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
36
Page 1 of 2
-
Remington Rand Univac Minimum Latency Calculator Slide Rule
- Description
- This circular device was an aid to programming the UNIVAC solid state computer. It consists of a paper disc, with equal divisions running from 1 to 200 near the edge, and a clear plastic rotating disc. These are pivoted together at the center. The upper disc is marked in red with two perpendicular diameters. The lower disc is marked: MINIMUM LATENCY CALCULATOR FOR THE UNIVAC SOLID-STATE COMPUTER. The UNIVAC had a magnetic storage drum on which locations were specified numerically. The latency calculator allowed programmers to write code for the machine to make the most efficient possible use of the drum memory.
- The back of the instrument gives a list of instruction codes and corresponding execution times for words. It is marked: Remington Rand Univac. It is also marked: U1767 Rev. 1 PRINTED (/) IN (/) U.S.A. The rule was received in a paper bag.
- Reference: Sperry Rand Corporation, Simple Transition to Electronic Processing, UNIVAC Solid-State 80, (1960), 18–26.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- after 1950
- maker
- Remington Rand Univac
- ID Number
- 2005.0271.01
- accession number
- 2005.0271
- catalog number
- 2005.0271.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Photograph of Ralph Slutz in His Office at the National Bureau of Standards
- Description
- In this small color image a message on the blackboard behind Slutz reads: DEAR (/) RALPH (/) I'm going away to Calif. (/) Pleas don't neglect (/) the plants until I come back. (/) Love ISR. This may be a message from collegue Ida S. Rhodes.
- The photograph is laminated with plastic on front and back. It may have a paper core.
- The object is associated with Margaret Fox.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- early 1950s
- maker
- National Bureau of Standards
- ID Number
- 2013.3034.23
- nonaccession number
- 2013.3034
- catalog number
- 2013.3034.23
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Pamphlet,705 Autocoder System Manual of Information
- Description
- This manual replaces the first version of 1956.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1957
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1995.3080.04.20
- nonaccession number
- 1995.3080
- catalog number
- 1995.3080.04.20
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Mainframe Computer Model, IBM 1401
- Description
- This is a wooden plexiglass and paper model of an IBM 1401 computer system. Model pieces include:
- 1. The IBM 1401 central processing unit with control panel.
- 2. A disc storage unit.
- 3. Dual IBM 729 magnetic tape unit (two tape drives - possibly two units)
- 4. A shorter IBM 7330 magnetic tape unit with one tape drive
- 5. A yet shorter tape unit (for paper tape? might be IBM 1101)
- 6. IBM 1406 added memory
- 7. an IBM 1402 card read-punch
- 8. an IBM 1403 printer with paper.
- Dimensions given are for system arranged compactly.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1959
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 2013.0129.01
- accession number
- 2013.0129
- catalog number
- 2013.0129.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
BP-16309 BSC Punch Cards for AFL-CIO Publications
- Description
- Punched cards were used not only in government, business, and universities, but by labor unions. These white, eighty-column punch cards are printed in gray. They have spaces for the name, address, local number and ledger id number of member of the AFL-CIO. A mark along the left edge reads: AFL-CIO PUBLICATIONS. A mark on the right edge reads: BP-16309 BSC. The cards were received in a tabulating machine (reproducer) with catalog number 336301.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1955
- ID Number
- MA.305981.08
- accession number
- 305981
- catalog number
- 305981.08
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Pamphlet, IBM Electronic Data Processing Machines Type 705
- Description
- This is the preliminary manual of operation for the IBM 705 electronic data processing system, as revised in February, 1956.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1956
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1995.3080.04.18
- nonaccession number
- 1995.3080
- catalog number
- 1995.3080.04.18
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Book, Methods of Operations Research
- Description
- This pioneering textbook on operations research was coauthored by Philip M. Morse (1903-1985), a professor of physics at M.I.T., and quantum chemist George E. Kimball (1906-1967), who also was on the faculty there. During World War II the two men worked for the U.S. Navy on a project relating to the mathematical analysis of Nazi U--boat operations. After the war, they envisioned a more general theory of mathematical analysis of industrial, governmental, and military operations, which is presented here.
- This copy of the book is from the personal library of William F. Eberth (1905-1976), who spent fifteen years of his career with the Atomic Energy Commission working in South Africa. The copy is not annotated.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1951
- maker
- Morse , Philip M.
- Kimball, George E.
- ID Number
- MA.319872.10
- accession number
- 1975319872
- catalog number
- 319872.10
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
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
-
Pamphlet, Data-Processing Flow Charts for Motor Freight Carriers
- Description
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1959
- author
- Remington Rand Univac. Division of Sperry Rand
- ID Number
- 1997.3012.04.36
- catalog number
- 1997.3012.04.36
- nonaccession number
- 1997.3012
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
IAS Computer
- Description
- The IAS Computer was named for the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. The computer was built from 1946 to 1951 at the Institute under the direction of John von Neumann, a mathematics professor at both Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. Funds for the computer came from the Institute, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and several military agencies of the U.S. Government. It cost several hundred thousand dollars. The goal of developing the IAS was to make digital computer designs more practical and efficient.
