Computers & Business Machines

• 

  BP-16309 BSC Punch Cards for AFL-CIO Publications

  Description

  Punched cards were used not only in government, business, and universities, but by labor unions. These white, eighty-column punch cards are printed in gray. They have spaces for the name, address, local number and ledger id number of member of the AFL-CIO. A mark along the left edge reads: AFL-CIO PUBLICATIONS. A mark on the right edge reads: BP-16309 BSC. The cards were received in a tabulating machine (reproducer) with catalog number 336301.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1955

  ID Number

  MA.305981.08

  accession number

  305981

  catalog number

  305981.08

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  UNIVAC Punch Cards for the AFL-CIO

  Description

  Punched cards were used not only in government, business, and universities, but by labor unions. These ninety-column paper punch cards are pink, green and white, and white with a green stripe. The first pink card is marked: FIELD ENGINEERING SERVICE REPORT. The green and white cards are marked: CUSTOMER ENGINEERING SERVICE REPORT. The white card with one green stripe is marked: AFL-CIO PAYROLL DEDUCTIONS, indicating the user. The last pink card is marked: UNIVAC P-11782

  The cards were received in a Remington Rand interpreter with catalog number 336300 (305981.03).

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1955

  maker

  Remington Rand UNIVAC

  ID Number

  MA.305981.09

  accession number

  305981

  catalog number

  305981.09

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  McGill Cash Register Patent Model

  Description

  This is the patent model for U.S. patent 350,986, for a cash register. It has a pine box for a base and a wooden case that covers the mechanism and the back part of the box. Four notched metal wheels, mounted vertically, represent tens of dollars, dollars, tens of cents, and cents. Rotating the wheels forward enters digits, which appear in windows to the left of the wheels.

  Moving a knob on the front of the machine raises the case, which is hinged to the box at the back. This reveals the cash register mechanism, including a bell. It also shows the inside of the box, which contains several loose parts. One of these is a broken wooden disc that has a paper disc pasted to it with 26 letters around the edge (not in alphabetical order). The digits from 0 to 9 are listed next to 10 of the letters. This wheel may well not be part of the model. The patent tag with drawing and description is attached to the cash register.

  William C. McGill (1812–1890) was born in Berks County, Pa., and spent his early years at sea. He went to California at the time of the Gold Rush, then to Australia, and then to St. Louis. In 1860, he moved to Cincinnati, and soon was assisting in organizing the first company of military volunteers in that city. After the Civil War, he was a guard at the District of Columbia jail until he resigned in 1882 because of poor health. He reportedly was the first patentee of the bell punch and devoted most of his later years to his inventions.

  References:

  W. C. McGill, "Cash Register," U.S. Patent 350,986, October 19, 1886.

  Washington Post, August 23, 1890 (obituary).

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1886

  patentee

  McGill, William C.

  maker

  McGill, William C.

  ID Number

  MA.309344

  accession number

  89797

  catalog number

  309344

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Hollerith Tabulating Machine

  Description

  During the 1880s the engineer Herman Hollerith devised a set of machines for compiling data from the United States Census. Hollerith's tabulating system included a punch for entering data about each person onto a blank card, a tabulator for reading the cards and summing up information, and a sorting box for sorting the cards for further analysis. The tabulator is shown at the center in the photograph.

  Hollerith's tabulating system won a gold medal at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, and was used successfully the next year to count the results of the 1890 Census. His inventions formed the starting point of a company that would become IBM.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  maker

  Hollerith, Herman

  ID Number

  MA.312895

  accession number

  171118

  catalog number

  312895

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Hollerith Card Sorter

  Description

  During the 1880s the engineer Herman Hollerith devised a set of machines for compiling data from the U.S. Census. Hollerith's tabulating system included a punch for entering data about each person onto a blank card, a tabulator for reading the cards and summing up information, and a sorting box for sorting the cards for further analysis.

  This third part of the system, the sorter, is shown on the right in the photograph. It is an oak box with 26 vertical compartments arranged in two rows. Each compartment has a brass cover that is held in place by an electric catch connected to the tabulator. The sorter is connected by a cable to the tabulator. Once a card is read by the tabulator, a compartment opens in the sorter, indicating where the card should be placed for further counting. The front and back sides of the sorter open so that one may remove stacks of cards from the compartments.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1890

  maker

  Tabulating Machine Company

  ID Number

  MA.312897

  accession number

  171118

  catalog number

  312897

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Ritty Model 1 Cash Register, Possibly a Replica

  Description

  After the Civil War, as American cities and businesses grew, business owners increasingly hired strangers to assist customers. At the time, it was all too easy for clerks and barkeepers to keep part of the money they received. The cash register, invented by the Ritty brothers of Dayton, Ohio, had a large display to indicate the sums customers paid. It also had a locked compartment that tallied total receipts. This is the Rittys' first machine, or an early replica of it. It was the basis for a commercial product called "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier."

