.. . . 

INITIALS 

DATE 

2 

3 

4 

FROM NAME OR TITLE 

ORGANIZATION AND LOCATION 

CIRCULATE 

COORDINA· 

TION 

FILE 

INFORMATION 

NECESSARY 

ACTION 

NOTE AND RETURN 

SEE ME 

SIGNATURE 

eclassifi ed and approved 

or release by NSA on 

1-15-2013 pursuantto E .0. 

3526 
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1-~I 

~ONF~~:-~~=-~f!I' NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY 

WASHINGTON 25, D. C, 

Mr. William F. Friedman 

310 2nd Street, S. E. 

Washington, D. c. 

Dear Mr. Friedman: 

Serial: EXBAB 20-56 

25 January 1956 

Inclosed is a copy of the agenda for the f orthcaming 

meeting of the Scientific Advisory Board. Also inclosed. 

for your inf orJ!lation is a copy of the minutes of the last 

Board meeting and an announcement of the changes in Board 

membership. 

3 Incls: 

a/s 

Sincerely, 

41~ S. KULLBA.CK 

Executive Secretary 

NSA Scientific Advisory Board 

11Declassify when fncfosures are removed" 
REF ID:A64029 

-

NATIONAL SECURITY AGEHCY SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD 

AGENDA 

J.5, 16 and 17 FEBRUARY 1956 

All meetings will be hald in Room 17-131 at the Naval Security Station 

except as otherwise indicated. 

0900~1200 

1200-1255 

1300 

1315 

1400 

1445-1500 

1500 

1545 

1630 

WEDNESD~L 15 ,FEBRUARY 1956 

Reading of various doctunents. 

Lunch. 

Opening remarks by Lieutenant General Ralph J. Canine. 

Review and approval of Minutes of 6-7 April 1955 meetings. 

Report on member.ship changes. 

Report on the Agenc~· Activities - PRODUCTION. 

Report on the Agency Activities - COMSEC. 

B1-eak. 

Report on the Agency Activities - RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT. 

Report on the Agency Activities - STAFF. 

Report on NSASAB Panel Activities. 

Proposa1s for Panel Ao ti vi ties. 
.. REF ID:A6402 • 

NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY ~ARD 

AGENDA 

15, 16 and 17 FEBRUARY 1956 

All meetings will be held in Room 17-131 at the Naval Security Station 

except as otherwise indicated. 

THURSDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 1956 

0900 Summary report on PHASE I, II, III Documents on Mechanization. 

1130-1155 

1200-1255 

1.300 

1400~1500 

1500-1515 

1515 

Discussion. 

Visit with General Canine in his office. 

Lunch. 

NSA problems of communication. 

Long Range Estimate. 

Breako 

Discussion of UHF/vHF/SHF plans. 

2 
• 

REF ID:A6402 • 

NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD 

AGENDA 

15, 16 and 17 FEBRUARY 1956 

All meetings will be held in Room 17-131 at the Naval Security Station 

except as otherwise indicated. 

0900 

1200-1255 

1300...1530 

FRIDAY, 17 FEBRUARY 1956 

Report on Recommemations in the Robertson Reporto 

Lunch. 

New Board business: 

Exchange Fellowships. 

Other. 

3 
MINUTES OF THE NSA SCIEN'l'J:FIC ADVISORY BOARD MEETING 

HELD ON 6 APRIL 1955 

l, The following were present at the meeting, 

a. Board Members: 

Mr. J. C. McPherson, Chairman 

Mr. H. P. Corwith 

Dr. W. R. G. Baker 

Mr. A. w. Horton 

Dr. H. T. Engstrom (arrived 1400) 

Dr. J, von Neumann (arrived 093.5, departed 09.55) 

Mr. D. A. Quarles (arrived 1230) 

b. NSA. Executive Group for Board Affairs: 

. Dr. s. Kullback, Vice Chairman 

Mr. A. B. Clark 

Dr. H. H. Campaigne 

Dr. R. A. Leibler 

c. NSA. Observers: 

Lt. General R. J. Canine, USA (departed 1010) 

Brig. General W. M. Burgess, USAF 

Capt.ain D. M. Agnew, USN 

Colonel J. J. Davis, USA 

Colonel D. Sinclair, USA 

Colonel F. E. Herrelko, USAF 

Dr. J. J. Eachus 

Dr. R. H. Shaw 

Dr. H. Nyquist 

Dr. H, J. Stukey 

Mr. M. H. Klein 

Mr. C. J. Schierlmann 

Captain I. T, McDonald, USAF 

Captain R. J, Scott, USAF 

d. Record.er: 

Miss C. Johnson 

CONFIDENTIAL 
2 0 The meeting was opened by the Chairman,, Mr. McPherson. The 

tentative minutes of the previous Board meeting on 20.-21 April 1954,, 

were reviewed and approved as written. 

3. General Canine told of results of the college recruitment 

program of last year. NSA. hired 500 college graduates,, mostly from 

the upper half' of the graduating class. The psychometric consulting 

service has materially improved the personnel situation. NSA had l~ 

turnover last year. Ot the 1200 people moved to Fort Meade only Lil 

quit .. 

4o General Canine requested the Board's consideration of the 

desirability of setting up a separate,, or captive organization,, as an 

adjunct to the Agency. A discussion followed in which the following 

points were mentionedg 

a o The Board might organize an Ad Hoc Committee to consider 

the question. 

bo Perhaps an organization such as RA.ND, or even a portion of 

RAND itself,, might be used in such an endeavor. 

c. Dr., von Neumann believed there were enough peopl} in the 

Washington area to provide a nucleus for the project. 

d. General Canine thought sufficient funds would be made 

available for such an endeavor. 

eo Mr. Horton and Mr. Corwith both favored further investigation of' establishing a captive organization and that some members of NSA 

be included in the committee if one is appointed. 

