Computers & Business Machines

• 

  Electromechanical Computer Component, ASSC Mark I Double Throw Relay

  Description

  This is a component of the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), known otherwise as the Harvard Mark I. The twelve-pole double throw relay has a single black coil and two plugs.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  Date made

  1944

  maker

  IBM

  Harvard University

  ID Number

  MA.324285

  accession number

  248831

  catalog number

  324285

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  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

• 

  St. Louis Cash Register

  Description

  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.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1915

  maker

  St. Louis Cash Register Company, Inc.

  ID Number

  1982.0735.01

  catalog number

  1982.0735.01

  accession number

  1982.0735

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  National Cash Register, Eight-Drawer

  Description

  This machine has a metal case painted brown, and sits on top of eight cash drawers arranged in two columns of four drawers. It has four columns of plastic keys for registering dollars and cents ($10 to $90, $1 to $9, 10 cents to 90 cents, and 1cent to 9 cents). A column right of the number keys keys lettered A, B, D, E, H, K, L and M. A keyhole is right of each of the lettered keys. Right of these is a lever for setting the operation to be carried out and the motor bar.

  Left of the keyboard are registers marked with the same letters as those in the column of lettered keys. Left of this is the space for the paper tape. The machine has serial number 390234. It also is marked: X 094(4) RS-8C.

  This particular cash register was used at Lansburgh Department Store in downtown Washington, D.C. When City Stores Company purchased Lansburgh, they gave the machine to the Smithsonian.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1940

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.334908

  maker number

  3905234

  accession number

  314157

  catalog number

  334908

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Electromechanical Computer Component, ASSC Mark I

  Description

  This is a component of the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), known otherwise as the Harvard Mark I. The electromechanical assembly contains a commutator with two plastic pieces, numbered around a circular opening to denote contacts. The numbers are the integers from 0 to 9. In addition the object includes a gear, contacts, a clutch and brushes.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  Date made

  1944

  maker

  IBM

  Harvard University

  ID Number

  MA.324287

  accession number

  248831

  catalog number

  324287

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  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

• 

  CDC 88157 Punch Card

  Description

  This eighty-column paper punch card is cream-colored. It has square corners and the top left corner is truncated. A mark at the top of the card reads: FORTRAN STATEMENT. A mark on the bottom toward the left reads: CDC 88157. Both Control Data Corporation and IBM issued cards with the number 88157 specifically for entering programs in the language FORTRAN. The first five columns on the card were a label field, the sixth a continuation field (e.g. if the column was not blank or a zero, the problem statement was assumed to be continued on the next card) , and columns 7 through 72 gave that problem statement).

  The programming language FORTRAN was introduced by IBM in 1956 and 1957, and proved popular in the 1960s. Hence the rough date assigned to the card.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1960s

  maker

  Control Data

  ID Number

  1996.0142.02

  catalog number

  1996.0142.02

  accession number

  1996.0142

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  IBM 5081 Punch Card Used with Punch Card Gauge

  Description

  This standard eighty-column paper punch card was received with a punch card gauge (1990.0113.01). A mark near the bottom edge at the left reads IBM5081.

  These materials were used in Robert A. McConnell's research on parapsychology.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1960s

  Maker

  IBM

  ID Number

  1990.0113.03

  accession number

  1990.0113

  catalog number

  1990.0113.03

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Electromechanical Computer Component, ASSC Mark I Relay

  Description

  This is a component of the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), known otherwise as the Harvard Mark I. The four-pole double-throw relay has one plug. The single coil is silver-colored.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  Date made

  1944

  maker

  IBM

  Harvard University

  ID Number

  MA.324282

  accession number

  248831

  catalog number

  324282

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  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

• 

  Model of Babbage's Difference Engine No. 1 - Replica

  Description

  This is a replica of the portion of a difference engine built by Charles Babbage in 1832. Babbage, an English mathematician, hoped to compute and to print astronomical tables by machine. He proposed to estimate the value of functions using polynomials, and to use the method of finite distances to compute results.