- For further information about the computer, see Willis H. Ware. The History and Development of the Electronic Computer Project at the Institute for Advanced Study (1953). This is available online.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1946-1951
- director
- von Neumann, John
- previous owner
- Institute for Advanced Study
- maker
- von Neumann, John
- Institute for Advanced Study
- ID Number
- CI.320250.01
- catalog number
- 320250
- accession number
- 220575
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Mainframe Computer Component, Williams Tube Electrostatic Memory from the Ferranti Mark I Computer
- Description
- Not long after the end of World War II, developers in both the United States and Great Britain set out to build new forms of room-sized mainframe computers. One challenge was storing the information generated by with a computer program. Frederick C. Williams and Tom Kilburn headed a team at the University of Manchester in Manchester, England, that developed a computer memory in which bits of data were stored on the charged screen of a cathode ray tube. Information on the screen was refreshed every fifth of a second. Such an electrostatic memory came to be called a Williams tube.
- Williams tubes were first used on the Manchester Mark I, a computer built at the university there in 1948 and used until 1950. Impressed by the machine, the British government contracted with the Manchester firm of Ferranti, Ltd., to build nine commercial versions of it. These appeared between 1951 and 1957. This Williams tube comes from the Ferranti Mark I built for the AVROE Company in Manchester in 1954. That computer was used there for ten years to solve problems associated with aircraft design, management, and programmable machine tools.
- There are six vacuum tubes across the front of the amplifier, all marked: MULLARD. The first on the right is markedL 606VD, the second: 606UB, the thrid: 6064SL. A mark in the upper right corner reads: FERRANTI.
- The contents of the memory of a Mark I was represented by a grid of dots on the screens of the Williams tubes. As early as 1951, British schoolmaster Christopher Strachey began work on a program that allowed him to play draughts (checkers) on the Ferranti Mark I at the University of Manchester. Using this program, it was possible to make the screen of one Williams tube appear like a checkerboard – though not to show moves of individual pieces. Other computer programmers – and later video game enthusiasts – would go further.
- References:
- Accession file.
- Martin Campbell-Kelly, “Christopher Strachey,”
, 7, #1, January, 1985, pp. 19-42. - J. W. Cortada, Historical Dictionary of Data Processing Technology, New York: Greenwood Press, 1987, pp. 256-258.
- Simon Lavington, Early British Computers, Bedford, Massachusetts: Digital Press, 1980.
- date made
- 1954
- maker
- Ferranti Limited
- ID Number
- CI.334386
- catalog number
- 334386
- accession number
- 309902
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Mainframe Computer Component, Capacitor Bank Delay Line
- Description
- This metal frame contains a cylindrical metal rod with nineteen red and orange tiles soldered to it. The tiles each have an array of six colored circles on them.
- The object is associated with Margaret Fox. May come from the SEAC computer.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1955
- ID Number
- 2013.3034.08
- catalog number
- 2013.3034.08
- nonaccession number
- 2013.3034
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Pamphlet, 705 Autocoder System Macro-Instruction Manual
- Description
- Thisillustrated pamphlet describes new methods of "preparing programs" for the IBM 705 electronic data processing machine, compiling instructions written "in a simple notation" and automatically translating them into a language understood by the machine.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1957
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1995.3080.04.21
- nonaccession number
- 1995.3080
- catalog number
- 1995.3080.04.21
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
The Punched Card: Embodying Punched Card Operations in all types of Business and Industry
- Description
- This paperback book has a yellow and turquoise cover. It was published in 1952 by the Punched Card Publishing Company of Detroit, Michigan. The punch card was an early means of date storage that could be read by computers or sorted and calculated by fields by specialized machines. By the 1950s the punched card had moved beyond merely recording census data, and was across the corporate landscape for billing, transportation schedules, libraries, payroll, and inventory management. This book served as a trade publication for the Punched Card Publishing Company, illustrating better business practices and new uses of punch cards and devices for reading them.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1952
- ID Number
- 2013.3049.03
- nonaccession number
- 2013.3049
- catalog number
- 2013.3049.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Mainframe Computer Component, RCA 501 Tape Station
- Description
- This transistorized unit was used to read, write, and erase binary characters on mylar-based magnetic tape for entry into the RCA 501 computer. The central rack assembly has components for reading, writing, and erasing magnetic tape. These include a tape transport mechanism, amplifiers, control circuits, and a power supply. This example has a single tape reel.
- The rack assembly fits into a specially built cabinet, from which it could be removed. In this instance the cabinet is painted blue-gray and white. Each RCA 501 computer had at least 6 tape stations. Depending on the components selected, the entire computer system rented for $11,700 to $20,445 per month. Should a business choose to buy the system, the list price of one magnetic tape station alone was $25,000 – $30,000. This is over twice the price of a typical American single family house at the time.
