21 Facts About Joseph Gerber

Heinz Joseph Gerber was an American inventor and businessman.

In Hartford, Joseph Gerber completed high school in just two years while learning English and holding down full-time and part-time jobs.

Joseph Gerber entered Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York on scholarship, and graduated two and one-half years later with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering.

Joseph Gerber introduced the first digital plotter, initially used for precisely plotting enemy battleship positions on maps, the first digital motion-controlled machine to create graphics.

Joseph Gerber's automated drafting technologies enabled the design of complex design products, such as the first "jumbo" military and commercial aircraft, the US Air Force C-5 Transport by Lockheed Martin and the Boeing 747.

Joseph Gerber introduced the Automatic Line Follower, the first automated digitizer for vector graphics.

Joseph Gerber invented and introduced a novel form of plotter that used a controlled beam of light instead of an ink-pen, to draw digital graphics directly on photographic film.

Joseph Gerber's computerized manufacturing process played a leading role in the consumer electronics revolution, from pocket radios to computers.

Joseph Gerber introduced turnkey systems for electronics manufacture, including the PC-800 circuit design system in 1982.

The GERBERcutter itself, which Joseph Gerber introduced in 1969, has been widely cited as the most important technological advance of the century, because it offered apparel factories significant savings in wasted cloth, which was the greatest cost factor in producing a garment, and because it enabled a computer-automated manufacturing system.

Total sales of machines for cutting cloth based on Joseph Gerber's patented inventions are in the multiple billions of dollars.

Joseph Gerber's automated cutting, layout, and sewing technologies were used as well in shoemaking to cut and embroider material for shoes.

Joseph Gerber's impact included the development of the first 3D computer aided design workstations for making shoes.

The Joseph Gerber ShoeMaker, introduced in 1989, reduced the time from twenty-eight days to two days to make shoes.

Joseph Gerber's photoplotter was the first computerized product used to automate printing prepress and was the first imagesetter.

In 1981, Joseph Gerber introduced the Autoprep, the first computerized system specifically for production printing, and the beginning of automated prepress.

Joseph Gerber's Crescent was the first commercially viable CTP Platesetter and was introduced in 1991.

The Joseph Gerber companies transformed the manufacture of signs from a craft to a computer-based industry.

The Joseph Gerber companies improved the manufacture of prescription eyewear by applying computer integrated manufacturing to ophthalmic surface generation, edging, polishing, and coating.

Joe Joseph Gerber presided over Joseph Gerber Scientific's evolution from a one-product company to a global supplier of intelligent manufacturing systems.

Joseph Gerber called the company an outlet for the "spirit of invention," he told Business Week.