  Babbage never completed either a difference engine or a more complex, programmable instrument he dubbed an analytical engine.

  The machine has three columns of discs. The leftmost column has six discs, each with the numbers from 0 to 9. The middle column has seven discs. The six lower ones each have the digits from 0 to 9. The uppermost disc is marked as indicated. The rightmost column has five discs numbered from 0 to 9. Above these are four discs, similarly numbered, that are immediately adjacent to one another. On the top of the machine are a gear train and a handle. The machine has a metal framework and a wooden base. The replica has containers for springs, but no springs.

  The overall dimensions include the handle. Without it, the dimensions are: 59 cm. w. x 43.5 cm. d. x 72 cm. h.

  The replica was built for display in the first exhibition devoted to mathematics and computing at the Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History). A similar replica is in the collections of IBM Corporation.

  The original on which this replica is based is at the Science Museum in London. That museum also displays a more recent attempt to build a working version of Babbage’s difference engine.

  References:

  Merzbach, Uta C., Georg Scheutz and the First Printing Calculator, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977.

  D. Pantalony, “Collectors Displays and Replicas in Context What We Can Learn from Provenance Research in Science Museums,” in The Romance of Science: Essays in Honour of Trevor H. Levere, eds. Jed Buchwald and Larry Stewart, Cham: Springer, 2017, pp.257-275, esp. pp.268-273. This article discusses replicas of the Babbage difference engine, but not the one at the Smithsonian, which was by a different maker than other replicas provided by IBM.

  Swade, Doron. The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer, New York: Viking, 2000.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1963

  date received

  1963

  maker

  Daniel I. Hadley & Associates

  ID Number

  MA.323584

  accession number

  252309

  catalog number

  323584

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  McGill Cash Register Patent Model

  Description

  This is the patent model for U.S. patent 350,986, for a cash register. It has a pine box for a base and a wooden case that covers the mechanism and the back part of the box. Four notched metal wheels, mounted vertically, represent tens of dollars, dollars, tens of cents, and cents. Rotating the wheels forward enters digits, which appear in windows to the left of the wheels.

  Moving a knob on the front of the machine raises the case, which is hinged to the box at the back. This reveals the cash register mechanism, including a bell. It also shows the inside of the box, which contains several loose parts. One of these is a broken wooden disc that has a paper disc pasted to it with 26 letters around the edge (not in alphabetical order). The digits from 0 to 9 are listed next to 10 of the letters. This wheel may well not be part of the model. The patent tag with drawing and description is attached to the cash register.

  William C. McGill (1812–1890) was born in Berks County, Pa., and spent his early years at sea. He went to California at the time of the Gold Rush, then to Australia, and then to St. Louis. In 1860, he moved to Cincinnati, and soon was assisting in organizing the first company of military volunteers in that city. After the Civil War, he was a guard at the District of Columbia jail until he resigned in 1882 because of poor health. He reportedly was the first patentee of the bell punch and devoted most of his later years to his inventions.

  References:

  W. C. McGill, "Cash Register," U.S. Patent 350,986, October 19, 1886.

  Washington Post, August 23, 1890 (obituary).

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1886

  patentee

  McGill, William C.

  maker

  McGill, William C.

  ID Number

  MA.309344

  accession number

  89797

  catalog number

  309344

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  OEI M73926 Punch Card for University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Computer Services Division

  Description

  This cream-colored eighty-column punch card has square corners and a truncated corner on the upper left side. A mark at the center reads: THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MILWAUKEE (/) COMPUTING SERVICES DIVISION. A mark near the left edge reads: OEI M73926.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1960s-1970s

  ID Number

  1996.0142.34

  catalog number

  1996.0142.34

  accession number

  1996.0142

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  IBM B92982 Punch Card for Hewlett-Packard Educational BASIC

  Description

  In March of 1968, Hewlett Packard introduced a version of the programming language BASIC for use on its timesharing electronic computers. By 1970, the company had developed “Hewlett-Packard Educational BASIC” for use in educational settings, both with computers and especially with programmable desktop calculators. This punch card is for writing programs in that language. The card was to be marked with a pencil rather than punched, making it more affordable. Inexpensive handheld electronic calculators soon displaced desktop machines in the classroom, and cards of this type were never widely used.

