1969 — The country was split between conservatives and liberals, maybe even more so than it is today. The Vietnam war was huge in our lives, and many college kids were actively protesting against it. M.I.T. was no exception.
Doc Draper — Doc Draper was a legend at M.I.T., he drove a little sports car and always parked it facing out. The story goes that was a habit he got when he was running bootleg liquor to fund his M.I.T. education. He made a major contribution to WWII with his invention of an inertial gun platform that provided a stable base for gunners on warships.
The story goes that when they first tried them he was on the ship, and when some Japanese Zeroes attacked the ships, the gunners fled for safety. Draper ran out to take their place and the horrified admiral had to hold him back. The platforms made a huge difference in our ability to defend against those suicide planes.
M.I.T. Instrumentation Lab — Doc Draper started the Lab based on his inertial guidance technology, which was then used in guidance systems for missiles. (It’s basically a gyroscope attached to something that detects motion.) The Lab was funded with government defense contracts and provided work for M.I.T. students and faculty.
Apollo — The Lab got the contract for the guidance system work for Apollo.
The Protests — Students protested the Lab, said there was no way a peaceful university should be funded with military contracts. Lots of bad PR for the Lab and M.I.T.
The Suits — As Draper had gotten older, the running of the Lab wound up in the hands of more serious business types, wearing suits among the engineering techies. They were very much aware of the bad PR of the military contracts and spent money publicizing the Lab’s work on Apollo and a few other minor peaceful projects. They worked hard at downplaying the military contracts.
Me — I worked at the Lab, my M.I.T. friends got me a job there, working on the backup Apollo navigation system, an optical sextant.
Which brings me to the day Apollo 11 came back to Earth.
It was probably Draper’s idea to have a large truck full of champagne show up. We started drinking and celebrating and drinking and celebrating. The news cameras showed up in a large room with tables.
The suits were there.
We were there.
The news was there, the cameras were rolling.
And Draper was there.
Draper, drunk, climbed up on a table, the cameras were rolling, the suits were afraid…
“When I started this lab we built war machines, and we still build war machines, and I’m damn proud of it!”
Epilog — The M.I.T. Instrumentation Lab divested itself from M.I.T. and changed its name to Draper Lab. The divestment agreement was long and complex and basically said that all of the connections between M.I.T. and the Lab would still be there, except at the very top it would be a separate entity. So it could pursue military contracts without giving the school a bad name.
