Control Panel, Bell Telephone Laboratories Model 5 Computer

Description:

This control panel is a small part of a very large programmable calculator built by Bell Telephone Laboratories of New York for the U.S. Army. By the mid-twentieth century, improving communications required complicated calculations. In order to improve the clarity and range of long distance voice signals, George Stibitz, a research mathematician at Bell Labs, needed to do calculations using complex numbers. Stibitz and Bell Labs engineer Sam Williams completed a machine for this purpose in 1939–it later was called the Bell Labs Model I. With the outbreak of World War II, Stibitz and Bell Labs turned their attention to calculations related to the aiming and firing of antiaircraft guns. Stibitz proposed a new series of relay calculators that could be programmed by paper tape to do more than one kind of calculation. The BTL Model 5 was the result. The machine consisted of 27 standard telephone relay racks and assorted other equipment. It had over 9000 relays, a memory capacity of 30 7-digit decimal numbers, and took about a second to multiply 2 numbers together. Two copies of the machine were built. This one was used by the U.S. Army for ballistics work at Aberdeen, Maryland and then at Fort Bliss, Texas. Machines that used relays were reliable, but slower than those using vacuum tubes, and soon gave way to electronic computers.

Date Made: 1947

Maker: Bell Telephone Laboratories

Location: Currently on loan

Place Made: United States: New Jersey, New Providence, Murray Hill

Subject: Mathematics

Subject:

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Mathematics, Computers & Business Machines

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Gift of Bell Telephone Laboratories

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 1987.0821.01Accession Number: 1987.0821Catalog Number: 1987.0821.01

Object Name: computer componentelectromechanical computer component

Physical Description: metal (overall material)glass (tubes material)Measurements: overall: 224 cm x 76 cm x 22 cm; 88 3/16 in x 29 15/16 in x 8 11/16 in

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a7-71d5-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_904274

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