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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The Pump Unit, 1967
- Description
- The first video games were played on this machine.
- With the use of changing screen color and moving dots, TV Game Unit #2 allowed two players to compete against each other in seven different games. These games included a variety of chase games, a target-shooting game, and games that required the wooden handle attached to the unit’s lower right hand corner (see photograph). The handle was moved up and down, like a pump, in the course of certain games. In honor of this unusual game play, TV Game Unit #2 was rechristened “The Pump Unit.”
- Baer and his team demonstrated the "Pump Unit" to Sanders senior management on June 15, 1967. The presentation was successful and now the team had a new goal: to turn this technology into a commercially viable product. After a few years and numerous test and advancements, Baer and his team delivered the “Brown Box,”[hyperlink] a prototype for the first multiplayer, multiprogram video game system. It would be licensed to Magnavox, who released the system as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972.
- Like all the Ralph Baer prototypes, the "Pump Unit" was later used as evidence in many patent infringement cases. It still bears many of the court exhibit labels left over from these trials, as can be seen from the photograph.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1967
- patent holder
- Baer, Ralph H.
- inventor
- Baer, Ralph H.
- ID Number
- 2006.0102.03
- accession number
- 2006.0102
- catalog number
- 2006.0102.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
SCM Marchant Cogito 240 Electronic Calculator
- Description
- This ten-key, non-printing electronic desktop calculator performs the four arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The factors and results are stored in three registers, two of twelve-digit capacity and the third, of twenty-four digits. The content of these registers appears in three rows on a cathode ray tube display. The top row (K) shows the entry from the keyboard, the second row (Q) the second factor or the quotient, and the third row (P) the total, product, or dividend.
- In front of the display is the keyboard, with an array of digit keys at the center, keys for arithmetic functions and memory on the right, and on the left reset, register transfer, register entry, recall, and exchange keys.
- A mark on the left front of the machine reads: SCM MARCHANT. A mark behind the keyboard and below the screen reads: COGITO 240.
- In the summer of 1965, the SCM Marchant Division of SCM Corporation announced that it would begin to sell the company’s first electronic calculators that fall. These were the Cogito 240 and a similar machine, the Cogito 240SR, which also had the ability to take square roots. The 240 was to sell for $2,195, and the 240SR for $2,395. The machines were manufactured at a company plant in Oakland, California.
- According to Bensene, the machine was designed by computer pioneer Stanley Frankel, who had worked on the Manhattan Project, run programs on the ENIAC computer, headed the Computation Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, and contributed to the design of minicomputers such as the LGP-30 and the Packard-Bell PB-250. Frankel worked on the design at Computron Corporation, a subsidiary of the California firm of Electrosolids. Not long after the British firm of Sumlock Comptometer released a desktop electronic calculator in 1961 (see the Anita Mark VIII), SCM acquired Computron Corporation, and Frankel and his team moved there to develop the Cogito 240.
- The calculator was quickly replaced by other electronic calculators in the SCM line. SCM dropped out of the calculator business entirely in 1972.
- References:
- R. Bensene, “SCM Marchant Cogito 240SR Electronic Desktop Computer,” at the website The Old Calculator Museum, accessed March 28, 2013.
- SCM Marchant, Cogito 240-240SR Service Manual & Parts List, Oakland, Calif.: SCM Corporation, 1965. This is 1979.3084.72.
- W. D. Smith, “Electronic Calculators Gaining,” New York Times, August 7, 1965, p. 25.
