Charles Archibald Blake (November 24, 1906 - January 7, 1971), name officially changed to Archie Blake was an American mathematician. He is well known for the Blake canonical form, a normal form for expressions in propositional logic. In order to compute the canonical form, he moreover introduced the concept of consensus, which was a precursor of the resolution principle, today a common technique in automated theorem proving.
Career In 1930, he became a member of the American Mathematical Society (AMS).Bulletin of the AMS, Mar 1931, Vol.37, No.3, p.3(131), "Annual meeting in Cleveland, Dec 29-31, 1930"Bulletin of the AMS, Oct 1931, Vol.37, No.9, "Additional members of the Society and changes of title or address October, 1931". Blake is designate as new member. He presented his canonical form at the AMS meeting at Columbia University on 29 Oct 1932.Bulletin of the AMS, Jan 1933, Vol.39, No.1, p.1,2 In 1937, this work lead to a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, supervised by Raymond Walter Barnard.
He worked for the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in Washington, D.C., from 1936 (or earlier) as a mathematician,AMS Member List, Sep 1936, p.4(16) since 1938 as an Assistant Mathematician,AMS Member List, Sep 1938, p.4(14) and since 1939 as an Associated Mathematician.The University of Chicago Magazine Mar 1939: "Archie Blake, SM'31, PhD'37, has recently been appointed associate mathematician for the U S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, in Philadelphia."AMS Member List, Sep 1940, p.4(12) In 1946, he was appointed a Senior Statistician in the Office of the Army Surgeon General, Washington, D.C.Bulletin of the AMS, Sep 1946, Vol.52, No.9, p.2(801) He also worked for the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in Buffalo, New York. From there, he changed in 1954 to the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Baltimore, Md., where he became an Advisory Engineer.AMS Notices, Issue No.5, Oct 1954, p.12 In 1956, he moved from Westinghouse to the Bendix Aviation Corporation, as a Systems Staff Mathematician.AMS Notices, Issue No.18, Aug 1956, p.41 In 1960, he became a Manager of the Analysis Section of Raytheon in Sudbury, Massachusetts.AMS Notices, Vol.7, No.3, Issue 46, Jun 1960, p.45(321)
Publications
— Review in the Journal of Symbolic Logic — Abstract in Bulletin of the AMS, Vol.38, No.11, Nov 1932, p.6(805) — Also presented at the AMS 46th annual meeting, 26-29 Dec 1939 at the Ohio State University, Columbus, OhioBulletin of the AMS, Vol.46, No.3, "The annual meeting of the Society", p.3 (189)
References