 After a stint in the United States Navy as a radar technician during World War II, he worked as a computer maintenance technician for IBM (1949–1952), followed by working on digital computer design under the leadership of John von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey (IAS is not affiliated with Princeton University).He then developed magnetic multiaperture devices (MADs) at RCA Laboratories (now Sarnoff Corporation).In order to develop magnetic logic, Crane controlled the direction of bit flow in magnetic ferrite memory cores.