  By 1884 the Rittys were out of business, but their patents were purchased by the National Cash Register Company. NCR made and sold much improved cash registers. By 1904, they were ready to convey the history of their company by showing this model at the St. Louis World's Fair. NCR went on to successfully make not only cash registers and accounting machines but electronic computers.

  date made

  ca 1904

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.316700

  accession number

  225455

  catalog number

  316700

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  National Cash Register, Class 51

  Description

  In the 1950s Americans increasingly bought groceries in supermarkets, which served large numbers of customers. Consumers selected their own goods, and took them to a clerk who rang up sales. To make transactions as efficient as possible, the National Cash Register Company introduced machines that dispensed coins automatically, avoiding time and errors associated with making change. This change-making cash register went on the market in 1954, with a new model in 1958. This example was given to the Smithsonian by NCR in 1959, on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the company.

  Reference:

  Accession file.

  date made

  1959

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.316702

  accession number

  225455

  catalog number

  316702

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Mechanism from National Cash Register, Model 79

  Description

  By 1894, when this device was made, the National Cash Register Company had developed an adding mechanism in which digits were indicated on the rim of rotating wheels. This is such a mechanism. The three wheels could rotate to show totals as high as $9.99. Four other wheels on the left side each have the digits from 0 to 9 around the edge. The mechanism is mounted on a white wooden display board.

  A mechanism of this type was used in the NCR Model 79 cash register (see object MA.316701). NCR went on to develop a more compact mechanism that could represent eight totals, rather than just one, on a single shaft. See object MA.316704.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1894

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.316703

  accession number

  225455

  catalog number

  316703

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Mechanism from National Cash Register

  Description

  By 1959 the mechanism for accumulating totals on NCR cash registers had become relatively compact. This cash register component from that period has the counters needed to represent eight totals along one shaft. It is somewhat smaller than the mechanism for a single total used in 1894. This smaller mechanism was used in cash register MA.316702.

  Reference:

  Accession file.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1959

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.316704

  accession number

  225455

  catalog number

  316704

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Punch Card Used at the Southern Railway Company

  Description

  Herman Hollerith began manufacturing tabulating machines to compile statistics to the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The nation only compiles a census every ten years, so Hollerith sought business from foreign governments and from commercial customers.

  As early as 1895, the New York Central began using tabulating equipment to track goods moved by the railroad. Hollerith radically redesigned the punch card, putting information in columns with the numbers from 0 to 9. Several columns of numbers comprised a field, which contained information on a single matter. By 1907, the Central was an established customer and other railroads adopted machine accounting. The Southern Railway Company used this 45-column card. It has fields for the date, the receiving station, the waybill number, the code, the forwarding station, the junction point, "Com.", "C.L.", freight, charges, and prepaid amounts.

  Reference:

  G. D. Austrian, Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Pioneer of Information Processing, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 111–141, 250–251.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1910

  maker

  Tabulating Machine Company

  ID Number

  MA.317982.01

  accession number

  317982

  catalog number

  317982.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Framed Photograph of a Hollerith Pantograph Card Punch

  Description

  This gelatin-silvered photograph shows an early version of the pantograph card punch that Herman Hollerith patented in 1890. The photograph is matted, and has a glass cover and wooden frame.

  Four places on the photograph are marked in red ink: 2.

  For related object, see MA.312896.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1890

  ID Number

  MA.317982.04

  accession number

  317982

  catalog number

  317982.04

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  National Cash Register, Model 1054X-6

  Description

  This cash register has a wooden frame covered with brass and a metal mechanism. It has four columns of keys for entering amounts, an operating button, five function keys, a paper tape, a cash drawer, and pop-up indicators.

  Above the keys is a locked door. Lifting it reveals counters for numbers of customers and amounts spent. This is National Cash Register Company’s model 1054X-6, with serial number 1703570. It dates from 1919.

  date made

  1919

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.319500

  accession number

  238759

  catalog number

  319500

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Gang Punch Made by the British Tabulating Machine Company

  Description

  In the 1880s American engineer Herman Hollerith devised a system to compile statistical information by entering data on individuals onto punched cards, allowing holes in the cards to admit wires and complete electrical circuits, and using electric counters to accumulate totals.

  Hollerith devised this kind of punch, which he called a gang punch, to punch data that was common to several cards. For data on a census, this might be the enumeration district. For payroll applications, it would be the date of payday.