- “Presenting a new, highly advanced electronic calculator the Cogito 240,” Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1965, p. B10. Similar advertisements ran in the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and New York Times.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1966
- maker
- SCM Corporation
- ID Number
- CI.335373
- accession number
- 318944
- catalog number
- 335373
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Photograph, Douglas Engelbart with Early Computer Mouse
- Description
- This black and white photograph shows Douglas Engelbart sitting in a chair in an SRI office. His right hand is raised to make a point. He wears a suit and tie. An earpiece in his left ear is connected to a computer. Also shown are a mouse and, partially, a keyboard. A blackboard is in the background with the following words and numbers written on it: } PL0T BLANK: ? / PL0T S0LID; ? / 5 -> 3.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- photograph taken
- 1968
- date made (print)
- 2014
- depicted (sitter)
- Engelbart, Douglas
- maker of the print
- SRI International
- ID Number
- 2015.3073.02
- catalog number
- 2015.3073.02
- nonaccession number
- 2015.3073
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Wang LOCI-2 Electronic Calculator
- Description
- One of the first programmable electronic calculators, this instrument was announced in 1964 and sold from 1965. It was designed by An Wang (1920-1990) and his associates. Wang, a native of Shanghai, immigrated to the United States after World War II, studied computer science at Harvard University, and worked at the Harvard Computation Laboratory. He started his own business in 1951, producing magnetic core memories and other electronic equipment on order. The LOCI or “logarithmic calculating instrument” was the first product marketed by the company. Two versions of the machine were announced: the LOCI I, which was not programmable, and the LOCI II, which was.
- The desktop machine has nine digit keys arranged in an array, as well as a zero bar and a decimal point key. Depressing other keys changes the sign of the number, shifts the decimal point, shifts from the logarithmic to the work register, and shifts from the work to the logarithmic register. Further keys are for arithmetic operations, squares, square roots, inverse squares, inverse square roots, inverse logarithms, and clearance of various registers. To the right are controls for the decrement counter, the program counter, and the operation code. According to company advertising, the machine offers ten-digit precision in addition and subtraction and eight-digit precision in multiplication, division, exponentiation, root extraction, and logarithm computation. It has five storage registers of ten-digit capacity and a ten-digit display, plus a display for the sign of the answer. A cooling fan and a cord are at the back. The card reader attachment that plugs into the back holds program cards.
- A tag on the front of the machine reads: LOCI-2. A tag on the back reads: ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS AND DEVICES (/) LOCI II (/) MODEL NO. 2AB (/) SERIAL NO. 2734 (/) TEWKSBURY, MASS. U.S.A. A paper tag on the back of the machine indicates that it was serviced 4/28/68, 9/12/68, and 2/9/71.
- According to a 1964 flier, the machine was to sell for $4,750.00. Kenney says that the initial price was $6,500. Wang Laboratories would go on to sell the 300 series of calculators (from 1966) and the 700 series (from 1969), and to manufacture minicomputers and networked microcomputers.
- For related objects and documents, see 1980.0096.02 through 1980.0096.10.
- Compare 1980.0096.01 with the later 1983.0171.01 (a Wang Series 700 calculator), and the even later 2011.0022.01 (a Wang Series 600 calculator).
- References:
- There is an extensive discussion of the LOCI II at the website of the Old Calculator Museum. See:http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/wangloci.html
- Wang Laboratories, Inc., “LOCI-2 Open New Vistas to your Personal Computing . . .,” Tewksbury, Ma., 1964. This is 1980.0096.08. A similar leaflet describes the LOCI-1 and has museum number 1980.0096.07.
- Charles C. Kenney, Riding the Runaway Horse: The Rise and Decline of Wang Laboratories, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1992.
- date made
- 1965 or later
- date received
- 1980
- maker
- Wang Laboratories
- ID Number
- 1980.0096.01
- catalog number
- 1980.0096.01
- accession number
- 1980.0096
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
LOCI-2 Punch Card
- Description
- This is one of a series of forty-column perforated punch cards designed for use with the programmable Wang LOCI-2 electronic calculator. Each card is marked in the bottom left corner: IBM D56709. Each card is marked on the left side: LOCI (LOGARITHMIC COMPUTER) PROGRAM.
- For the calculator, see 1980.0096.01. For the card reader, see 1980.0096.01.1. For the card punch, see1980.0096.02.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965 or later
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1980.0096.03.6
- catalog number
- 1980.0096.03.6
- accession number
- 1980.0096
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
LOCI-2 Punch Card
- Description
- This is one of a series of forty-column perforated punch cards designed for use with the programmable Wang LOCI-2 electronic calculator. Each card is marked in the bottom left corner: IBM D56709. Each card is marked on the left side: LOCI (LOGARITHMIC COMPUTER) PROGRAM.
