Vannevar Bush was president Rosevelts science advisor, in charge of, amongst other things, the Manhattan project (the nuclear bomb). Shortly after the second world war, in July 1945, he wrote an article in The Atlantic Monthly on what big important project should be tackled in peace time.

"As Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Dr. Vannevar Bush has cordinated the activities of some six thousand leading American scientists in the application of science to warfare. In this significant article he holds up an incentive for scientists when the fighting has ceased. He urges that men of science should then turn to the massive task of making more accessible our bewildering store of knowledge. For many years inventions have extended man's physical powers rather than the powers of his mind. Trip hammers that multiply the fists, microscopes that sharpen the eye, and engines of destruction and detection are new results, but the end results, of modern science. Now, says Dr. Bush, instruments are at hand which, if properly developed, will give man access to and command over the inherited knowledge of the ages. The perfection of these pacific instruments should be the first objective of our scientists as they emerge from their war work. Like Emerson's famous address of 1837 on ``The American Scholar,'' this paper by Dr. Bush calls for a new relationship between thinking man and the sum of our knowledge." (From the introduction, by The Editor).

.au 11.127 khz 16 bits mono with µLaw 2;1 compression.

Originally recorded on an Apple Macintosh PowerBook using a SONY ECM-T145 condenser microphone and Adobe Premiere audio/video editing software. The original recording was saved as a QuickTime file at 22 mhz, 16 bits with no compression.
Due to Doug's characteristically low voice it was then imported into a Premiere project where the volume was raised in the project timeline three times (no filter) and saved as a QuickTime movie.
The document was then finally imported into Apple's QuickTime Player and exported as .au at 11.127 khz, 16 bits mono with µLaw 2;1 compression resulting in the version playing here.