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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Punch Card Used at the Southern Railway Company
- Description
- Herman Hollerith began manufacturing tabulating machines to compile statistics to the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The nation only compiles a census every ten years, so Hollerith sought business from foreign governments and from commercial customers.
- As early as 1895, the New York Central began using tabulating equipment to track goods moved by the railroad. Hollerith radically redesigned the punch card, putting information in columns with the numbers from 0 to 9. Several columns of numbers comprised a field, which contained information on a single matter. By 1907, the Central was an established customer and other railroads adopted machine accounting. The Southern Railway Company used this 45-column card. It has fields for the date, the receiving station, the waybill number, the code, the forwarding station, the junction point, "Com.", "C.L.", freight, charges, and prepaid amounts.
- Reference:
- G. D. Austrian, Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Pioneer of Information Processing, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 111–141, 250–251.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1910
- 1910, roughly
- 1910 roughly
- maker
- Tabulating Machine Company
- ID Number
- MA.317982.01
- accession number
- 317982
- catalog number
- 317982.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Punch Card Probe
- Description
- This cylindrical metal stainless steel rod is about 8" long and resembles a crochet hook. The metal is serrated along the middle part of the rod. One end is hooked, the other is flattened and U-shaped. The donor worked with tabulating machines and then computer equipment from the 1940s into at least the 1960s.
- Reportedly the hook was used to line up punched cards and the flattened end to complete holes that had not punched properly.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1950
- 1950, roughly
- ID Number
- 2006.3088.01
- nonaccession number
- 2006.3088
- catalog number
- 2006.3088.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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IBM Model 24 Card Punch
- Description
- This gray desk-sized machine for punching cards to be used as computer input has a table with keyboard at the front and a card hopper, card bed, and card stack at the back. The keyboard is cabled to the punch. Cards move from the hopper at the top left, down into the card bed, across the bed to the left, and up into the stack on the left side. It is possible to punch individual cards and to have several cards programmed to be punched identically in some columns. The model IBM 24 does not print data entered at the top of the card.
- A mark on the punch reads: IBM 24 (/) CARD PUNCH. Another mark there reads: PROPERTY OF (/) INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. (/) 024 30864 SO.
- References:
- IBM, Reference Manual IBM 24 Card Punch IBM 26 Printing Card Punch, White Plains, N.Y.: IBM, 1965. The first version of this manual appeared in 1949.
- IBM, Field Engineering Maintenance Manual 24-Base Machines, White Plains, N.Y.: IBM, 1965. This manual has museum number 1987.0528.03 and was received with the machine.
- John Diebold & Associates, "IBM 024 and 026 Card Punches," Automatic Data Processing Equipment, Chicago: Cudahy Publishing Company, 1957, section 1A 380.1, pages 2–6.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1965
- maker
- International Business Machines Corporation
- ID Number
- 1987.0528.01
- accession number
- 1987.0528
- catalog number
- 1987.0528.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Contact Board Associated with Herman Hollerith
- Description
- This wooden board has six switches on it, and six metal nubs. The nubs and one end of each switch are screwed into the board. On the opposite side are contacts for electrical wires. Twelve nails in the board on top assure that one switch can only meet one nub. Holes at opposite ends of the board allow it to be attached to a table, with a groove in the back for wires.
- Compare to switches on the Hollerith tabulating system with museum number MA.317982.05.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1900
- maker
- Hollerith, Herman
- ID Number
- MA.335637
- accession number
- 1977.0114
- catalog number
- 335637
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Punch Card Marked DO-5081, Received with Key Punch
- Description
- This eighty-column paper punch card is rectangular, with the upper left corner cut off. It is punched symmetrically. Text along the top reads: MANUAL KEY PUNCH - ABOUT 70 YEARS OLD. A form number printed along the bottom reads: DO-5081. Further text reads: PRINTED IN U.S.A.
- Received with card punch with museum number 1987.0601.01.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1930s
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1987.0601.01.02
- accession number
- 1987.0601
- catalog number
- 1987.0601.01.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Model Relating to Powers Tabulating Equipment
- Description
- The wooden base of this model holds a metal container with a paper punch card that fits in it. A metal piece swings from a crosspiece above the card. The base also holds supports for another metal crosspiece. Three metal pieces rotate with this crosspiece. The base also holds two larger, facing metal rectangles. One rectangle has a plastic piece screwed to the top.
