Oral History of Jim Morehouse

Interviewed by Dal Allan and Bruno Marchon on 2023-09-20 in Pagosa Springs, CO
© Computer History Museum

Jim Morehouse patented a remarkable number of innovations, and is best known for resurrecting the method of head loading used for removable media disk drives and applying it to fixed media disk drives. The technique of dynamic head loading is still in use today. Patent #4,933,785 has been referred to as the 'How to Build a Disk Drive' guide, it not only described how to load/unload disk heads when all was well, it also defined how to unload them after power loss by using the back electrical current from the slowing motor.

From the monstrous StorageTek 4-stack Superdisk of 1975 to the tiny PrairieTek 2.5" disk of 1988, Jim led the way to small form factors. In 1988, the Compaq SLT/286 had a 3.5" disk drive and weighed 14 pounds, a year later the LTE/286 had a 2.5" 40 MB drive and weighed 6.7 pounds.
The 2.5" drive took the laptop mainstream, manufacturers could not build enough to satisfy the demand.

Three years later Jim was key to the 1.8" disk drive introduced by Integral Peripherals, which found its niche in the laptop market as a portable removable device. Disk drives small, but not everything else, Jim retired to a ranch where he raises large horses.

* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - https://www.computerhistory.org/colle...

Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.

Catalog Number: 102792905
Acquisition Number: 2023.0161