Manhattan newspaper columnist Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker used this laptop to record her observations on modern relationships in the risqué comedy series Sex and the City (HBO, 1998-2004).
Frank, witty, and often outrageous, the Emmy Award-winning cable show won millions of loyal fans with its depiction of four women friends and their romantic urban escapades. It also established cable TV as a competitive producer of original programming. Sex and the City set fashion trends, from Manolo Blahnik shoes to cosmopolitan cocktails, and provoked cultural debates about sex, relationships, and gender roles.
These bright yellow eighty-column punch cards are rounded at the corners except at the upper right corner, which is cut off in a straight line. The cards contain fields in which the date was indicated with two digits for the year, two for the month and two for the day of the month. A mark in the bottom left corner reads: SDC A1004. According to the donor, they were from a firm of dry cleaners that used tabulating equipment in the 1960s (and perhaps the 1950s) for record keeping.
Research in Motion (RIM) produced this Blackberry model 957 Internet Edition in 2000. The first Blackberry was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager before pivoting to become a device featuring an always-connected e-mail with personal digital assistant functionality. The Blackberry 957 came with 5 megabytes of flash storage, 512 kilobytes of random access memory, with an Intel 386 processor running at 20 megahertz. Blackberrys came with applications that included e-mail, address book, calendar, alarm, calculator, memo pad, and a task list that could by synchronized with a user's PC through the included dock. The Blackberry 957 Internet Edition was one of the first devices that allowed mobile web use and e-mail, now ubiquitous in smart phones.
The EP-101 was an electronic mini-printer developed at Seiko. It evolved from the timing printer that Epson built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic games. After the games were over, the company realized that the printing technology they had created had a potential market of its own. In 1968, they released the EP-101 (Electronic Printer 101) micro-printer, which was the smallest and lightest printer in the world at that time. The printer soon became extremely popular for use with the new electronic calculators that were coming into the market. Many versions were developed for attachment to different types of equipment, and ultimately millions of the printers were sold around the world. This printer also gave Epson its name. The word was coined to mean "son of EP," or "Epson." It became the trade name for Seiko's printer business. Over the years, this printer and other products that the Epson division produced overshadowed the traditional Seiko watch business.
This combination adding machine and a cash drawer (AMOD) was made by Sperry Corporation in Searcy, Arkansas. It has four columns of keys for dollars and cents, three additional columns of digit keys, and three columns of keys with various functions on them. An addition bar and cancel button are across the base, and a paper tape at the top. Sales are not displayed visually by any indicator. The metal cash drawer has plastic divisions for change and cash. A key received with the machine controls a lever on the left side.
Marks on the front and back read: Sperry Remington. A mark in marker on the underside reads: 686155. A label attached to the underside reads: MANUFACTURED BY (/) REMINGTON RAND (/) OFFICE MACHINES DIVISION (/) MADE IN SEARCY, ARK.. U.S.A. This label also reads: MODEL 146308-10.
The Remington Rand Division of Sperry Rand Corporation began manufacturing cash registers in 1960, when the corporation acquired the adding machine and cash register division of Clary Corporation, including its factory in Searcy. The form of Sperry Remington trademark on the machine is from about 1968. By 1978, the name of Sperry Rand Corporation had changed because of other mergers, and electronic cash registers were becoming common. For these reasons, the approximate date of the machine is 1970.
This portable Hermes Baby Rocket brand typewriter was manufactured by Hermes-Presica, a division of Paillard Incorporated, around 1966. Paillard Incorporated was based in Switzerland, but the factory that produced this typewriter was located in Sackingen, Germany. Hermes manufactured a variety of typewriter models under both the “Baby” and “Rocket” brand name, and the design was so popular that it was licensed to several other manufacturers. This Rocket typewriter was a portable version that came with a case cover and handle. Hermes advertised that the green color of their machines was found to be “the most relaxing to the eye…least likely to interfere with the operator’s efficiency.”
The Apple Lisa introduced the graphic user interface (GUI) into the Apple Computer Corporation's line of personal computers. Instead of using only text-based commands, users could employ pictorial icons displayed on the screen to initiate operations. Officially, "Lisa" stood for "Local Integrated Software Architecture," but it was also the name of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' daughter. This computer was also Jobs "baby," as he championed its creation and believed it would revolutionize personal computing. Apple spent four years and $50 million to develop it, but it turned out to be a commercial flop, in large part because of the $10,000 per unit cost. Only 80,000 were eventually sold. The Lisa is most important historically as the computer that pioneered concepts later used in the far more successful Macintosh.
This Lisa has model number A65B100 and serial number B08B832370482. It was owned and used by Roslyn Lang and her family. Her husband used it for academic work, while she and her children used it for computer games. She said: "As I recall, these were mainly games that you played against the software by looking at pictures of a castle and trying to free the princess without being eaten by an ogre!”
