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Bern Dibner
Bern Dibner (18 August 1897 - 6 January 1988) was an electrical engineer, industrialist, and historian of science and technology. He originated two major U.S. library collections i...view moreBern Dibner (18 August 1897 - 6 January 1988) was an electrical engineer, industrialist, and historian of science and technology. He originated two major U.S. library collections in the history of science and technology.
Born in Lisianka, near Kiev, Ukraine, he moved to the United States with his family at the age of 7. In 1921, he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn with a degree in Electrical Engineering.
After graduation, he designed and patented the first solderless electrical connectors and founded the Burndy Engineering Company in 1924, which later became the Burndy Corporation. In 2009, Burndy was acquired and became a subsidiary of Hubbell Incorporated.
The “Burndy” appellation, used for both his company and the library he would found, was invented by Dibner himself and represents a portmanteau or blend of his first and last names.
In addition to electrical engineering, he studied the history of technology. He was an avid collector of original scientific works and of books on the history of science, as well as thousands of portraits of various scientists. He wrote a number of books on the history of science, such as The Atlantic Cable (1955). In 1976 he was awarded the Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society.
After his death in 1988, the Burndy Library, which he had set up in 1941, moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1992, where it became the research library for the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2006, the complete Burndy Library collection, by then consisting of 67,000 rare volumes and a collection of scientific instruments, was donated to and became part of the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, where it is available to scholars. The Huntington Library now offers a Dibner History of Science Program to fund fellowships, a lecture series and annual conference.view less
Books by Bern Dibner
Moving the Obelisks:: A Chapter in Engineering History in which the Vatican Obelisk in Rome in 1586 was Moved by Muscle Power