Other Tabulating Equipment

A collection of tabulating machines in the collections of mathematics, Division of Medicine and Science, National Museum of American History

Beginning in 1895 insurance executive John K. Gore developed punched card methods for compiling statistics relating to insurance. His sorters were successfully used by his employer, the Prudential Insurance Company, but never sold generally. From 1906 the mechanical engineer John Royden Peirce designed a variety of machines for sorting and tabulating data entered on punched cards. He obtained a few customers, but had difficulty meeting his contracts. Peirce’s company failed, but in 1922 his patents were purchased by IBM and he joined that company.

The success of punched card equipment, particularly that of IBM, and the high cost of electronic computers in the 1950s and 1960s encouraged some firms to manufacture competing products. Those of Universal Business Machines and Wright Line closely followed IBM models. The Termatrex system, introduced in the late 1960s to sort data for relatively small projects, had a much lower price.

Universal Business Machines Horizontal Card Sorter

By the mid-20th century, a few firms challenged the dominance of IBM and Remington Rand Univac in the tabulating machine business.
Description
By the mid-20th century, a few firms challenged the dominance of IBM and Remington Rand Univac in the tabulating machine business. One of these was Universal Business Machines, Inc., of Columbia, S.C.This is a card sorter designed and sold by that company.
The horizontal sorter has a keyboard that fits onto the left front with a set of three rows of letter keys and a number pad to the right of these. The cards apparently are fed from the left and sorted into 27 open compartments, 14 in an upper row and 13 in a lower row. These compartments are covered with metal flaps. The first row has compartments labeled A*0, B*1, C*2, D*3, E*4, F*5, G*6, H*7, I*8, J*8, K, L, M, and REJ. The second row has bins labeled N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z. Metal panels at the front of each row of bins can be lowered to remove cards.
A mark on the left front of the sorter reads: MANUFACTURED BY (/) UNIVERSAL BUSINESS MACHINES, INC. (/) COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA. Another mark there reads: SERIAL NO 5531 (/) MODEL NO V1526. A mark on the right front reads: UNIVERSAL SORTER. A mark on the left side reads: TREASURY DEPARTMENT (/) US INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE. Marks in chalk on the back read: KEEP and: NO SCRAP.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1960
maker
Universal Business Machines
ID Number
MA.336182
accession number
1977.0191
catalog number
336182

Termatrex Card Punch

This "drill" punched cards for the Termatrex, an optical data storage and retrieval system designed in the mid-20th century as a less expensive alternative to contemporary computers. Each card in the system represented a characteristic used to describe items of interest.
Description
This "drill" punched cards for the Termatrex, an optical data storage and retrieval system designed in the mid-20th century as a less expensive alternative to contemporary computers. Each card in the system represented a characteristic used to describe items of interest. Each item had an assigned position on a group of cards. If it had the characteristic represented by the card, a hole was drilled at the appropriate position. Lining up cards associated with one group of objects and placing them on a card reader, holes transmitting light corresponded to those objects in the group with all the characteristics of interest.
This particular Termatrex system was used at the Smithsonian’s Conservation Analytical Laboratory to retrieve treatment reports. Cards represented such characteristics as materials, treatment techniques, and methods of inspection. A different set of cards indexed the reprint file of literature on conservation.
The Dutch-born engineer Frederick Jonker (1919–2002) developed the Termatrex system in his basement in the mid-1950s. He formed Jonker Business Machines in 1960, and sold this system to the Smithsonian Institution in 1969. After the company went bankrupt in 1969, REMAC International Corporation took over distribution and maintenance. The Termatrex remained in use at CAL until 1986, when it was replaced by microcomputers.
The card punch has a metal base painted white and an outer case painted green. A cylindrical housing in the center holds the punch. Two wheels on the right front rotate to move the mechanism horizontally, either from side to side (the top wheel) or from front to back (the bottom wheel). A black plastic tray below the mechanism holds the card to be punched. A plastic sticker across the front of the machine reads: TERMATREX. A tag attached to the back reads: MODEL NO. 301 SERIAL NO. 364. A mark stamped on the bottom of the base reads: D-001237-1
For the card reader and card rack, see 1993.0132.02 and 1993.0132.02. For related documentation, see 1993.3065.
References:
F. Jonker, "Selection Method and Apparatus for Indexing Documents and the Like with Extreme Rapidity," U.S. Patent 3,092,113, June 4, 1963.
F. Jonker, "Integration of Superimposable Cards," U.S. Patent 3,162,468, December 22, 1964.
F. Jonker, "Printing of Superimposable Card systems," U.S. Patent 3,171,021, February 23, 1965.
F. C. Porter, "New Departure in Data Retrieval," The Washington Post, March 18, 1960, p. B4.
R. J. Samuelson, "Jonker Corp. Files for Bankruptcy," The Washington Post, December 16, 1969, p. D7.
Accession file.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1969
maker
Jonker Business Machines, Inc.
ID Number
1993.0132.01
catalog number
1993.0132.01
accession number
1993.0132