This strange-looking contraption was actually used to play an early video game.
To play the golf game on the “Brown Box,” a prototype for the first multiplayer, multiprogram video game system, Baer and his colleagues mounted a golf ball on a joystick handle. This allowed the player to use a real golf club to practice his or her putting skills. Magnavox licensed the "Brown Box" and released the system as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. Though it was never produced commercially, the golf accessory was covered with brown wood-grain, self-adhesive vinyl so that it would match the "Brown Box."
When most people think about the first video game, they think of Pong, the ping-pong arcade game released by Atari in 1972. However, months earlier, Magnavox had released its Magnavox Odyssey, a home video game system based on the “Brown Box,” a prototype invented by Ralph Baer. Additional games and accessories, like a lightgun, were sold in separate packages.
Since the Odyssey had limited graphic capabilities and displayed only a few small white blocks and a vertical line on the screen, Magnavox included translucent color overlays to provide settings and layouts for the games. Perhaps most surprising to modern gamers, the Odyssey also came with nonelectronic game accessories such as dice, decks of cards, play money, and poker chips. These accessories were possibly included to make the Odyssey more like the physical games that existed at the time.
With approximately 350,000 units sold, Magnavox Odyssey was not considered a commercial success, especially in comparison with Pong’s runaway popularity. Among the contributing factors, poor marketing played a large role. Many potential consumers were under the impression—sometimes encouraged by Magnavox salesmen—that Odyssey would only work on Magnavox television sets. Despite these setbacks, Magnavox Odyssey made its mark by starting the video game console industry.
Computing devices have long influenced the development of number theory, including the discovery of prime numbers. This postal meter strip is an example of the imprint used by the Mathematics Department at the University of Illinois to announce the discovery there of a new Mersenne prime. This particular postal meter strip example was never used in the mail.
As the "Millennium Bug" gained media attention, some businesses used the hype to market special millennium foods. From cars to breakfast cereal, companies like the Figueroa Brothers, Inc., cashed in on the Y2K name. This bottle once contained "Y2K Millennium Meltdown R-U-Ready?" hot sauce, a spicy concoction that included hot peppers.
The Guardian Life Insurance Company's Y2K Project Team spent over three years working to make their company Y2K compliant. This meant many late nights working and thus many visits to the local restaurants. This bottle of hot sauce was given to the team by the owner of the restaurant most frequented by them.
This Y2K advertisment was from Computer Associates, a system and application software company now owned by Broadcom of California. The front features a man standing before a very large chalk board pointing to an endlessly long scientific equation. Below the image it reads: “And Now, A Simple Explanation Of How To Prepare For The Upcoming Century Date Change.” On the reverse is a letter from the company’s Senior Vice President and General Manager, Rich Chiarello. The letter invites readers to attend a free 7-hour seminar titled “The CA Discovery 2000 Seminar.” Participants would learn the size of the problem, available options, where to start, and how much it would cost to remediate their Y2K problems.
The Commodore modem/300 model 1660 is a pulse-dialing modem with an audio input port. It was used with Commodore 64 and 128 computers and was a popular modem because of its low cost. However, since the modem was pulsed, the computer had to generate the touch tone sounds needed for transmission through telephone lines and send these tones through the modem. Because the tones were easily manipulated and changed, this made it a favorite modem for hackers and phreakers.
According to the accompanying instruction book, this is “the world’s first electronic desk calculator.” The full-keyboard, non-printing calculator has ten columns of plastic keys and shows 12-digit results. A column of keys for multiplication is on the left. Keys for arithmetic operations and for clearance are at the front. The machine used vacuum tubes—later electronic calculators would have transistors and then microchips.
The Anita Mark VIII was one of two electronic calculators developed by the British Bell Punch Company in a team led by Norbert Kitz. Kitz had obtained an advanced degree in computer science at the University of London in 1951, studying under computer pioneer Andrew Booth. He applied for a patent for an “electronic calculating machine” as early as 1957. By 1961, Bell Punch exhibited its Mark VII and Mark VIII electronic calculators at trade fairs.
A mark on the front of the machine read: ANITA. A tag on the bottom reads near the top: MODEL NO. C/VII/I006852/A. The tag also includes an extensive list of patent and patent application numbers. The last British patent listed is 868761, which was issued May 25, 1961. A mark on the plastic cover for the machine reads: ANITA
The operating instructions for the Mark VIII received with the machine were distributed by the Inter-Continental Trading Corporation of New York, N.Y. Also received with the machine is a booklet of operating instructions for the Anita Mark 9, a similar machine.
Norbert Kitz filed for a U.S. patent for this machine December 9, 1961(he had filed for earlier U.S. patents in 1957 and 1959), and was granted it October 18, 1966.
