Systran Development at the Ec Commission 1976 to 1992

First there was Peter Toma, the idealistic, Hungarian-born inventor of the system who saw machine translation as a contribution towards achieving world peace. In recent years he has set up private university faculties in New Zealand and Argentina in those areas of the globe which are least likely to be affected by nuclear fallout. Then came Sadao Kawasaki, a Tokyo businessman who had made a few millions in cosmetics and saw Systran as a means of overcoming misunderstandings between the Japanese and the rest of the world. There was Helmut Fischer, ostensibly interested in sanitizing the German Systran Institut, but in fact more intent on clandestine dealings with the Supreme Soviet. And now, finally, we have Jean Gachot, an industrial valve manufacturer, who is valiantly trying to apply his experience in hydraulics to setting up a network for translation requests from French minitel terminals.