Hans Peter Luhn: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 04:08, 23 July 2026

Hans Peter Luhn (1896-1964) was a German American inventor.

Life

Hans Peter Luhn was born on July 1, 1896 in Barmen (now part of Wuppertal), Germany. After secondary school, he moved to Switzerland to learn the printing trade to join the family business. During World War I he was a communications officer in the German Army. After the war Luhn entered the textile field, which eventually led him to the United States, where he worked in textiles and as an independent engineering consultant and obtained a broad range of patents for inventions. In 1941 he joined IBM as a senior research engineer at the IBM headquarters in Armonk, NY, and soon became manager of the information retrieval research division.

His introduction to the field of documentation/information science came in 1947 when he was asked to work on a problem brought to IBM by James W. Perry and Malcolm Dyson that involved searching for chemical compounds recorded in coded form. Luhn came up with a solution for that and other problems using punched cards, but often had to overcome the limitations of the available machines by coming up with new ways of using them. By the dawn of the computer age in the 1950's, software became the means to surmount the limitations inherent in the punched card machines of the past.

Luhn spent greater and greater amounts of time on the problems of information retrieval and storage faced by libraries and documentation centers, and pioneered the use of data processing equipment in resolving these problems. Luhn retired from IBM in 1961 and spent the remaining years of his life traveling, lecturing internationally and inventing. He died on August 19, 1964 in Armonk, NY.

Contributions

Luhn is best known for his co-invention of KeyWord In Context (KWIC) indexing, an extremely inexpensive form of topical indexing. A set of cards was punched with each card containing a single bibliographical record including, minimally, a document identifier and the title. The cards could then be used to generate automatically an alphabetical index of title words with each occurrence of each word on a separate line with the rest of the title adjacent to it in order to to indicate the context of that use if that title word.

Luhn's idea for a selective dissemination of information (SDI) system, an automatic method to provide current awareness services to scientists and engineers, was also influential. He was also instrumental in creating the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology initially edited by Carlos Cuadra.

Luhn also pioneered in the development and application of a wide range of automatic measuring and controlling devices, binary arithmetic systems, switching devises, serial binary computers, electronic information scanning, and storage and retrieval devices. The "Luhn algorithm" is a a checksum formula used to validate a variety of different identification numbers. [1]

Publications

H.P. Luhn: Pioneer of information science – Selected works, ed. by C. K. Schultz. New York: Spartan Books, 1968. Reprints 30 of his 41 publications, with a bibliography of all his publications (pp 287-289), a partial citation index (pp 290-298), a list of his US patents (pp 285-286), and four biographical essays about him (pp 3-30).

"The automatic creation of literature abstracts." IBM Journal of research and development 2, no. 2 (1958): 159-165. [2]
"A business intelligence system." IBM Journal of research and development 2, no. 4 (1958): 314-319.
Keyword-in-context index for technical literature (KWIC index). Yorktown Heights, N.Y. : International Business Machines Corp., Advanced Systems Development Division, 1959. ASDD report; RC-127. [3] Also American Documentation 11, no 4 (1960): 288-295.
"Selective dissemination of new scientific information with the aid of electronic processing equipment." American Documentation 12, no. 2 (1961): 131-138.
"A new method of recording and searching information." American Documentation 4, no. 1 (1953): 14-16. [4]

Offices

American Documentation Institute. President, 1964.

Awards

American Society for Infornation Science. Award of Merit, 1974.

