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
19
Page 1 of 1
-
Electromechnical Computer Component, ASSC Mark I Relay
- Description
- This is a component of BM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) Mark I computer. It has a black bakelite frame with metal interior and side. There is a single coil in the frame. A single plug and sixteen prongs extend from one side. The coil is wrapped with a white covering.
- Compare 324282.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- 1983.3006.02
- nonaccession number
- 1983.3006
- catalog number
- 1983.3006.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Electromechnical Computer Components, ASSC Mark I Relays
- Description
- These relays are components of the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) Mark I. The dimensions given are those of each relay. Each has a black bakelite frame and a metal frame inside this. There are two single coils, covered with a black covering. There are two plugs and forty short prongs on one side of each relay. Most relays are stamped with numbers and letters on the outside metal side.
- Compare 324285.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- 1983.3006.03
- nonaccession number
- 1983.3006
- catalog number
- 1983.3006.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
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. This a four-pole double-throw relay has one plug. The double coil is silver-colored.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- MA.324284
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 324284
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Harvard Mark I Tape Transport, IBM ASCC
- Description
- This is the control panel and tape transport for the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), known otherwise as the Harvard Mark I. The Mark I was one of the first machines that could be programmed to carry out calculations automatically. Initially designed to solve scientific problems, it was used during World War II to carry out computations for the United States Navy. It was a one-of-a-kind machine. After the war, IBM would greatly expand its activity in computing to include electronic computers. Harvard began one of the first degree programs in computer science. People who had worked on the Mark I, such as Grace Murray Hopper, also went to work for other early computer manufacturers. More generally, many scholars and ordinary people first learned about "giant brains," as early computers were called, through workshops and press releases of the Harvard Computation Laboratory.
- The cast iron object has gearing drive, card holder, electrical connection, and weight. Four drums carry punched tapes with programs.
- References:
- I. Bernard Cohen and Gregory W. Welch with the cooperation of Robert V. D. Campbell, Makin' Numbers: Howard Aiken and the Computer, Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 1999.
- I. Bernard Cohen. Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer, Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 1999.
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- MA.323581
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 323581
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
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
-
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. This twelve-pole double throw relay has a white double coil and two plugs.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- MA.324286
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 324286
- 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
-
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 a four-pole double-throw relay has one plug. The single coil is black.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- MA.324281
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 324281
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Log Book With Computer Bug
- Description
- American engineers have been calling small flaws in machines "bugs" for over a century. Thomas Edison talked about bugs in electrical circuits in the 1870s. When the first computers were built during the early 1940s, people working on them found bugs in both the hardware of the machines and in the programs that ran them.
- In 1947, engineers working on the Mark II computer at Harvard University found a moth stuck in one of the components. They taped the insect in their logbook and labeled it "first actual case of bug being found." The words "bug" and "debug" soon became a standard part of the language of computer programmers.
- Among those working on the Mark II in 1947 was mathematician and computer programmer Grace Hopper, who later became a Navy rear admiral. This log book was probably not Hopper's, but she and the rest of the Mark II team helped popularize the use of the term computer bug and the related phrase "debug."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1947
- director
- Aiken, Howard Hathaway
- maker
- Harvard University
- IBM
- Harvard University
- Aiken, Howard
- ID Number
- 1994.0191.01
- catalog number
- 1994.0191.1
- accession number
- 1994.0191
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
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
-
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 double coil is black.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- MA.324283
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 324283
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
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
-
Electromechanical Computer Component, ASSC Mark I, Relay
- Description
- This is a component of BM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) Mark I computer.This ten-position electromechanical counter is held by two red plastic plates and a steel plate.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- 1993.3057.01
- nonaccession number
- 1993.3057
- catalog number
- 1993.3057.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Electromechanical Computer Component, ASSC Mark I Output Typewriter
- Description
- This is the output typewriter for printing results from the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), known otherwise as the Harvard Mark I . The electric typewriter has complete number keys. Other keys lack a printing bar. Various reels are attached to the sides of the machine.
- A mark on the fornt of the machine reads: ELECTROMATIC. A tag on the back of the machine lists relevant patents and indicates that the typewriter is a product of the Electric Writing Division of IBM.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- MA.323582
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 323582
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Electromechanical Computer Component, ASSC Mark I Housing
- Description
- This is a component of the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), known otherwise as the Harvard Mark I. More specifically, it is protective housing for card feed and hopper of the Mark
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- MA.323583
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 323583
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Harvard Mark I paper tape, IBM ASCC
- Description
- Data was entered into the ASSC Mark I on punched tapes like this one. As many as twenty-four holes could be punched in a single row.
- Reference:
- Harvard Computation Laboratory, A Manual of Operation for the Automatic-Sequence Controlled Calculator, President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1946, especially chapter 2.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- MA.324289
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 324289
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Harvard Mark I Print and Punch Unit, IBM ASCC
- Description
- This is a component of the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), known otherwise as the Harvard Mark I. The cast iron object has gearing drive, card holder, electrical connection, and weight.
- Location
- Currently on loan
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- MA.323580
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 323580
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
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 seven commutators, each with a plastic piece on top of it with a hole in it, with numbers stamped around the hole to denote contacts. It has a metal frame, gear, contacts, clutch and brushes.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- MA.324288
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 324288
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Harvard Mark I Control Panel, IBM ASCC
- Description
- This is a small part of one of the first machines that could be programmed to carry out calculations automatically. Initially designed to solve scientific problems, it was used during World War II to carry out computations for the United States Navy. It was a one-of-a-kind machine. After the war, IBM would greatly expand its activity in computing to include electronic computers. Harvard began one of the first degree programs in computer science. People who had worked on the Mark I, such as Grace Murray Hopper, also went to work for other early computer manufacturers. More generally, many scholars and ordinary people first learned about "giant brains," as early computers were called, through workshops and press releases of the Harvard Computation Laboratory.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- MA.323579
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 323579
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Filter Your Results
Click to remove a filter:
- data source
- topic
-
object type
- Electromechanical Computer Component 14
- Computer Component 13
- electromechanical computer component 3
- Computer, Electromechanical 2
- Computer Component; Electromechanical Computer Component; Card Unit 1
- Computer Component; Electromechanical Computer Component; Housing 1
- Computer Component; Electromechanical Computer Component; Output Typewriter 1
- Computer Component; Electromechanical Computer Component; Tape Transport Unit 1
- Punch Card 1
- computer component 1
- electromechanical computer component; computer component; Control Panel 1
- electromechanical computer components 1
- electromechanical computet component 1
- log book 1
- date
- place
- set name