  In 1904 a British firm organized to lease Hollerith machines in Britain and much of the rest of the wold. A subcontractor manufactured punch cards. From the 1920s. the British Tabulating Machine Company manufactured punch card equipment itself. This gang punch is one of its products.

  This punch has a 12x10 array of holes.The rows of holes are labeled Y, X, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Six metal cylinders fit into the holes for punching, with a manually operated press to push them down. Cards are fed and removed by hand, from right to left. On the left is a metal plate with zigzag rows of holes on its top front and top back edge. These may be used to indicate the position of the card before punching.

  A tag on the right side of the punch under the card bed reads: THE (/) BRITISH TABULATING MACHINE Co (/) VICTORIA HOUSE, SOUTHHAMPTON ROW, LONDON, W.C.1 (/) GREAT BRITAIN AND U. S. A. - BRITISH BUILT. A stamp on the press reads: 5390.

  References:

  M. Campbell-Kelly, ICL: A Business and Technical History, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

  H. Hollerith, "Quick Setting Press," U. S. Patent 1,193,390, August 1, 1916. The machine shown in this patent has levers for setting the pins. This is not true with this object.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1920s

  maker

  British Tabulating Machine Company

  ID Number

  MA.320563

  accession number

  241402

  catalog number

  320563

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Model of Babbage's Difference Engine No. 1 - Replica

  Description

  This is a replica of the portion of a difference engine built by Charles Babbage in 1832. Babbage, an English mathematician, hoped to compute and to print astronomical tables by machine. He proposed to estimate the value of functions using polynomials, and to use the method of finite distances to compute results.

  Babbage never completed either a difference engine or a more complex, programmable instrument he dubbed an analytical engine.

  The machine has three columns of discs. The leftmost column has six discs, each with the numbers from 0 to 9. The middle column has seven discs. The six lower ones each have the digits from 0 to 9. The uppermost disc is marked as indicated. The rightmost column has five discs numbered from 0 to 9. Above these are four discs, similarly numbered, that are immediately adjacent to one another. On the top of the machine are a gear train and a handle. The machine has a metal framework and a wooden base. The replica has containers for springs, but no springs.

  The overall dimensions include the handle. Without it, the dimensions are: 59 cm. w. x 43.5 cm. d. x 72 cm. h.

  The replica was built for display in the first exhibition devoted to mathematics and computing at the Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History). A similar replica is in the collections of IBM Corporation.

  The original on which this replica is based is at the Science Museum in London. That museum also displays a more recent attempt to build a working version of Babbage’s difference engine.

  References:

  Merzbach, Uta C., Georg Scheutz and the First Printing Calculator, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977.

  Swade, Doron. The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer, New York: Viking, 2000.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1963

  date received

  1963

  maker

  Daniel I. Hadley & Associates

  ID Number

  MA.323584

  accession number

  252309

  catalog number

  323584

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• Cash Register with Display Cases, possibly by Waddel

  Description

  This device consists of a wooden cash register between two wooden and glass display cases. Amounts are entered by dropping balls into holes for 1, 2, 5,10, 25, and 50 cents, and 1 and 5 dollars. Another hole is labeled "Ticket". From these holes at the back of the machine, the balls slide forward and accumulate in slots on top of the cash drawer. Pop-up numbers above the holes rise up when a ball is dropped. Neither these numbers nor for the slots have any cover.

  This object resembles several devices manufactured in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Greenfield, Ohio. It is quite similar to a “cash indicator and register” patented by J. H Schnarrenberger of Greenfield in 1891 (U.S. patent 465732). These cash registers were manufactured by firms associated with John M. Waddel (also spelled John M. Waddell), whose primary business was in the building of display cases and other business furniture.

  Compare to the description of the Waddel, Simplex, and Sun cash registers given in Crandall. Papers of the Waddell Company are at the Ohio Historical Society. By 1929, the Waddell Company was selling a combination of three adjacent display cases, with a money drawer under the shallower middle case. There was no cash register in this later item.

  References:

  Richard L. Crandall, The Incorruptible Cashier, Vestal, N.Y.: Vestal Press, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 133–147.

  Waddell Company, Show Cases, Store Furniture Catalogue No. 109, Greenfield, OH: Waddell Co., Inc., 1929, pp. 10–11.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1895

  ID Number

  MA.325694

  accession number

  256655

  catalog number

  325694

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  National Cash Register, Model 313

  Description

  This 1913 National Cash Register Company cash register has an ornate brass exterior with a marble plate above the cash drawer. In addition to the wooden cash drawer and pop-up indicators at the top, the machine had two rows of keys. Keys in the top row are numbered 90, 70, 50, 35, 25, 15,and 5 (the rightmost key is missing a label). Keys in the bottom row are labeled $1, 80, 60, 40, 30, 20, 10 (the rightmost key is missing a label). Inside a locked compartment above the keys is a register that reads dollars and cents up to $9999.99, a four-digit customer counter, and a two-digit no sale counter. The machine has no mechanism to assist the clerk in adding up totals for individual sales and no paper tape to serve as a receipt. It has serial number 1265603.