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+'''Hans Peter Luhn''' (1896-1964) was a German American inventor.
 == Life ==
-Hans Peter Luhn (1896-1964)
+'''Hans Peter Luhn''' was born on July 1, 1896 in Barmen (now part of Wuppertal), Germany. After secondary school, he moved to Switzerland to learn the printing trade to join the family business. During World War I he was a communications officer in the German Army. After the war Luhn entered the textile field, which eventually led him to the United States, where he worked in textiles and as an independent engineering consultant and obtained a broad range of patents for inventions. In 1941 he joined IBM as a senior research engineer at the IBM headquarters in Armonk, NY, and soon became manager of the information retrieval research division.
-Hans Peter Luhn was born in Barmen, Germany on July 1, 1896. After he completed secondary school, Luhn moved to Switzerland to learn the printing trade so he could join the family business. His career in printing was halted by his service as a communications officer in the German Army during World War I. After the war Luhn entered the textile field, which eventually led him to the United States, where he invented a threadcounting machine (the Lunometer) that was still being marketed in the 1980's.
+His introduction to the field of documentation/information science came in 1947 when he was asked to work on a problem brought to IBM by [[James Whitney Perry|James W. Perry]] and [[Malcolm Dyson]] that involved searching for chemical compounds recorded in coded form. Luhn came up with a solution for that and other problems using punched cards, but often had to overcome the limitations of the available machines by coming up with new ways of using them. By the dawn of the computer age in the 1950's, software became the means to surmount the limitations inherent in the punched card machines of the past.
-From the late twenties to the early forties, during which time he obtained patents for a broad range of inventions, Luhn worked in textiles and as an independent engineering consultant. He joined IBM as a senior research engineer in 1941, and soon became manager of the information retrieval research division.
+Luhn spent greater and greater amounts of time on the problems of information retrieval and storage faced by libraries and documentation centers, and pioneered the use of data processing equipment in resolving these problems. Luhn retired from IBM in 1961 and spent the remaining years of his life traveling, lecturing internationally and inventing. He died on August 19, 1964 in Armonk, NY.
-His introduction to the field of documentation/information science came in 1947 when he was asked to work on a problem brought to IBM by James Perry and Malcolm Dyson that involved searching for chemical compounds recorded in coded form. He came up with a solution for that and other problems using punched cards, but often had to overcome the limitations of the available machines by coming up with new ways of using them. By the dawn of the computer age in the 1950's, software became the means to surmount the limitations inherent in the punched card machines of the past.
+== Contributions==
+Luhn is best known for his co-invention of KeyWord In Context (KWIC) indexing, an  extremely inexpensive form of topical indexing. A set of cards was punched with each card containing a single bibliographical record including, minimally, a document identifier and the title. The cards could then be used to generate automatically an alphabetical index of title words with each occurrence of each word on a separate line with the rest of the title adjacent to it in order to to indicate the context of that use if that title word.
-Luhn spent greater and greater amounts of time on the problems of information retrieval and storage faced by libraries and documentation centers, and pioneered the use of data processing equipment in resolving these problems. "Luhn was the first, or among the first, to work out many of the basic techniques now commonplace in information science." These techniques included full-text processing; Key Word in Context indexing (KWIC); auto-indexing; automatic abstracting and the concept of selective dissemination of information (SDI).
+Luhn's idea for a selective dissemination of information (SDI) system, an automatic method to provide current awareness services to scientists and engineers, was also influential. He was also instrumental in creating the  ''Annual Review of Information Science and Technology'' initially edited by [[Carlos Albert Cuadra|Carlos Cuadra]].
-Two of Luhn's greatest achievements are the ideas for an SDI system and the co-invention of the KWIC method of indexing. Today's SDI systems owe a great deal to a 1958 paper by Luhn ("A Business Intelligence System") which described an "automatic method to provide current awareness services to scientists and engineers" who needed help to cope with the rapid post-war growth of scientific and technical literature. The KWIC indexing method was adopted by the American Chemical Society in 1960 for the publication of its journal Chemical Titles.
+Luhn also pioneered in the development and application of  a wide range of automatic measuring and controlling devices, binary arithmetic systems, switching devises, serial binary computers, electronic information scanning, and storage and retrieval devices. The "Luhn algorithm" is a a checksum formula used to validate a variety of different identification numbers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luhn_algorithm]
-Luhn has been referred to as the father of information retrieval, a tribute to his pioneering ideas and inventions. In 1964, he was among the top ten most frequently cited authors in the field.