  The cream-colored card has square corners and truncated left corner. There are four columns for the statement number, two columns of the statement, thirty columns for letters, numbers, or punctuation marks, and a final column to indicate whether the statement continues on the next card - a total of thirty-seven columns..

  References:

  HP Journal, November, 1968 and October, 1970.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1970

  maker

  IBM

  ID Number

  1996.0142.13

  catalog number

  1996.0142.13

  accession number

  1996.0142

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  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

• 

  National Cash Register, Model 1544-(4D-1)

  Description

  This machine has four wooden drawers arranged in a single column in a wooden case. The register, in a brown metal case, sits atop the drawers. It has four columns of digit keys (red for dollars, black for cents, with a red five-cent key). Right of these is a column with keys marked A, B, D, E. Right of these is a lever now broken, a motor bar, and a section for the paper tape. The indicators are above the keys. The machine is electric. It has serial number 3672484 and model number 1544-(4D-1).

  The machine was used at the Lansburgh Department Store in downtown Washington, D.C. When City Stores Company purchased Lansburgh, they gave the machine to the Smithsonian.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1937

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.334907

  maker number

  3672484

  accession number

  314157

  catalog number

  334907

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  JTC 73752 Punch Card Associated with the MIT Information Processing Center

  Description

  This cream-colored eighty-column punch card has an orange stripe across the top. It shows the logo of the MIT Information Processing Center. A mark along the left edge reads: INFORMATION PROCESSING CENTER. A mark along the right edge reads: MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. A mark along the bottom edge at the left reads: JTC73752. A mark along the bottom edge toward the right reads: Printed in U.S.A.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1960s-1970s

  user

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  maker

  Jersey Tab Card Corporation

  ID Number

  1996.0142.26

  catalog number

  1996.0142.26

  accession number

  1996.0142

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  IBM Australia 760068 Punch Cards for the New South Wales Institute of Technology Computer Centre

  Description

  These two cream-colored eighty-column punch cards have rounded corners and are truncated in the upper right corner. A mark in the center of each cards reads: THE NEW SOUTH WALES (/) INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (/) COMPUTER CENTRE. A mark on the right edge reads: IBM - 760068. Another mark on that edge reads: PRINTED IN AUSTRALIA.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1960s-1970s

  maker

  IBM

  ID Number

  1996.0142.28

  catalog number

  1996.0142.28

  accession number

  1996.0142

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  3M Company Merchandise Data Recorder

  Description

  Automatic scanning and processing of informationabout merchandise Is now commonly done with bar code readers. In the 1950s, Howard Davis of the Jordan Marsh department stores began talking with Richad G. Zens about such processing. Engineers Henry Shunk and Joseph Welty of Massachusetts designed such a system, applied for a patent in 1959, and received it in 1963. They assigned the patent to Automatic Records, Inc. of Natick, Massachusetts. The machine used thermo-Fax paper produced by 3M Corporation, and 3M agreed to handle the recording part of the system, Scanners were produced by Automatic Records, a division of Printed Electronics Corporation of Natick. This object is the resulting "3M Merchancise Data Recorder." It has a beige metal case; metal reels and front platform; a plastic front window and on/off switch; a rubber cord, plug and wheel; and a paper tape. A mark on the object reads: 3M (/) MERCHANDISE DATA RECORDER. Another mark reads: MODEL 25AA (/) SERIAL NO. 4011034.

  For related documentation, and the historical information presented here, see 1984.0932.02.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  maker

  3M

  ID Number

  1984.0932.01

  accession number

  1984.0932

  catalog number

  1984.0932.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  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

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