- A mark on the right side of the punch card reads: POWERS ACCOUNTING MACHINE COMPANY (/) ACCOUNTS PAYABLE. A mark on the left side of the punch card reads: P1384. The punched holes are round.
- A piece of paper pasted to the top of the base reads: This model represents my new (/) invention of a tabulator in connec- (/) tion with perforated cards, elimina- (/) ting a pin box of 540 pins and sub- (/) stitution forty-five levers instead. (/) Also eliminating connection box, with (/) both of these improvements the speed (/) will be doubled and such machine will (/) be small in size, cheaper to build, (/) more flexible and easier to manipulate. (/) August 19, 1924 (/) James Powers. Also signing the document were Fred J. Dole, Charles E. Whiteman and Achilles Rovegno, all of whom had associations with Francis H. Richards of New York, Powers’s patent attorney.
- No patent corresponding to this invention has been found.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1924
- maker
- James Powers
- ID Number
- 1991.0871.03
- accession number
- 1991.0871
- catalog number
- 1991.0871.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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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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Remington Rand Model 3 Card Punch
- Description
- From the early 20th century, a few American offices used punched cards to enter data onto accounting machines. In 1929 the Powers Accounting Machines Division of Remington Rand, Inc., introduced a "double deck" punch card for data entry. It had two sets of 45-column rows, for a total of 90 columns. This desk-sized, electrically powered device punched both 45 and 90 column cards. Keys at the right front set the machine. Pressing the "TRIP" bar in front of these activated the punch. The machine could be set to punch duplicate data, or to duplicate cards. With special key tops, not present on this version of the machine, one could enter alphabetic data, not simply numbers.
- The machine has a mirror, which should be mounted, for viewing cards.
- A tag on the front of the machine reads: Remington Rand. It lists patent numbers ranging from 1,643,779 (issued September 27, 1927) to 2,203,355 (issued June 4, 1940). A red tag attached to one edge reads: 020300 14946 4. A metal tag near one corner reads: VA9-14946.
- References:
- L. Heide, Punched-Card Systems and the Early Information Explosion 1880–1945, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009, esp. pp. 76–96.
- Powers Accounting Machines Division of Remington Rand, Inc., "Powers Reference Manual," Buffalo, N.Y.: Powers Accounting Machines, 1935.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1940
- maker
- Remington Rand Inc.
- ID Number
- 1998.0211.01
- accession number
- 1998.0211
- catalog number
- 1998.0211.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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IBM 001Card Punch
- Description
- For the first half of the 20th century, much data was entered into data processing machines using punched cards. This machine for punching such cards was manufactured by International Business Machines Corporation of New York.
- This key-driven, manual punch has 14 black keys. Twelve are for the 12 rows on a punch card. These are labeled from 0 to 9, X, and blank. Another key moves the card one space to the left and the last releases it. Keys are fed in from the right. A portion of a punch card attached in back of the machine has a pointer attached to it which allows one to determine the column of the card one is punching. The device is set up for 80-column cards and punches rectangular holes. A cylindrical protrusion extends from the back of the machine.
- A metal tag attached to the front of the object reads: PROPERTY OF (/) INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. (/) 001-12036-JH (/) ENDICOTT, NEW YORK, U.S.A. A mark stamped into the back of the card bed reads: 01 202.Two rods are marked at the front below the punching position: 202.
- IBM cards with rectangular holes and 80 columns were introduced in 1928. Cards with 12 rows of holes date from the early 1930s.
- Reference:
- E. W. Pugh, Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995, pp. 48–49.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- after 1930
- maker
- International Business Machines Corporation
- ID Number
- MA.333894
- accession number
- 304350
- catalog number
- 333894
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Tabulating Machine Component, Control Panel for an IBM 403 Tabulating Machine
- Description
- By the late 1940s, the calculations and printout of IBM accounting machines were determined by setting a plugboard like this one and then feeding in data punched on cards. This control panel was used specifically in an IBM 403 tabulating machine, a device introduced in the late 1940s and distributed at least into the late 1960s.
