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Evaluation of the Hannemouth Bequest

(A.k.a. Hannemouth Self-Configurable Combinatorial Array)

by Marc Laidlaw




Copyright (C) 2006, Marc Laidlaw.
Images Copyright (C) 2006, Rudy Rucker.
2800 words



CAVEAT RE ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE:

These notes were compiled from an informal oral history, namely the oft-recounted tales of Charles
Messraunt, a colorful former employee of IBM who was eventually released from employment after
increasingly common episodes of erratic behavior, poor mental health, and allegations of substance
abuse. Much of the evidence referenced herein is purely anecdotal and at this point unverifiable.
Incomplete copies of insurance and expense reports relating to the loss of a company car were found in
MessrauntтАЩs personnel files, dated mid-1970тАЩs, however it is impossible ascertain whether the car might
have been lost in some ordinary way (either stolen or abandoned under awkward circumstances), or
whether it came to harm as alleged in the documents. MessrauntтАЩs official notes of the Hannemouth
Self-Configurable Combinatorial Array are no longer to be found in any known record depository, if they
were ever filed in the first place; and Messraunt himself faded from the historical record after several
sightings as a street-person in the Northern California town of Garberville.




THE RECORD:

In approximately 1975, the Dean of a small private Northern California university made an informal
request of Messraunt, who was temporarily stationed at the campus as an on-site IBM liaison, training
the staff in the use and maintenance of a new academic record-keeping system after having overseen its
construction. The Dean requested MessrauntтАЩs expertise in inspecting and evaluating a bequest that had
been made to the university by a private donor, once a professor at the university, recently deceased.
The bequeathed property, identified as the Hannemouth Self-Configurable Combinatorial Array, was
described as an experimental computing device, undertaken at great expense by the late Professor
Hannemouth, and developed entirely with private funds earned from royalties on various of
HannemouthтАЩs successful patents.

The DeanтАЩs request was apparently greeted warmly, although it must have been kept an informal matter,
judging from the lack of contemporary records to support MessrauntтАЩs claim that he proceeded with
IBMтАЩs express authorization. When Messraunt asked to see the device, he learned that it was too large
to transport, but was located within several hoursтАЩ drive from the university. The enormous size of
device was by no means unexpected, considering that the universityтАЩs state of the art records system,
considered to be the very height of compact efficiency at the time, had required construction of a