Joseph D. Chapline, Jr., ProComm Founder

Joseph Chapline (1920–2011) is widely credited as the first technical writer of computer documentation, and his career traces the birth of that profession alongside the birth of commercial computing.

Born August 2, 1920 in Philadelphia, he graduated from Ursinus College with degrees in history and political science, and then became a research associate in mathematics at the Moore School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he contributed to the WWII effort by working on the Differential Analyzer. He had helped Eckert and Mauchly on the ENIAC project there, and he then worked for the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in Philadelphia from 1947 to 1955.

His defining achievement was the 1949 Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC, built for Northrop Aircraft. Recognizing that the machine’s users at Northrop would not be computer specialists, Chapline modeled his guide on automobile owner’s manuals rather than on the engineering reports written for ENIAC and EDVAC. The illustrated manual gave, in 38 pages, a full overview of the computer, from its components to user interfaces, operating procedure and maintenance, and it became a model for computer manuals well into the 1960s. link

He later managed technical writers at EMCC and Philco, and while at Philco he was among the founders of the IRE’s Professional Group on Engineering Writing and Speech, attending its founders’ meeting on March 19, 1957, an organization that became today’s IEEE Professional Communication Society.

A lifelong musician, by 1964 Chapline had turned to building intricate pipe organs, and in retirement he served for 18 years as primary organist and choirmaster at St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Concord, NH. He died on August 8, 2011 at his home in Newbury, New Hampshire.

IEEE ProComm offers a special thanks to Ed Malone for their early work in documenting IEEE ProComm’s founding members.

The images and copy below are courtesy ocurtesy of Sotheby’s, Inc. © 2026. Permissions were secured for this use.

The Sotheby’s description reads thus:

“BINAC] Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia: Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, 1949. The Only Known Copy of the First Electronic Computer Manual

“Catalogue Notes: The BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer), the first stored program electronic computer fully operational and sold in the US, was built by the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation. The company was founded by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, designers of the first programmable, electronic general purpose digital computer, the ENIAC, who had left the University of Pennsylvania in 1946 after disagreements regarding patents on the follow-up machine to the ENIAC, the EDVAC. The two brought their innovations to their new company and immediately began designing the UNIVAC I, a general purpose, stored program digital computer that was marketed to the business world. It would use mercury delay line memory, which Eckert had developed, and which was a refreshable memory system that had sequential access as opposed to modern random-access memory. As the development dragged on, Eckert and Mauchly agreed, in 1947, to build a smaller computer for Northrop Aircraft Corporation in order to sustain the business while continuing UNIVAC development. Whereas the room-sized ENIAC was used by the U.S. ARMY Ballistic Research Laboratory to calculate artillery firing tables, Northrop wanted a system that would be small enough to fit into an airplane and guide the flight of a new missile called the SNARK. The BINAC consisted of two serial CPUs running in parallel, each with its own mercury delay line memory. It was able to make 1,000 multiplications per second (compared to 333 with the ENIAC) and 3,500 additions (compared to 5,000 with the ENIAC). Impressive at the time considering its size.

“The BINAC reached the testing phase in early 1949 and Northrop took delivery later that year. Although Northrop claimed that the computer never really worked, they had it on its list of operational computers as late as 1953. Eckert and Mauchly had 6 orders for UNIVAC computers by 1949 so their efforts were devoted to completing that machine and no other BINACs were built.

“Employee Joseph D. Chapline, now considered the “Father of Technical Writing,” was tasked with writing the BINAC’s manual, thereby becoming the first technical writer of computer manuals. His illustrated manual provides, succinctly in 38 pages, a full overview of the computer from an explanation of each of the components, to user interfaces, operating procedure and maintenance. It’s clearly and methodically presented in a step-by-step manner. This would be a model for computer manuals that followed well into the 1960s.”

REFERENCES:

McCartney, Scott. ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World’s First Computer. NY: [1999].