- The tape station is marked on the inside at the center toward the top: R58111. It is marked on the inside of the lower portion of the cabinet: RCA (/) MI SER 1515 (/) RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICA. A plaque attached to the right side of the cabinet is marked : UNIVAC SPERRY RAND (/) SERIES 70. The form of the Sperry Rand trademark on the plaque was, according to trademark records, first used in commerce in 1967.
- References:
- "Tape Station," RCA 501 Electronic Data Processing System, Catalog EDP 581, Camden, N.J.: Radio Corporation of America, 1958.
- Martin H. Weik, "A Third Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems," Aberdeen Proving Ground: Ballistics Research Laboratories, March, 1961, pp. 778-803.
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Historical Census of Housing Tables Home Values. Available online.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1959 or later
- date made
- 1959
- maker
- RCA Corporation
- ID Number
- 1979.0418.06
- catalog number
- 1979.0418.06
- accession number
- 1979.0418
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
National Cash Register, Class 51
- Description
- In the 1950s Americans increasingly bought groceries in supermarkets, which served large numbers of customers. Consumers selected their own goods, and took them to a clerk who rang up sales. To make transactions as efficient as possible, the National Cash Register Company introduced machines that dispensed coins automatically, avoiding time and errors associated with making change. This change-making cash register went on the market in 1954, with a new model in 1958. This example was given to the Smithsonian by NCR in 1959, on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the company.
- Reference:
- Accession file.
- date made
- 1959
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.316702
- accession number
- 225455
- catalog number
- 316702
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Remington Quiet-Riter Typewriter
- Description
- This Quiet-Riter Eleven model portable typewriter was manufactured by the Remington Rand Corporation during the 1950s. The portable typewriter has all the features of a full sized model including an 88 character standard keyboard, a miracle tab that set and cleared stops making indenting easier, a cylinder that allowed you to type closer towards the bottom of the frame, and a shock resistant Cycolac frame. The typewriter came in a hard case for easier portability.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1950 - 1959
- 1950s
- ID Number
- 1993.0452.01
- catalog number
- 1993.0452.01
- accession number
- 1993.0452
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Graduate Record Examination Punch Cards
- Description
- The Carnegie Foundation, and later the Educational Testing Service, used several forms of punched card in compiling and reporting information on the tests it administered. Three types are included here. All relate to Graduate Record Examination Individual Report Cards. One has the number IBM 138707 (four examples), one IBM 140086 (eleven examples), and another IBM 140088 (three examples). One card is punched.
- The cards were produced under U.S. Patent 1,772.492, taken out by Clair D. Lake in 1930 and assigned to IBM. The Graduate Record Examination was first administered in 1937 and kept the New York City address shown on the cards through at least 1951.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1950
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1995.3080.03
- nonaccession number
- 1995.3080
- catalog number
- 1995.3080.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Pamphlet, Type 705 Practice Problems
- Description
- This document is a set of practice problems for an IBM electronic data processing machine.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1955
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1995.3080.04.17
- nonaccession number
- 1995.3080
- catalog number
- 1995.3080.04.17
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Unityper II, Data Entry Device for the Univac Computer
- Description
- The Unityper II, a modified Remington electric typewriter, was equipped with electronic circuits that converted type strokes into pulse patterns and recorded them on magnetic tape. The tape housing is located slightly above and behind the typewriter carriage. The coded tapes were used as input for UNIVAC computers.
- Reference: Remington Rand Univac, "Operator’s Manual Unityper II," 1955.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1957
- maker
- Remington Rand Univac. Division of Sperry Rand Corporation
- ID Number
- 1982.0638.02
- accession number
- 1982.0638
- catalog number
- 1982.0638.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Pages
Filter Your Results
- topic
-
object type
- Pamphlets 6
- Cash registers 3
- Punch Cards, Group Of 2
- Slide rules 2
- documentation 2
- mainframe computer 2
- mainframe computer component 2
- mainframe computer model 2
- punch cards, group of 2
- sheet 2
- Books 1
- Calculators 1
- Group of UNIVAC Punch Cards 1
- Leaflets (printed works) 1
- Photographs 1
- Punch Card 1
- cash register mechanism 1
- computer 1
- computer component, input device 1
- documents, group of 1
- date
- place
-
set name
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics 21
- Medicine and Science: Computers 13
- Punch Cards 7
- Cash and Credit Registers 4
- National Museum of American History 4
- COBOL 3
- American Enterprise 2
- Science & Mathematics 2
- Slide Rules 2
- Tabulating Equipment 2
- American Stories exhibit 1
- Artifact Walls 1
- Artifact Walls exhibit 1
- Inventing In America 1
- Military 1
- My Computing Device 1
- Typewriters 1
- Work and Industry: Electricity 1
- Work and Industry: Mechanisms 1