+== Publications ==
+''H.P. Luhn: Pioneer of information science – Selected works'', ed. by [[Claire Schultz|C. K. Schultz]]. New York: Spartan Books, 1968. Reprints 30 of his 41 publications, with a bibliography of all his publications (pp 287-289), a partial citation index (pp 290-298), a list of his US patents (pp 285-286), and four biographical essays about him (pp 3-30).
-Luhn retired from IBM in 1961 and spent the remaining years of his life traveling, lecturing internationally and inventing. He died on August 19, 1964.
+*"The automatic creation of literature abstracts." ''IBM Journal of research and development'' 2, no. 2 (1958): 159-165. [http://www.di.ubi.pt/~jpaulo/competence/general/(1958)Luhn.pdf]
+*"A business intelligence system." ''IBM Journal of research and development'' 2, no. 4 (1958): 314-319.
+*''Keyword-in-context index for technical literature (KWIC index)''. Yorktown Heights, N.Y. : International Business Machines Corp., Advanced Systems Development Division, 1959. ASDD report; RC-127. [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001759811] Also ''American Documentation'' 11, no 4 (1960): 288-295.
+*"Selective dissemination of new scientific information with the aid of electronic processing equipment." ''American Documentation'' 12, no. 2 (1961): 131-138.
+*"A new method of recording and searching information." ''American Documentation'' 4, no. 1 (1953): 14-16. [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/asi.5090040104]
-(SEE CLAIRE SCHULTZ BOOK H.P. LUHN: PIONEER OF INFORMATION SCIENCE, SELECTED WORKS.)
+== Offices ==
+*[[ASIST|American Documentation Institute]]. President, 1964.
-== Relevant Work ==
-* IBM
-== Contributions ==
-His SDI and KWIC/KWOC indexes and many inventions at IBM, while not always commercially adopted, served as catalysts for inventors to develop solutions that reached production. He was a pioneer of IR systems, establishing a new approach to intellectual organization of knowledge. Lilley-Trice cite the SDI and KWIC/KWOC indexes as his principal contribution. Bellardo and Bourne comment that "SDI and the utility of this type of computer-based current awareness service received its initial public attention from Luhn in 1959."
-He was also a pioneer in the development and application of automatic measuring and controlling devices, binary arithmetic systems, switching devises, serial binary computers, electronic information scanning, and storage and retrieval devices. Luhn invented special tabulating and sorting machines including the Luhn scanner. "By the 1950's, Luhn became known as an information expert" (Burke). He wanted to bring librarians and others involved with information retrieval together. He was instrumental in creating ARIST. See details given in Claire Schultz's book H. P. Luhn: Pioneer of Information Science, Selected Works.
-Luhn's page in Wikipedia contains substantial information about his contributions to IBM and to information science: <nowiki>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Peter_Luhn</nowiki> ; in addition, Luhn is the inventor or the "Luhn algorithm," a checksum formula used to validate a variety of different identification numbers: <nowiki>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luhn_algorithm</nowiki>
-Additional biographical information about Luhn may be found in the following article: Robert V. Williams (2010), Hans Peter Luhn and Herbert M. Ohlman: Their Roles in the Origins of Keyword-in-Context/Permutation Automatic Indexing. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 61(4), 835-849.
 == Awards ==
+*[[ASIST|American Society for Infornation Science]]. Award of Merit, 1974.
-* 1974 Award of Merit (ASIS)
-== Offices ==
-ADI/ASIS | Pres., 1964
 == Further reading ==
-*Harvey, John F. "Luhn, Hans Peter." ''Dictionary of American library biography'', ed. by Bohdan S. Wynar. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1978, pp 324-326.
+*''H.P. Luhn: Pioneer of information science – Selected works'', ed. by [[Claire Schultz|C. K. Schultz]]. (New York: Spartan Books, 1968) contains four biographical essays by Claire K. Schultz (pp 3-15), Helena Moore (pp 16-20), [[Robert Fairthorne|Robert A. Fairthorne]] (pp 21-23) and Mary Elizabeth Stevens (pp 24-30).
+*Harvey, John F. "Luhn, Hans Peter (1896-1964)." In: ''Dictionary of American library biography'', ed. by Bohdan S. Wynar. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1978, pp 324-326.
-== Papers ==
+*"Hans Peter Luhn." ''Wikipedia'' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Peter_Luhn]
-'''Location #1''' IBM Archives, 400 Columbus Avenue, Valhalla, NY 10595
+*Burke, Colin B. ''America's information wars: The untold story of information systems in America's conflicts and politics from World War II to the internet age.'' Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
+*Williams, Robert V. "Hans Peter Luhn and [[Herbert Marvin Ohlman|Herbert M. Ohlman]]: Their roles in the origins of keyword‐in‐context/permutation automatic indexing." ''Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology'' 61, no. 4 (2010): 835-849.
-* Papers dates: 1950s-1960s
+*Stevens, Hallam. "Hans Peter Luhn and the birth of the hashing algorithm." ''IEEE spectrum'' 55, no. 2 (2018): 44-49.
-* Size:
-* Includes: Only a very brief file on him is mentioned by the IBM Archives. No specific office files on his work have been identified by the Archives. A letter in his file possibly indicates that he turned his personal files over to the Mohansic (sp?) Lake Library in 1972. (Efforts to locate this library have not been successful).
-* Finding aid:
-* Source: IBM Archives staff, Phone conversation, 9/96