- For the calculator, see 1980.0096.01. For the card reader, see 1980.0096.01.1. For the card punch, see1980.0096.02.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965 or later
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1980.0096.03.5
- catalog number
- 1980.0096.03.5
- accession number
- 1980.0096
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
TV Game Unit #1, 1967
- Description
- From this assemblage of metal, wires and glass tubes, the future of video games would be built.
- In 1966, while working for Sanders Associates Inc., engineer Ralph Baer began to look into new ways to use television, focusing specifically on interactive games. In 1967, he created the first of several video game test units. Called TVG#1 or TV Game Unit #1, this device, when used with an alignment generator, produced a dot on the television screen that could be manually controlled by the user. Now that he was able to interact with the television, Baer could design increasingly sophisticated interfaces and programs.
- TV Game Unit #1 was designed by Baer and built with the assistance of Bob Tremblay, a technician who worked with Baer at Saunders. Though transistors were available, Baer, who had received his bachelor’s in television engineering, choose to use the familiar and proven technology of vacuum tubes for this early test unit.
- Like all the Ralph Baer prototypes, TV Game Unit #1 was used as evidence in many patent infringement cases. It still bears many of the court exhibit labels left over from these trials, as may be seen from the photograph.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1966
- inventor
- Baer, Ralph H.
- patent holder
- Baer, Ralph H.
- ID Number
- 2006.0102.01
- accession number
- 2006.0102
- catalog number
- 2006.0102.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Monroe EPIC 3000 Electronic Calculator
- Description
- In 1966, Monroe International, Inc., a descendent of the Monroe Calculating Machine Company and a division of Litton Industries, introduced its EPIC electronic programmable printing calculator. The device includes a desktop keyboard and printing unit, and an attached calculating unit that sits on the floor. It has transistors, but not microprocessors.
- At the center of the desktop part of the machine is an array of nine digit keys with a 0 bar below it. To the right of these keys are function keys for the four arithmetic operations as well as a square root key and enter and print bars. To the left of the digit keys are keys for start, decimal point placement, interchange of the contents of two registers, repeat, and other operations. The printing mechanism is behind the keyboard. It displayed entries as well as the answer. A mark next to the paper tape reads: EPIC 3000. A mark below this reads: MONROE li.
- Monroe also sold a similar electronic calculator called the EPIC 2000.
- The calculator was given to the Museum by George C. Davis, who apparently used it in work as a consulting engineer in radio and television in Washington, D.C.
- References:
- Accession file, instructions 1983.0471.03.
- Personal Communication, Monroe Systems for Business.
- Vintage Calculators Web Museum.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1966
- maker
- Monroe International Corporation
- ID Number
- 1983.0471.01
- accession number
- 1983.0471
- catalog number
- 1983.0471.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Ribbon for a Monroe EPIC 3000 Electronic Calculator
- Description
- This two-color ribbon is for a Monroe EPIC 3000 electronic calculator, with its paper box. One feature of the machine highly touted in advertisements was its ability to print entries and results of calculations, unlike some other electronic calculators.
- For related objects, see the rest of accession 1983.0471.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1966
- ID Number
- 1983.0471.02
- accession number
- 1983.0471
- catalog number
- 1983.0471.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
The Brown Box Golf Game Accessory, 1968
- Description
- 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."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1968
- patent holder
- Baer, Ralph H.
- inventor
- Baer, Ralph H.
- ID Number
- 2006.0102.11
- accession number
- 2006.0102
- catalog number
- 2006.0102.11
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
The Brown Box Lightgun, 1967–68
- Description
- This toy gun proves that target-shooting games were part of video game history from the very beginning.
- This lightgun was used to play the Target Practice game on the “Brown Box,” a prototype for the first multiplayer, multiprogram video game system. Magnavox licensed the Brown Box and released the system as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. The lightgun and four target games were later sold as a separate expansion package.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1967-1968
- patent holder
- Baer, Ralph H.
- inventor
- Baer, Ralph H.
- ID Number
- 2006.0102.06
- catalog number
- 2006.0102.06
- accession number
- 2006.0102
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Bound Printout from COBOL Test Program Run December 6, 1960, at RCA
- Description
- COBOL was one of the first programming languages designed to run on computers built by several different manufacturers. In December 1960 programmers at Remington Rand UNIVAC and at RCA successfully ran the same COBOL test programs on a Univac II and an RCA 501 computer.