- The object has a rectangular metal frame with a metal handle on one of the long edges. It is divided into three sections, each containing a plastic circuit board with numerous holes. Many colorful plastic and cloth-coated wires are plugged into the holes. The board is wired for calculating invoices.
- A red tag attached under the handle reads: 403 INVOICE. A tag glued under the panel reads: MFG. BY (/) MAC PANEL (/) COMPANY. This tag also reads: HIGH POINT (/) N. C. and: TYPE 913. A mark stamped at the bottom of one circuit board reads: TYPE 402-403 22573 PRINTED IN USA.
- According to the company website, MAC Panel Company was founded in High Point in 1958.
- This example came from a programmer who worked with punch card equipment and computers from 1940 until 1985.
- References:
- IBM, IBM 402, 403 and 419 Accounting Machine Manual of Operation, New York: IBM, 1953, pp. 4–7. This is 2006.3088.03.20.
- Accession file.
- M. Campbell-Kelly, ICL: A Business and Technical HistoryOxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, pp. 90–92.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1960
- maker
- International Business Machines Corporation
- MAC Panel Company
- ID Number
- 2006.0174.01
- accession number
- 2006.0174
- catalog number
- 2006.0174.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Powers Tabulating Machine Components
- Description
- This object consists of two identical shaped steel pieces from the printer section of a Powers tabulating machine. Each carries ten pieces of type that fit into the arch of the piece. At the top is a 0, at the bottom a 9.
- Powers took out patents for tabulating machines in the early 20th century. These pieces are similar but not identical to those shown in patents of 1917 and 1921, and to pieces from a Powers Accounting Machine Corporation parts catalog from 1923. They are more similar to drawings in a patent filed in 1926 by Joseph R. Merkle and assigned to Remington Rand, Inc., the successor firm to Powers Accounting Machine Company.
- References:
- Powers Accounting Machine Corporation, Powers Tabulating Equipment, Book 3, New York: Powers Accounting Machine Corporation, 1923, Plate 507, Plate 510. This document is 1992.3215.03.
- James Powers, "Tabulator-Printer for Statistical Purposes," U.S. Patent 1,245,502, November 6, 1917.
- James Powers, "Combined Perforating and Printing Tabulator Mechanism," U.S. Patent 1,388,299, August 23, 1921.
- Joseph R. Merkle, "Tabulating Machine," U.S. Patent 1,884,072, October 25, 1932. This patent was filed March 27, 1926.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1926
- ID Number
- 1991.3180.02
- nonaccession number
- 1991.3180
- catalog number
- 1991.3180.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Pamphlet, Electronic Data-Processing for the Line Official
- Description
- This pamphlet introduces the use of electronic computers for data processing to managers. It was developed by the Univac Division of Sperry Rand Corporation in conjunction with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company. It has Univac form number U2448.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- author
- Univac Division of Sperry Rand Corporation
- ID Number
- 1997.3012.05.02
- catalog number
- 1997.3012.05.02
- nonaccession number
- 1997.3012
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Wright Model 2000 Card Punch
- Description
- This portable key punch for preparing punched cards was manufactured by the Massachusetts firm of Wright Line. Punched cards were central to large-scale data processing in the United States from the introduction of the Hollerith tabulating machine in the 1890s through the 1970s. Tabulating machine manufacturers such as IBM and Remington Rand (later Sperry Univac) rented card punches. Wright Line, founded in 1934, was one of relatively few independent data processing accessory manufacturers. It made and sold a large variety of files, magnetic tapes, card punches, and related machines.
- The device is designed for 80-column punch cards such as those made for IBM computers. It has a metal base painted black with 12 number keys and an "S" key. These keys, with their white key tops, are attached to a moveable carriage. A single punch card fits in the carriage. A mark on the top reads: Wright (/) PUNCH (/) MODEL 2600.
- This punch came to the Smithsonian from the United States Naval Observatory, a longtime user of tabulating equipment for scientific purposes.
