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.
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.”
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.
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.
This is part of a small collection of material collected from advertisers at the January, 2004, Joint Mathematics Meeting, a conference of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. The.matte hard-top mouse pad shows an orange geometric surface on a black background.
By the late 19th century, many American workers were paid in cash. Putting together packets with precisely the right bills and coins was a tedious task. In the 1890s, Edward J. Brandt, a cashier at the Bank of Watertown in Watertown, Wisconsin, invented a machine that could dispense change automatically.
The machine dispenses change in amounts between 1 cent and 99 cents. It has eight channels across the front, three for pennies, one for nickels, two for dimes, one for quarters and one for 50-cent pieces. Above and behind the channels is an array of 99 plastic keys, numbered from 1 to 99. Pressing another key, marked "5," releases five pennies. On the right are keys marked 10, 25, 25 and 100 that give change for these amounts. The entire coin holder can be removed from the mechanism for storage of coins. Pushing down a key moves a bar that pushes coins from a channel into a compartment with a trap door at its base. Pushing the trap door back releases change into the hand.
A mark on the front and the back of the machine reads reads: BRANDT AUTOMATIC CASHIER. A mark on a brass plate on the back of the machine reads: PATENTED (/) JULY 11, 1899. . . (/) DEC. 12, 1916 (/) 48184 93421 10014 PATENTS PENDING (/) T.M.Reg.U.S.Pat.Off. (/) Brandt Manufacturing Company (/) WATERTOWN, WISCONSIN. The serial number, marked on the right side at the front, is 22446.
Brandt’s machine received medals at the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris and the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. This example dates from the 1920s.
References:
James H. McCarthy, The American Digest of Business Machines, Chicago, 1924, p. 196–197.
Charles J. Wallman, Edward J. Brandt, Inventor, Watertown, WI: Brandt, Inc., 1984.
This illustrated document describes the UNIVAC Solid State Computing System, as applied to department and specialty store accounting. It is Remington Rand Univac document U-2136.
This is part of a small collection of material collected from advertisers at the January, 2004, Joint Mathematics Meeting, a conference of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. The blue and white folder includes printed materials, a business card, and a cd-ROM.
One inscription on this celluloid rule reads “COPYRIGHT G. P. WILHELM 1917 / MFR. AND DISTRIBUTOR EDWARD C. MCKAY / CLEVELAND, OHIO / PATENT APPLIED FOR.” Another reads “THE MILOMETER.” Glenn Perrin Wilhelm (1889-1941) was an officer in the U.S. Army, and an authority on ballistics. He devised this slide rule-like computer for forward observers, to help them direct the indirect fire of machine guns and small arms.
Ref: Glenn P. Wilhelm, Machine Gun Fire Control (Cleveland: Edward C. McKay, 1917).
Integrated circuits consist of electric components such as transistors, resistors, capacitors, and metallic interconnects manufactured at a nanometer scale on a silicon chip. Chip designers are constantly seeking to pack more components into less space making the engineering requirements of chip design almost an art. In the 1970s and early 1980s design engineers began to personalize their chip designs by leaving microscopic images etched inside the chips’ functioning design. These images took a variety of forms; company logos, funny animals, comic characters, or inside jokes between the engineering team. This hidden art helped to show that chip layers were correctly aligned and could prove that a competitor had stolen a chip design. Once chip designs were covered by copyright in 1984, chip art became a way for engineers to assert their individuality into the mass production of chip manufacturing.
This 21msp50/55/56 digital signal processor chip was created by Analog Devices Incorporated around 1994. The chip contains an image of a fire-breathing Godzilla.
This envelope is an example of the stationery used by the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, to announce the discovery of a Mersenne prime using a computer there.
This is part of a small collection of material collected from advertisers at the January, 2004, Joint Mathematics Meeting, a conference of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. The shiny hard-top mouse pad has a non-skid rubber bottom layer. It displays a multi-color computer representation of a geometric surface.This is part of a small collection of material collected from advertisers at the January, 2004, Joint Mathematics Meeting, a conference of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. The shiny hard-top mouse pad has a non-skid rubber bottom layer. It displays a multi-color computer representation of a geometric surface.
This is one of a series of illustrated publications associated with Univac Service Centers. It describes generally the staffed and equipped centers created to make Univac tabulating equipment and mainframe electronic computers available to a range of users. The Remington Rand Univac form number is U1750.
This illustrated advertising pamphlet presents flow charts for applications of the UNIVAC Solid State Computer to the accounting problems of trucking concerns. It has Remington Rand Univac number U2922A.
This round plastic coaster has several grooves around the outside. It is brown with a gold-colored center and is marked with the logo of Burroughs Corporation, the employer of the donor..
This cash register has a wooden case with glass-covered pop-up indicator numbers at the back. A metal lever that moves laterally across the front of the machine points to multiples of 5 from 5 to 95. On the right is an auxiliary lever for indicating amounts from 0 cents to 4 cents. On the left is another auxiliary lever for indicating 0, 1, or 2 dollars, hence the cash register indicates amounts up to $2.99. When the pointer-lever is depressed, the dollar, multiple of 5 cents, and 0 cent to 4 cent amounts are indicated on separate indicators at the back of the machine.
A window in the front of the machine is above the scale for the pointer. It is supposed to be covered with a shutter which can be opened only with a lock and key, keeping a secure record of transactions. No lock or key is evident.
The wooden cash drawer has six compartments for coins and three for paper bills. A spring at the back of the drawer keeps it in place.
The Model 106 is not listed in McCarthy in 1924, although other St. Louis cash registers are. The company is not mentioned in the 1928 edition of the book.
References:
Richard R. Crandell and Sam Robbins, The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. 2, Vestal, N.Y.: Vestal Press Ltd., 1990, pp. 80–84, 319, 320.
James H. McCarthy, The American Digest of Business Machines, Chicago, 1924, pp.160–162, 585.