- This is the printout from the RCA demonstration. It contains two programs. One produces a profit and loss report for a corporation. It is a modification of a program developed by Warren G. Simmons of US Steel for a UNIVAC II.
- According to the printout, the actual program used in the test was written by J. Farinelli. This was probably programmer Joseph D. Farinelli of US Steel. The second program, which computes cash sales and credit balances, was written by Carl H. Thorne Jr. of the General Services Administration for an RCA computer.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1960
- maker
- RCA Corporation
- ID Number
- 2010.3050.2
- catalog number
- 2010.3050.2
- nonaccession number
- 2010.3050
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Punch Cards used with a PDP-9 Minicomputer
- Description
- In the mid-1960s, the Computer Science Department at RAND Corporation turned its attention to developing computer graphics. A set of programs written in the programming language FORTRAN for the PDP-9 minicomputer were used to plot contour lines useful in determining the line of sight for microwave radiation emitted from a given point on a map. These cards have some of the data for one of these programs. The cards are white with a pink border on the top (occasional cards have a green border). Groups of cards are not numbered but groups of data are designated by black marks on the edge. A mark on the first card reads: 3000 500. A printout of a related program has non-accession number 1990.3046.10.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1968
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1990.3046.05
- catalog number
- 1990.3046.05
- nonaccession number
- 1990.3046
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Photograph, The Family Tree of Computer Design
- Description
- This photographic print shows an updated version of the family tree of computers first distributed by the National Science Foundation in the late 1950s. For a version of the first design, see the image in Bell and Newell.
- This example belonged to Margaret Fox.
- Reference:
- C. Gordon Bell and A. Newell, Computer Structures: Readings and Examples, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971, 39.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1963
- maker
- National Science Foundation
- ID Number
- 2013.3034.20
- catalog number
- 2013.3034.20
- nonaccession number
- 2013.3034
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Logic Unit for the Green Machine, A Prototype Desktop Electronic Calculator
- Description
- As a graduate student in electrical engineering at the University of California – Berkeley, Thomas E. Osborne began thinking about the design of a desktop electronic calculator that could compute the very large and very small numbers encountered in scientific work. In January of 1964 he formed the firm Logic Design, Inc., to develop his ideas. By late 1964 he had built a prototype keyboard and display (1978.0311.01), as well as this prototype logic unit.
- The framework of the logic unit is a group of five rectangular perforated boards, arranged in the shape of a box. Numerous smaller boards are perpendicular to the base and to three of the sides. Metal supports are along the base of two opposite sides. Circuit components include transistors, resistors, capacitors, diodes, and a plug. A second plug is loose in the box.
- Elements of the green machine were incorporated in Hewlett-Packard’s first commercial electronic calculator, the HP9100. For a prototype of that machine, see 1978.0311.03. For related documentation, see invention notebooks and photographs by Osborne (1978.0311.03 through 1978.0311.14). For purchase orders of components used in the prototype, see 1985.0264.01.
- References:
- Bernard M. Oliver, “How the Model 9100A Was Developed,” Hewlett-Packard Journal, September, 1968. A copy of this article is at the HP Museum website.
- The website of the University of Wyoming contains biographical information about Osborne.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1964
- date received
- 1978
- maker
- Osborne, Thomas E.
- ID Number
- 1978.0311.02
- accession number
- 1978.0311
- catalog number
- 1978.0311.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Punch Cards used with a PDP-9 Minicomputer
- Description
- In the mid-1960s, the Computer Science Department at RAND Corporation turned its attention to developing computer graphics. A set of programs written in the programming language FORTRAN for the PDP-9 minicomputer were used to plot contour lines useful in determining the line of sight for microwave radiation emitted from a given point on a map.
- This group of cards is labeled: Last version using SC4020 plot routine. The cards have the data for a FORTRAN program with non-accession number 1990.3046.10. Theys are white with a green border along the top. A mark on the first card reads: $IBFTC CLAQR REF.
