Computers & Business Machines

• 

  Intel 8080A Microprocessor

  Description

  Intel introduced its 8080A 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) microprocessor in April 1974. Generally considered as the first truly usable microprocessor, the chip ran at 2 megahertz and powered the Altair 8800 and the IMSAI 8080, two of the first Personal Computers. Housed in a 40-pin DIP package that contained 6,000 transistors, the integrated circuit could receive 8-bit instructions and perform 16-bit operations. This particular example is marked "8321"indicating it was made in the 21st week of 1983. The "D8080A" means the unit has a housing of black ceramic.

  date made

  1983-05

  maker

  Intel Corporation

  ID Number

  1984.0124.04

  accession number

  1984.0124

  catalog number

  1984.0124.04

  maker number

  8080

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Burroughs Cash Register Model

  Description

  This manufacturer's model of a cash register has a metal case painted black and four columns of black and white digit keys. To the right of these is an operating bar and various function keys. At the left is a paper tape. At the top are indicator digits in an enclosed case. At the front are two rows of register wheels. A box below is in the shape of a cash drawer. The clearance key is on the right front.The machine has a black cord.

  This example is from the collection of the Patent Department of Burroughs Corporation. According to the accession file, it was an invention of Walter Pasinski. A patent case relating to it was abandoned March 5, 1953.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1950

  maker

  Burroughs Adding Machine Company

  ID Number

  1982.0794.19

  catalog number

  1982.0794.19

  accession number

  1982.0794

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Ritty Model 1 Cash Register, Possibly a Replica

  Description

  After the Civil War, as American cities and businesses grew, business owners increasingly hired strangers to assist customers. At the time, it was all too easy for clerks and barkeepers to keep part of the money they received. The cash register, invented by the Ritty brothers of Dayton, Ohio, had a large display to indicate the sums customers paid. It also had a locked compartment that tallied total receipts. This is the Rittys' first machine, or an early replica of it. It was the basis for a commercial product called "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier."

  By 1884 the Rittys were out of business, but their patents were purchased by the National Cash Register Company. NCR made and sold much improved cash registers. By 1904, they were ready to convey the history of their company by showing this model at the St. Louis World's Fair. NCR went on to successfully make not only cash registers and accounting machines but electronic computers.

  date made

  ca 1904

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.316700

  accession number

  225455

  catalog number

  316700

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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

  Description

  This NCR cash register has four drawers in two columns. It has four columns of plastic digit keys, white for dollars, tens of dollars, and 5 cents, and black for cents. A column of four keys right of the number keys has keys labeled A1, 6, B2 and B2. Right of these is a lever, which can be set on the operation desired, and a motor bar. The paper tape holder is on the right side, the indicators are above the keyboard, and the electric cord is at the back. The serial number is 4931871, the model number 1544 (4D-1).

  The machine 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

  1952

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.334906

  maker number

  4931871

  accession number

  314157

  catalog number

  334906

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  National Cash Register, Eight-Drawer

  Description

  This machine has eight cash drawers, arranged in two columns of four drawers each. The register, with its brown metal case, sits atop these. It has four columns of digit keys (red for dollars, white for cents, and a red 5-cent key). Right of these are eight letter keys (A, B, D, E, H, K, L, and M) and a total key. Right of these is a lever which can be set at the desired operation, and a motor bar. The machine also has an operating handle. The paper tape is on the left and the glass-covered indicators are at the top.

  The machine has serial number 390234. It also is marked: X 094(4) RS-8C.

  This cash register 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

  1939

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.334909

  maker number

  3848004

  accession number

  314157

  catalog number

  334909

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  McCaskey Credit Register

  Description

  The McCaskey Register Company of Alliance, Ohio, manufactured systems for keeping track of accounts and credit registers from its organization in 1903 until its purchase by Victor Adding Machine Company in 1953. The firm was started by Perry A. McCaskey, a grocer in Lisbon, Ohio, who took out a patent May 19, 1896, for a “bill and account file” (#560523). He also patented a more complex “credit-accounting appliance” on December 30, 1902 (#717247). McCaskey contiinued to assign patents to the McCaskey Register Company through 1907, although ownership of the firm passed to others and several other inventors contributed to the product.

  This particular machine combines a system for keeping accounts with a cash drawer. It has a wooden base with a wooden roll-top cover. A slatted panel designed for holding credit slips fits over the cash drawer and a piece of glass that fits over the panel. A silver-colored metal compartment is on the front of the cash drawer, with five buttons at the top. A bell is at the back on the inside.

  McCaskey patents describe a system of credit slips that fit on bill-holders in the back of the machine. This machine has no bill-holders or slips.

