Computers & Business Machines
Imagine the loss, 100 years from now, if museums hadn't begun preserving the artifacts of the computer age. The last few decades offer proof positive of why museums must collect continuously—to document technological and social transformations already underway.
The museum's collections contain mainframes, minicomputers, microcomputers, and handheld devices. Computers range from the pioneering ENIAC to microcomputers like the Altair and the Apple I. A Cray2 supercomputer is part of the collections, along with one of the towers of IBM's Deep Blue, the computer that defeated reigning champion Garry Kasparov in a chess match in 1997. Computer components and peripherals, games, software, manuals, and other documents are part of the collections. Some of the instruments of business include adding machines, calculators, typewriters, dictating machines, fax machines, cash registers, and photocopiers
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Counter from a Hollerith Tabulating Machine
- Description
- This is a single counter from a Hollerith tabulating machine. It has square brass pieces on top and bottom, with a brass mechanism in between. A paper-covered metal dial on top is divided around the edge into 100 equal parts. Two hands are on the face of the dial. Advancing the small hand by 100 (one revolution) advances the large hand by one. Hence the counter can read up to 9,999.
- A mark around the center of the dial reads: THE HOLLERITH (/) ELECTRIC TABULATING SYSTEM (/) PATENTED, 1889.
- Compare to the dials on MA.312895.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1890
- ID Number
- MA.335638
- catalog number
- 335638
- accession number
- 1977.0114
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Magnetometer
- Description
- This theodolite magnetometer is based on the design that the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey developed in 1892-1893. It is similar in many ways to the instrument that the Survey had been using since the early 1880s, but with several new features. One is the octagonal shape of the collimating magnets. Another is the black velvet screen that connects the telescope with the suspension box: this cuts off stray light and eliminates the problems that had been caused by the glass window in the earlier form. It is marked "FAUTH & CO. WASHN D.C. 941" and "T.M.C.I. 1." The serial number suggests that it was made around 1895.
- This instrument belonged to the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Internal records indicate that D.T.M. purchased it from Kolesch & Co. in New York in 1906 (for $175), sent it to Bausch, Lomb, Saegmuller Co. for repairs (another $120), and kept it in service until 1919.
- Ref: Edwin Smith, "Notes on Some Instruments Recently Made in the Instrument Division of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Office," Annual Report of the Superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey for 1894, Appendix No. 8.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1895
- maker
- Fauth
- Fauth & Co.
- ID Number
- 1983.0039.04
- accession number
- 1983.0039
- catalog number
- 1983.0039.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Magnetometer
- Description
- Theodolite magnetometers were designed for observations in the field, and so are relatively light, compact, of simple construction, and easily handled. Their tri-leg base can hold either the magnetometer or the theodolite that is used for astronomical alignment. The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey designed this particular form in the early 1890s, basing it on the instrument that the Survey had been using since the early 1880s but adding several new features. One is the octagonal shape of the collimating magnets. Another is the black velvet screen that connects the telescope with the suspension box: this cuts off stray light,and eliminates the problems caused by the glass window in the earlier form.
- This example is marked "C. & G. S. NO. 18." The Survey produced it in 1892-1893 and made it available for L.A. Bauer's magnetic survey of Maryland at the end of the century. The base—marked "Bausch, Lomb, Saegmuller Co., ROCHESTER, N.Y. 2690"—must be a replacement, made after the formation of that firm in 1905.
- The U.S. Geological Survey acquired this magnetometer in 1973 when it assumed control of the geomagnetic program of the federal government, and it transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1982.
- Ref: Edwin Smith, "Notes on Some Instruments Recently Made in the Instrument Division of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Office," Report of the Superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey for the Year 1894, Appendix No. 8, p. 275.
- L. A. Bauer, Maryland Geological Survey (Baltimore, 1897), p. 433.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1892-1893
- maker
- U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey
- ID Number
- 1982.0671.08
- accession number
- 1982.0671
- catalog number
- 1982.0671.08
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Punch Board for a Hollerith Pantograph Card Punch
- Description
- This is the celluloid plate from the front of a pantograph card punch. The instrument was patented by Herman Hollerith and used in the U. S. Census of population in 1890. A mark on it reads: THE HOLLERITH ELECTRIC TABULATING SYSTEM (/) System Patented January 8th 1889.
- Compare MA.312896.
- Reference:
- Leon E. Truesdell, The Development of Punch Card Tabulation in the Bureau of the Census 1890–1940, Washington: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1965, pp. 43–44.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1890
- maker
- Hollerith, Herman
- ID Number
- MA.317982.03
- accession number
- 317982
- catalog number
- 317982.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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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
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