Weidner Communications

In conjunction with its introduction to the market, the Weidner Multi-Lingual Word Processing System was first reported on in 1978 in the Wall Street Journal as “Quadrupling Translation Volume” and the Deseret News as “halving translation costs and of increasing output by at least 400 percent.”[1][2]

This new technology was demonstrated to translation experts on September 12, 1978 at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Thomas Bauman and Leland Wright of the American Translators Association who had arrived on September 11, 1978, in Provo, Utah to view a demonstration of the Weidner Multi-Lingual Word Processing System. After attending the demonstration Thomas Bauman said, “I’ve never been so converted to anything so fast in my life.” He subsequently extended an invitation for Wydner to attend the annual meeting of the American Translators Association that following October where the Weidner Machine Translation System hailed a hoped-for breakthrough in machine translation. (Geoffrey Kingscott, 1992)

The Weidner "Multi-Lingual Word Processing System" is based on the research and work of Bruce Wydner, as demonstrated in his copyrighted text books. The Fastest Way To Learn Spanish Is To See IT! (Learn to read Spanish in 24 hours) ©1971 and 1975. This technology is the basis of the Weidner Multi-Lingual Word Processing System, and was programmed for processing human languages on the low-cost computers of the late 1970s and as part of machine translation and word processing software today.

The Weidner Engine works by mapping the approximately 460,000 words in the English Dictionary (as in other target languages) to 10,000 "Root" words/thoughts (an Interlingual Lexicon). Additionally, inflected, conjugated word changes and endings are automatically parsed from the root words by a parsing engine, then associated to a specific word type by language rules based on the sense of sight. Each word (or expression) is parsed, compared to the spell-check lexicon and mapped to the interlingual lexicon for subsequent translation to the target language. If the target language is the same as the inputted language the language rules result is a word processed document in the original language. Tools included an aid for spelling and alternate word look-up.

Translated experts at the Commission of the European Union, said that this (to them) "new translation system" of Bruce Wydner "renewed" their "hope" for Machine Translation that would lead them to "Better Translation for Better Communication." (G. Van Slype, 1983)

The company responsible for the production of the Weidner Multi-Lingual Word Processing System included Bruce Wydner and his friends (Warren Davidson, Dale Miller, and Lowell Randall) who formed, the Inns of the Temple, Inc., a 501(c)3 Corporation, dba Translation Associates.

Bruce Wydner (who legally had his last name changed to be pronounced properly), representing his company, made an exclusive marketing contract with his brother Stephen Weidner, the contract restricted the transfer of any development rights to his brother's company, and Bruce Wydner made a 15-year non-compete non-circumvent contract with Eyring Research Institute in Provo, Utah to engage their computing services in the creation of the Weidner Multi-lingual Word Processor, and for the programming skills of Eyring's bi-lingual programmer employee Bruce Bastian, Bruce Wydner paid Eyring Research Institute $25.00/hr for programming time of which $5.00/hr went to pay Bastian.

In 1982 Stephen Weidner began to have financial problems over a Research and Development Tax Shelter he had created, as a result Weidner Communications Inc. suffered, disputes over Weidner's assets were taken to court. In 1984 Stephen Weidner's original Company was purchased by Bravis International, one of Japan’s largest translation companies, as part of a settlement of the court ordered liquidation of Weidner Communication’s assets, but Weidner Communications Inc. still maintained offices in Chicago and in Paris. During the mid-1980s Weidner Communications, Inc., (WCC), was the largest translation company by sales volume in the United States. (Margaret M. Perscheid, 1985) Later the Japanese sold Wydner’s technology to Intergraph Corporation of Alabama who later sold it to Transparent Language, Inc. of New Hampshire.

Bruce Wydner, the principal agent for the Inns of the Temple Inc., that retained the research and development rights to the Weidner Multi-lingual Word Processor, separated himself from his brother in early 1979 and no longer supplied any updated software developments. Weidner had offended his brother over a matter of having Eyring Research Institute send their bi-lingual employee to remove Wydners intellectual property from his home, of which Wydner claims was stolen from him. (Wydner vs Novell, WordPerfect, Ashton, Bastan, et. all, 2003)