:t. Dro Baker suggested that RAND evaluate the idea. 

g. Genera1 Canine and Mr. McPherson agreed to discuss the 

subject informally at a later date. 

5. Dr. Baker reported on the progress of the R/D Advisory Council 

of the Signal Corps. This Council has 14 members with Dr. Hull as 

Chairman. They have several "task forces",, who come up with special 

reports, such as the BEACOM report with its 32 recommendations. 

· 6. Colonel Sinclair, NSA,, briefed the Board on college graduate 

recruitment. In the spring 91 colleges were visited in which 1039 

acceptable people were located. Of these 215 were of'!ered jobs and 

191 bachelors have accepted. In the coming year it is planned to 

visit 111 colleges, aiming for 350 recruits. 

2 . 

CONFIDENTIAL 
7. Major Grottle described the NSA Building at Fort Meade and the 

layout of the site. The building will have 1 1 1001 000 square feet of 

usable space and wi;J-1 accomodate 10,000 peopleo 

a. Mr. Clark reported on the present status of R/D activities and 

plans for the future o The bud.get for R/D is $14.4 million, which with 

overhead and other realistic charges is in fact equivalent to $19.3 

million. Of this about 12% is true research. It is planned to put most 

of this research in an unclassified outside site. 

9. Mr. Mathews presented a talk on his Division, the Communications Security ~quipnent Division. 

10. Dr. Eachus introduced those who were to speak on COMINT. 

a. Mr. Kirby discussed the problems involved in the intercept 

of traffic. 

b. Mr. Hausman gave the R/D approach to the problems and the 

program which they have in the intercept group in R/D to support PROD. 

ll. The meeting was adjourned at 1630 until 0900 7 April 1955. 

S. KULLBACK 

Executive Secretary 

NSASAB 

J 

(Note: A verbatim record of the Board proceedings and individual reports 

will be on file in the Office of Research & Developn.ent .tor 

individual study.) 

3 

CONFIDENTI2\:L 
. ·-

MINUTES OF THE NSA SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD MEETING 

HELD ON 7 APRil. 1955 

1. The .:f'ollowing were present at the meeting. 

a. Board Members: 

Mr. J. C. McPherson, Chairman 

Mr. H. P. Corwith 

Mr. A.. W. Horton 

Dr. H. T. Engstrom (arrived 0930) 

Dr. J. von Neumann (arrived 1425) 

b. NSl Executive Group for Board Affairs: 

Dr. s. Kul.lback, Vice Chairman 

Mr. A. B. Clark 

Dr. H. H. Cam.pa.igne 

Dr. R. A. Leibler 

c. NSA. Observers: 

Major GeneraJ. J. B. Ackerman, USAF 

Brig. General W. M. Burgess, USAF 

Dr. J. J. Eachus 

Dr. H. Nyquist 

Mr. M. M. Mathews 

Mr. c. J. Schierlmann 

Mr. J. J. Connelly 

Mr. H. L. Conle:r 

Mr. H. DeFrancesco 

Mr. D. R. Hogan 

Dr. A. W. Hesse 

Dr. R. H. Shaw 

Ca}ffiain I. T. McDonald, USAF 

Captain R. J. Scott, USAF 

d. Record.er: 

Miss c. Johnson 

CONFIDENTIAL 
2. Mr. Clark opened the meeting by introducing Mr. Conl.ey from PROD. 

a. Mr. Conl.ey1 s talk concerned traffic analysis. There followed a 

brief discussion of the problem of intercepting hand-sent Morse traffic and 

the difficulties involved in developing a translator to do the job automatically. 

b. Mr. DeFrancesco of R/D briefed the Board on the intercept of 

weather information and its strategic value. 

'.3.. Mr. Hogan presented a. talk on the general. features of Analytic machines, 

with some specific illustrations of their applications. 

4. Dr. Hesse gave a presentation on Special Ma.chine Systems. 

5o Dr. Leibler described various hand systems of enciphe:rment used and 

some of the techniques of cryptanalysis. 

6. Mr. Hogan gave a survey of analytic machines expla~..ng their various 

functions. A complete written version of these expositions ~available to 

Board members on request. 

7. A discussion followed concerning evaluating computer ability and certain 

possibilities for improving analytic machines. 

s. Dr. Engstrom reported for his Sub-Panel on analytical machines. The 

report emphasized the necessity of additional research effort to determine the 

physical limits of the components necessary- to realize ultra high speed operation. It accepted the general concept of a programmed sequence control machine 

communicating with ancillary units to accomplish particular cryptologic processes. Provision for microprogr8.1ID'.lling, functional parallelism, and simplicity 

of programming were urged. The report connnended the work to date on FAmmR and 

recommended additional engineering and design effort to define the functional 

elements of the system and to accomplish initial design work. In the discussion 

which followed, considerable attention was given to the value of general purpose 

machines versus special purpose equipnent. There was general agreement that 

target speeds tor a generaJ. system should be 0£ the order of 50,000 characters 

per second for input-output, 250,000 characters per second drmn. reading and 

1 1 000,000 characters per second logical manipulation. A. copy of the full report 

is attached. 

9. The possible use of machines for automatic programming was discussed. 

10. The meeting adjourned at 1630. 

2 

S. KULLBACK 

Executive Secretary 

NSASAB 

CONFIDENTIAL 
(Notes: Fridaf'1 S April, was left as an open date, during which time 

Board members might study particular subjects of interest. A 

verbatim record ot the Board proceedings and individual reports 

will be on file in the Office of Research & Developnent, Room 17-131, 

NSS, for individual study.) 

3 

CONFIDENTIAL