  The donor dated this machine to 1893. However, it was made after the McCaskey Register Company was founded in 1903 and resembles McCaskey’s 1907 patent, hence the later date assigned.

  References:

  P. A. McCaskey, “Credit-Accounting Appliance,” U.S. Patent 717247, December 30, 1902.

  Craig Bara and Lyle Crist, Alliance, Charleston, SC: Arcadia Press, 1998, 29.

  Richard R. Crandall and Sam Robins, The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. 2, Vestal, N.Y.: Vestal Press, 1990, pp. 318–319.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1910

  maker

  McCaskey Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.336597

  accession number

  1977.0174

  catalog number

  336597

  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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  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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  Tabulating Machine Company Card Punch

  Description

  From the early 20th century into the 1970s, Americans used punched cards to enter data onto tabulating equipment and then electronic computers. This early key-operated punch is based on patents of the inventor Herman Hollerith.

  The machine has a shaped iron base painted black that includes a grooved plate for cards, a mechanism at the back for advancing cards being punched, a single row of punches, and a group of 12 keys for punching round holes with these punches. Another key at the back releases the card guide. Nine of the thirteen rubber key tops are missing.

  A metal label on the front of the machine reads: THE TABULATING MACHINE CO (/) NEW YORK CITY (/) PATENTED (/) JUNE 18, 1901. SEPT. 10. 1901. A mark at the left front edge of the card bed reads: 17849. Two rods are marked at the front below the punching position: 234.

  The Tabulating Machine Company was formed by Hollerith in 1896 and merged to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in 1911. This firm became International Business Machines Corporation. The key punch was introduced in the U.S. in 1901 and remained in essentially the same form for over half a century.

  Compare MA.335634 and MA.334635.

  Reference:

  G. D. Austrian, Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Pioneer of Information Processing, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 174–175.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1902

  distributor

  Tabulating Machine Company

  maker

  Tabulating Machine Company

  ID Number

  MA.335634

  accession number

  1977.0114

  catalog number

  335634

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  IBM Verifier for Punched Cards

  Description

  This key-driven, manual verifier has 15 black rubber keys. Twelve are for the 12 columns on a punch card. These are labeled from 0 to 9, X, and blank. Two other keys move the card one space, and the last key releases the card. Cards are fed manually from the left. A mechanism at the center of the machine senses whether or not a hole has been punched in a given line. If one depresses a key corresponding to a hole punched on the card, the card advances one place to the left. If the hole on the card does not match what is punched, the card does not move. Depressing the blank key at the front of the verifier then cuts a hole at the bottom of the column in which the error occurs. Erroneous cards are then retyped on a card punch. If the hole and the key typed match, the card advances one column.

  A mark stamped on the base of the machine toward the left reads: 05111993-A0.

  IBM introduced verifiers as part of its line of punch card equipment around 1917. Cards with 12 columns date from the early 1930s onward.

  Reference:

  C. J. Basche, L. R. Johnson, J. H. Palmer and E. W. Pugh, IBM’s Early Computers, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986, pp. 7–8, 11.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1935

  maker

  International Business Machines Corporation

  ID Number

  1979.0931.01

  accession number

  1979.0931

  catalog number

  1979.0931.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Coaster Advertising Burroughs Corporation

  Description

  This round plastic coaster has several grooves around the outside. It is brown with a gold-colored center and is marked with the logo of Burroughs Corporation, the employer of the donor..

  Location

  Currently not on view

  distributor

  Burroughs Corporation

  maker

  Burroughs Manufacturing Corporation

  ID Number

  1999.3082.01

  catalog number

  1999.3082.01

  nonaccession number

  1999.3082

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  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

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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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  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

• 

  DD-ZN12945 Punch Cards for the Iowa State University Computation Center

  Description

  Both of these cream colored eighty-column punch cards have a blue stripe across the top. They have rounded corners and are truncated in the right corner. The centers show a logo of Iowa State University. Text near the bottom of each card reads: IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY COMPUTATION CENTER AMES, IOWA 50010. Text at the bottom near the center reads: DD-ZN12945.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1960s-1970s

  maker

  Data Documents, Incorporated

  ID Number

  1996.0142.14

  catalog number

  1996.0142.14

  accession number

  1996.0142

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  Postal Meter Strip Announcing a Mersenne Prime

  Description

  Computing devices have long influenced the development of number theory, including the discovery of prime numbers. This postal meter strip is an example of the imprint used by the Mathematics Department at the University of Illinois to announce the discovery there of a new Mersenne prime. This particular postal meter strip example was never used in the mail.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1975

  ID Number

  1999.3080.02

  nonaccession number

  1999.3080

  catalog number

  1999.3080.02

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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