References:
Norbert Kitz, "Key Controlled Decimal Electronic Calculating Machine," U.S. Patent 3,280,315, October 18, 1966. There are extensive online discussions of the Anita electronic calculators.
This is an example of the first commercially sold handheld graphing electronic calculator, introduced by Casio in 1985. The sides of the calculator are black plastic, with a metal keyboard and back. As with earlier calculators, it includes a ten-digit array of keys for entering numbers, a decimal point key, four arithmetic function keys, a delete (clear entry) key, and an all clear key. In addition, it has keys for a wide array of mathematical functions, including square roots, squares, logarithms, natural logarithms, inverses, sines, cosines, tangents, powers, and roots. It is also possible to use the keys in “shift” and “alpha” modes to carry out different functions or enter alphabetic characters. One also may enter programs in a programming language devised by Casio and graph functions, either over a predetermined range or over a range set by the user.
Both programs and results appear on a liquid crystal display that is behind the keyboard.The display could show sixteen characters in each of eight lines. A mark behind the display reads: CASIO SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR fx-7000G GRAPHICS. The on/off switch is on the left side. A mark on the back reads: CASIO fx-7000G (/) RATING: DC 9V 0.07W (/) use BATTERY 3.0V x 3 (/) MADE IN JAPAN (/) BM CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD. A bar code sticker attached to the back of the calculator reads: SAN JUAN HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY.
The calculator is stored in a black plastic sleeve marked: CASIO.
For a slightly later form of the calculator, the Casio fx-7000GA, see 2000.0146.02.
Hawaiian-born Jeanne Shimizu taught mathematics at San Juan High School in Citrus Heights, California, from about 1979 until her resignation in 2001 after twenty-one years of teaching. At that point she went on to get a PhD. at Penn State, completing her degree in 2013. From 2012 she has been on the faculty at SUNY Old Westbury in Long Island, New York.
For a related manual, for the fx-7000GA, see 2000.3037.01.
This black leather carrying pouch for an electronic calculator has a Velcro fastening and a loop that fits over a belt. A mark on the belt side reads: H. B. BECKER. "H.B. Becker" written in gold ink on back of case.
The HP-45 calculator received with the pouch is 2004.3053.01. The case also has a pocket that holds an HP-45 Quick Reference Guide (2004.3053.05).
The Franklin Ace 1200 was a clone of the Apple II microcomputer sold by Franklin Computer Corporation. It was an upgrade of the Franklin 1000. It was compatible with Apple II computers, but could also run the CP/M operating system.
The Franklin ACE 1200 had a MOS/Commodore 6502 microprocessor that ran at 1 MHz. It contained 48 KB of RAM and 16 KB of ROM and dual 5 ¼" floppy drives. The Ace 1200 came out between Apple II+ and the Apple //e. It included a CP/M card, a disk controller card, an 80 column card, and a dual serial/parallel card that was software interchangeable. The printer card caused problems because many applications did not recognize it.
The Franklin Ace 1200 was introduced in about 1983 for the price of $2,200 (the donor said she had acquired this one in 1982). Several games came with this example of the microcomputer. The Franklin series ended after Franklin lost a legal battle with Apple.
This pamphlet provides illustrated descriptions of UNIVAC punched card machines and computers. Ir is a publication of the Univac Division of Sperry Rand Corporation, with form number U-1363 Rev. 5.
Pronto Systems, Inc. introduced its Pronto Series 16 microcomputer in 1983. It represented the high end of business computing of its era. The Pronto pioneered innovative design features, including a tilting and swiveling monitor, a small foot print, a streamlined and adjustable keyboard, and an expandable cord that allowed the processor to be stored as much as six feet away from the monitor. These features won a 1983 design award from Industrial Design Magazine. The computer offered the first tower system—a design that later became common in the industry. This index number covers the tower.
Inside, the Pronto 16 was a powerful machine designed for the full range of business applications. It had a 16-bit Intel 80186 microprocessor. It was shipped with MS-DOS 2.0. It had 128 KB of RAM, which could be expanded to 1 MB. The standard hard drive was 5.6 MB, and it was removable. The computer had dual 800 KB floppy drives (5 ¼"), dual serial ports, one parallel port, and a high-resolution monochrome monitor. Users could buy a color monitor as an option. The base price was $3,000.
Over 1,000 systems were sold from 1983 to 1987. The company had to file for bankruptcy when the stock market crashed while the company was in the process of going public through an Initial Public Offering.
The donors of this example of the Pronto 16 were both associated with the firm that made it. Henry Gasbarro was founder, executive vice president, and chief technology officer of Pronto. He created the company in 1982. Skip Hansen, vice president of engineering, was responsible for the hardware design, software,and the high-resolution graphics capability that the system had.
See the other parts of acquisition 2001.0255 as well as 2001.3082.