges. The piston plant is a long-term technological develop-
Page 8, ]Para. 1. 1 know of nothing to suggest that the der. of computers
wan in MW wey dictated by military requireIDents. The first computers, as in the
West, were mathematical machines designed to solve general scientific oomputational
problems, and although the military probably had priority use of them during the
first few years they were not specifically military computers.
25X1A9a
..C.I. O.R.R..
M
/The Soviet
Approved For Release I 999; "' P79'-01093A001200100009-6
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a
e p aton plant is too ant ano~.tic and
..rigid should, in fairnessy have a cross reference to para. 2 page 28 because
the most important feature to get across to our political seniors :as that
U.S.S.R. is in a position to umiert&ka experimentation on fulll-scale #lant at
a oost outside earthing which a private enterprise concern could c