- The SC4020 was a computer-controlled microfilm printer and plotter produced by the Stromberg-Carlson Corporation. It was one of the first devices sold specifically to visualize computer calculations.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1968
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1990.3046.07
- catalog number
- 1990.3046.07
- nonaccession number
- 1990.3046
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Mainframe Computer Component, Magnetic Wire Cartridge for the SEAC Computer
- Description
- This metal cartridge contains wire used to enter programs on the SEAC computer. A paper ring atop the cartridge lists programs on it. The object is mounted on a wooden backing with a metal plaque that describes the contents of the cartridge.
- A wire cartridge was used to enter data onto the SEAC from at least 1954. The machine went out of service in 1964. This is not the first version of the demonstration cartridge. Hence the date assigned.
- date made
- ca 1960
- maker
- National Bureau of Standards
- ID Number
- 2013.0084.02
- accession number
- 2013.0084
- catalog number
- 2013.0084.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
HP9100 Prototype Desktop Electronic Calculator
- Description
- This transistorized electronic calculator is the prototype for the first electronic calculator sold by Hewlett-Packard Company, the HP 9100. The machine was notable for its ability to compute transcendental functions at the push of a button, and for the range of values that could be computed.
- The prototype has a metal case painted gray. At the right center is an array of nine digit keys and a 0 bar, with clear display, enter exponent, and change sign keys above these. To the right of these keys is an array of fourteen programming keys. Left of the digit keys are keys for arithmetic operations, square roots, and shifting the position of variables within the x, y, and z registers of the calculator . The fifteen further keys to the left are for a variety of trigonometric, hyperbolic, and exponential functions.
- Above these keys are four switches. The leftmost determines whether angles entered and computed are in radians or degrees. The second switch from the left determines whether the decimal point is floating or fixed. The third switch turns the power on or off. The rightmost switch sets the mode as run or program. A display and a dial that may be set between 0 and 9 are behind the keyboard and switches. At the back are a power cord and a connector.
- The prototype brought together ideas of Thomas Osborne, Malcolm McMillan, and others at Hewlett-Packard. For Osborne’s earlier prototype, see 19780311.01 and 1978.0311.02. For a production model of the HP9100B, see 2012.0044.01.
- Bernard M. Oliver, “How the Model 9100A Was Developed,” Hewlett-Packard Journal, September, 1968. A copy of this article is at the HP Museum website.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1966
- date received
- 1978
- maker
- Hewlett-Packard Company
- Osborne, Thomas E.
- ID Number
- 1978.0311.03
- accession number
- 1978.0311
- catalog number
- 1978.0311.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Reel of Magnetic Tape with COBOL Compiler
- Description
- Programs and data were entered into many early computers, including those made by Univac and RCA, using reels of magnetic tape like this one. This particular tape carried a compiler for the programming language COBOL. It was used in December 1960, when a COBOL program first ran successfully on computers made by two different manufacturers. Thus it stands as a symbol of the birth of one of the first common programming languages. Computer programmers would come to expect that different brands of computers ran the same languages. COBOL became a routine tool for business programming.
- The reel is marked: UNIVAC. It is also marked: COBOL. A piece of tape attached to the back reads: 12/6/60 UNIVAC COBOL COMPILER 2319 UC.
- date made
- 1960
- maker
- Remington Rand Univac
- ID Number
- CI.317980.01
- catalog number
- 317980.01
- accession number
- 317980
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Certificate in Data Processing
- Description
- Paper certificate issued by the Data Processing Management Association to George W. Abbott for successfully completing the requirements for the Certificate in Data Processing. The issue date is September 4, 1962. The certificate is printed on pale yellow marbled paper. It has a round certificate seal in the lower left corner and is mounted on heavy card stock.
- This certificate was awarded to the donor, who, according to press releases issued in 1977, was the first person in the world to receive the certificate. A black and white photograph of the donor is included. An alphabetic listing (typed paper list) of all the recipients of this certificate with their certificate number is bound together in a red report folder.
- The list of recipients includes the name Stanley Kovy. Mr. Kovy joined the Smithsonian staff in 1967 as the Manager of Fiscal and Business Applications before becoming Deputy Director then Director of the Information Systems Division. He is listed as receiving certificate #620052.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1962-09-04
- ID Number
- 1977.1047.01
- accession number
- 1977.1047
- catalog number
- 1977.1047.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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