Disseminating electronics: Bell Telephone and the emergence of electronic computing expertise in post-war Belgium, c1945–c1960

We explore the role of Bell Telephone Mfg Co, hereafter ‘BTMC’, a major European provider of electronics and switch technology from the 1910s onwards, in the emergence of electronic computing expertise in post-war Belgium. In 1951, BTMC entered into collaboration with two national research funding bodies, the FNRS and the IRSIA, towards the construction of a Belgian electronic computer, the Machine mathématique IRSIA-FNRS. We explore the ways in which the running of, and people involved in this project, among others Vitold Belevitch (1921–1999), led to the dissemination and appropriation of Anglo-Saxon electronic computing know-how in Belgium.