  By this time, aggressive sales tactics, numerous acquisitions, and frequent lawsuits had won NCR dominance in the cash register market. The firm also trained numerous young executives, including Thomas J. Watson. When the U.S. government found NCR in violation of antitrust law, several of these executives, including Watson, were fired. Watson was soon hired by the Computing Tabulating Machine Company of Endicott, New York, becoming the president of a firm that soon was known as IBM.

  References:

  Cortada, James. Before the Computer: IBM, NCR, Burroughs, and Remington Rand and the Industry They Created. 1865-1956, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

  Crandall, Robert L. and Sam Robins. The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. II, Vestal, N.Y.: The Vestal Press, 1990.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1913

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.333754

  accession number

  302254

  catalog number

  333754

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  IBM 001Card Punch

  Description

  For the first half of the 20th century, much data was entered into data processing machines using punched cards. This machine for punching such cards was manufactured by International Business Machines Corporation of New York.

  This key-driven, manual punch has 14 black keys. Twelve are for the 12 rows on a punch card. These are labeled from 0 to 9, X, and blank. Another key moves the card one space to the left and the last releases it. Keys are fed in from the right. A portion of a punch card attached in back of the machine has a pointer attached to it which allows one to determine the column of the card one is punching. The device is set up for 80-column cards and punches rectangular holes. A cylindrical protrusion extends from the back of the machine.

  A metal tag attached to the front of the object reads: PROPERTY OF (/) INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. (/) 001-12036-JH (/) ENDICOTT, NEW YORK, U.S.A. A mark stamped into the back of the card bed reads: 01 202.Two rods are marked at the front below the punching position: 202.

  IBM cards with rectangular holes and 80 columns were introduced in 1928. Cards with 12 rows of holes date from the early 1930s.

  Reference:

  E. W. Pugh, Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995, pp. 48–49.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  after 1930

  maker

  International Business Machines Corporation

  ID Number

  MA.333894

  accession number

  304350

  catalog number

  333894

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  National Cash Register, Model 1544 (4D-1)

  Description

  This NCR cash register has four drawers in two columns. It has four columns of plastic digit keys, white for dollars, tens of dollars, and 5 cents, and black for cents. A column of four keys right of the number keys has keys labeled A1, 6, B2 and B2. Right of these is a lever, which can be set on the operation desired, and a motor bar. The paper tape holder is on the right side, the indicators are above the keyboard, and the electric cord is at the back. The serial number is 4931871, the model number 1544 (4D-1).

  The machine was used at Lansburgh department store in downtown Washington, D.C. When City Stores Company purchased Lansburgh, they gave the machine to the Smithsonian.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1952

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.334906

  maker number

  4931871

  accession number

  314157

  catalog number

  334906

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  National Cash Register, Model 1544-(4D-1)

  Description

  This machine has four wooden drawers arranged in a single column in a wooden case. The register, in a brown metal case, sits atop the drawers. It has four columns of digit keys (red for dollars, black for cents, with a red five-cent key). Right of these is a column with keys marked A, B, D, E. Right of these is a lever now broken, a motor bar, and a section for the paper tape. The indicators are above the keys. The machine is electric. It has serial number 3672484 and model number 1544-(4D-1).

  The machine was used at the Lansburgh Department Store in downtown Washington, D.C. When City Stores Company purchased Lansburgh, they gave the machine to the Smithsonian.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1937

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.334907

  maker number

  3672484

  accession number

  314157

  catalog number

  334907

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  National Cash Register, Eight-Drawer

  Description

  This machine has a metal case painted brown, and sits on top of eight cash drawers arranged in two columns of four drawers. It has four columns of plastic keys for registering dollars and cents ($10 to $90, $1 to $9, 10 cents to 90 cents, and 1cent to 9 cents). A column right of the number keys keys lettered A, B, D, E, H, K, L and M. A keyhole is right of each of the lettered keys. Right of these is a lever for setting the operation to be carried out and the motor bar.

  Left of the keyboard are registers marked with the same letters as those in the column of lettered keys. Left of this is the space for the paper tape. The machine has serial number 390234. It also is marked: X 094(4) RS-8C.

  This particular cash register was used at Lansburgh Department Store in downtown Washington, D.C. When City Stores Company purchased Lansburgh, they gave the machine to the Smithsonian.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1940

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.334908

  maker number

  3905234

  accession number

  314157

  catalog number

  334908

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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