Termatrex Card Reader

The Termatrex card reader has a metal case painted green with a translucent white plastic top. The case contains fluorescent lights. A yellow-edged template and plastic rule are atop the box.
Description
The Termatrex card reader has a metal case painted green with a translucent white plastic top. The case contains fluorescent lights. A yellow-edged template and plastic rule are atop the box. A grid of lines allows one to read the number corresponding to the location of a hole on a punched card, or set of punched cards, below the template. One then could refer to a report filed with this number.
A mark on the rule reads: TERMATREX INFORMATION AND DATA SYSTEMS. Another on the upper right corner of the box reads: JONKER. The Smithsonian propertay tag reads: 80089.
For a fuller description of the system, with references, see the description of the drill at 1993.0132.01. For cards, see 1993.0132.03. For documentation, see 1993.3065.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1969
maker
Jonker Business Machines, Inc.
ID Number
1993.0132.02
catalog number
1993.0132.02
accession number
1993.0132

Termatrex Card Rack with Punch Cards

This green vertical file holds five groups of plastic cards with cards colored differently in each group. A small tab is attached to the top of each card. A mark on the bottom of one card reads: TERMATREX SYSTEMS R (/) RANDOM NUMERIC CARD (/) RE-ORDER NO. RN-TC-1000.
Description
This green vertical file holds five groups of plastic cards with cards colored differently in each group. A small tab is attached to the top of each card. A mark on the bottom of one card reads: TERMATREX SYSTEMS R (/) RANDOM NUMERIC CARD (/) RE-ORDER NO. RN-TC-1000. A mark on another card reads: c 1960 JONKER Corporation (/) GAITHERSBURG, MARYLAND (/) PRINTED IN U.S.A. A mark on the rack reads: JONKER.
For a description of the Termatrex data retrieval system, with references, see 1993.0132.01. For a card reader, see 1993.0132.02. For documentation, see 1993.3065.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1969
maker
Jonker Business Machines, Inc.
ID Number
1993.0132.03
catalog number
1993.0132.03
accession number
1993.0132

Wright Model 2000 Card Punch

This portable key punch for preparing punched cards was manufactured by the Massachusetts firm of Wright Line. Punched cards were central to large-scale data processing in the United States from the introduction of the Hollerith tabulating machine in the 1890s through the 1970s.
Description
This portable key punch for preparing punched cards was manufactured by the Massachusetts firm of Wright Line. Punched cards were central to large-scale data processing in the United States from the introduction of the Hollerith tabulating machine in the 1890s through the 1970s. Tabulating machine manufacturers such as IBM and Remington Rand (later Sperry Univac) rented card punches. Wright Line, founded in 1934, was one of relatively few independent data processing accessory manufacturers. It made and sold a large variety of files, magnetic tapes, card punches, and related machines.
The device is designed for 80-column punch cards such as those made for IBM computers. It has a metal base painted black with 12 number keys and an "S" key. These keys, with their white key tops, are attached to a moveable carriage. A single punch card fits in the carriage. A mark on the top reads: Wright (/) PUNCH (/) MODEL 2600.
This punch came to the Smithsonian from the United States Naval Observatory, a longtime user of tabulating equipment for scientific purposes.
References:
Accession file.
"E. Stanley Wright, Manufacturer, 66," New York Times, September 8, 1959, p. 35.
Wright Line, Data Processing Accessories Catalog ’69, p. 38.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1970
maker
Wright Line
ID Number
2005.0174.01
accession number
2005.0174
catalog number
2005.0174.01

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