- References:
- Accession file.
- "E. Stanley Wright, Manufacturer, 66," New York Times, September 8, 1959, p. 35.
- Wright Line, Data Processing Accessories Catalog ’69, p. 38.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1970
- maker
- Wright Line
- ID Number
- 2005.0174.01
- accession number
- 2005.0174
- catalog number
- 2005.0174.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Electrotype Printing Block Showing a Manual Hollerith Key Punch
- Description
- This electrotype printing block is engraved in metal and attached to a wooden block. It shows a manually operated, key-driven Hollerith card punch with 11 keys. Hollerith patented such a machine in 1901, but it had only ten keys, numbered from 0 to 9. The machine shown on the electroplate has these number keys, plus one marked X.
- For key punches similar but not identical to that shown, see MA.335634, MA.335635, and MA.333894.
- Reference:
- H. Hollerith, "Apparatus for Perforating Record Cards," U.S. Patent 682,197, September 10, 1901.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1902
- ID Number
- 1977.0503.02
- catalog number
- 336121
- accession number
- 1977.0503
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Record of Punching Cards at the New York Central for the Month of April 1904
- Description
- From 1895 inventor Herman Hollerith wooed the New York Central Railroad as a commercial customer for his tabulating machines. This small paper card records his success. It reports that in April 1904, key punch operators at the Central punched a total of 428,502 cards, averaging 258 cards per clerk per hour. The record for one clerk was 70,535 cards punched, averaging 413 cards per hour.
- Reference: G. D. Austrian, Hermann Hollerith: Forgotten Pioneer of Information Processing , New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 111–141.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1904
- ID Number
- 1977.0114.08.01
- accession number
- 1977.0114
- catalog number
- 1977.0114.08.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Powers Tabulating Equipment Component
- Description
- This component consists of two aluminum pieces that hold ten parallel flexible rods. It may have served as a flexible connector for Powers Accounting Machine Company equipment.
- A mark stamped on one of the pieces reads: 1---U. Several letters scratched on the other piece read: 1Y J-POWERS. A mark scratched on the other side of this piece reads: 1914.
- Reference:
- William W. Lasker, "Flexible-Connection Box," U.S. Patent 1,311,565, June 24, 1919.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1914
- maker
- James Powers
- ID Number
- 1991.0871.02
- accession number
- 1991.0871
- catalog number
- 1991.0871.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Hollerith Tabulating Machine
- Description
- During the 1880s the engineer Herman Hollerith devised a set of machines for compiling data from the United States 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. The tabulator is shown at the center in the photograph.
- Hollerith's tabulating system won a gold medal at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, and was used successfully the next year to count the results of the 1890 Census. His inventions formed the starting point of a company that would become IBM.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Hollerith, Herman
- ID Number
- MA.312895
- accession number
- 171118
- catalog number
- 312895
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Pamphlet, Functions of Univac Punched-Card Equipment
- Description
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1960
- author
- Univac Division of Sperry Rand Corporation
- ID Number
- 1997.3012.05.01
- catalog number
- 1997.3012.05.01
- nonaccession number
- 1997.3012
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
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
-
Card Showing Images of Remington Rand Univac Punched Cards
- Description
- This wallet-sized card shows punched cards on both sides. One is a ninety-column card with round holes, the other an eighty-column card with rectangular holes. The image of the ninety-column card has text along the left side that reads: Printed in U. S. A. REMINGTON RAND. The image of the eighty-column card has text along the left side that reads: Printed in U. S. A. REMINGTON RAND U-2173.
- Remington Rand tabulating machines had used ninety-column punched cards. By 1959, Remington Rand computers could use either ninety-column punched cards, punched with round holes, or eighty-column cards, punched with rectangular holes. The latter form of card had been introduced by IBM. This small card shows the choices.
- Reference:
- Gille Associates, Inc., The Punched Card Data Processing Annual, 1, 1959, pp. 43-47.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1955
- ca 1959
- author
- Remington Rand Univac. Division of Sperry Rand
- ID Number
- 1997.3012.04.06
- nonaccession number
- 1997.3012
- catalog number
- 1997.3012.04.06
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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