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
54
Page 1 of 3
-
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
-
"Welcome To IBM" Packet
- Description
- This packet of materials was provided to the donor when he took a course on the use of tabulating equipment at IBM in Endicott, New York, in the 1950s. Included are a name tag, a punch card, three postcards, two leaflets, and an envelope.
- date made
- 1950s
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1995.3080.05
- nonaccession number
- 1995.3080
- catalog number
- 1995.3080.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Check-A-Tron Electronic Cash Register
- Description
- This yellow-tinted electronic cash register sits atop an off-white cash drawer. It has black keyboard keys, a printer for receipts, and a red digital display. The key that opens the cash drawer is missing.
- A mark on the left front reads: CHECK-A-TRON. The machine has serial number 4500032. Stanley Hayman Business Machines stickers are on the front and the back.
- Check-A-Tron began selling an American-built electronic cash register in 1975. In 1977 it introduced the MICROS electronic cash register/point-of-sale terminal. The firm also distributed Sanyo cash registers made in Japan. According to a mark on this machine, it was assembled in the United States. By 1983 Check-A-Tron Corporation was out of the cash register business entirely.
- Reference:
- Creative Strategies Internaional, Retail Automation to 1983, San Jose: Creative Strategies International, 1980, esp. p. 116.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1975
- maker
- Check-A-Tron Corporation
- ID Number
- 2002.0281.03
- accession number
- 2002.0281
- catalog number
- 2002.0281.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Software, Nota Bene
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1998-1999
- ID Number
- 2014.3098.01
- catalog number
- 2014.3098.01
- nonaccession number
- 2014.3098
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
ComputerLand Photograph
- Description
- This 5" x 7" black and white photograph shows James Egan sitting at a desk with computers and software on it. He has a foot on the desk, a coffee filter on his head, and is pouring a drink into a cup. Next to his chair is a sign that reads: SEND HELP. On the back, written in pencil, are the dates 1981-1982.
- James Egan, Joseph Alfieri, Robert Kurland, and Thomas Vandermeulen of Facks Computer, Inc. were the owners of the first ComputerLand store in Manhattan.
- ComputerLand was a nationwide chain of retail computer stores. They opened their first store in 1976 in Hayward, California. By 1990 most stores had closed and in early 1999 the company officially disbanded.
- The objects in accession 2017.0321 and non-accession 2017.3153 are related.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1981-1982
- ID Number
- 2017.3153.06
- nonaccession number
- 2017.3153
- catalog number
- 2017.3153.06
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
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
-
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
-
Sheets, IBM 360 . . . Emulation of IBM 1401/1460
- Description
- This document describes use of the IBM1401/1460 emulator for use with the IBM System/360 Model 40, that is to say it discusses ways of useing the Model 40 to run programs written for the IBM 1401 or IBM 1406 with relatively little reprogramming. The stapled sheets have IBM file number S360-35 and IBM form number C28-6561-2.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1966
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1994.3128.11
- catalog number
- 1994.3128.11
- nonaccession number
- 1994.3128
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Sheets, IBM Operating System/360
- Description
- This illustrated document introduces the basic concepts of the operating system for the IBM/360. It has IBM file number S360-36 and IBM form number C28-6535-0.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1994.3128.13
- catalog number
- 1994.3128.13
- nonaccession number
- 1994.3128
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Slide Rule, Minimum Latency Calculator for the UNIVAC Solid-State Computer
- 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 that are pivoted together at the center. The upper disc is marked in red with two perpendicular diameters. The solid state computer 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 word times. Recieved in bag. Reference: Sperry Rand Corporation, Programming: Simple Transition to Electronic Processing UNIVAC Solid-State 80, 18-26.
- Compare 2005.0271.01. Date based on date of documents 2015.3097.03 and 2015.3097.04.
- According to Kirk Lubbes, who programmed the Univac Solid State Computer:
- "The SS90 had a drum memory, i.e. memory was not random accessible. One had slow memory and fast memory. The slow memory had only a single read/write head per track on the drum and fast memory had four read/write heads spaced at 90 degrees, so therefore the drum had to rotate a full revolution to access a memory word in slow memory and only a quarter turn to access fast memory.
- The trick in programming the SS90 was to have the instruction and its operand accessible at an optimal time so that the instruction could access its operand without waiting for the drum very far. As one started a program, this was not much a problem. The programmer new how much time that a given instruction would take to execute and the speed of the drum. Therefore, he calculated the position of the next instruction, based these two parameters. The minimum latency calculator was a mechanical device to help in this calculation. The problem was that as the programmer progressed, collisions occurred, i.e. the optimal location of an instruction or an operand was already taken by a previous instruction or operand. Since the drum was arranged in bands and the read/write heads were at the same location on each band, if one had a collision, you could put the necessary instruction or operand in a parallel band at the same position. This worked the bands all filled up.
- The basic approach was to get a program working using the best latency that you could. Then the programmer would go back and start rearranging instructions and operand locations to achieve minimum latency. In those early times, machine time was expensive and memory severely limited. So it was important that production programs were efficient."
- Reference:
- Nonccession file 2015.3097.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1960
- maker
- Remington Rand Univac
- ID Number
- 2015.3097.01
- nonaccession number
- 2015.3097
- catalog number
- 2015.3097.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
First Draft of the Programming Language COBOL
- Description
- During 1959 the first plans for the computer language COBOL emerged as a result of meetings of several committees and subcommittees of programmers from American business and government. This heavily annotated typescript was prepared during a special meeting of the language subcommittee of the Short-Range Committee held in New York City in November. COBOL programs would actually run the following summer, and the same program was successfully tested on computers of two different manufacturers in December 1960.
- Reference: Jean E. Sammet, "The Early History of COBOL," History of Programming Languages, ed. Richard L. Wexelblat, New York: Academic Press, 1981, 199-277.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1959
- maker
- Conference on Data Systems Languages. Language Subcommittee of the Short-Range Committee
- ID Number
- 2010.3050.4
- catalog number
- 2010.3050.4
- nonaccession number
- 2010.3050
- 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
-
Parts Catalog, Underwood Sundstrand Portable Electric Adding Machines Fraction & L-S-D
- Description
- This well-worn catalog is stapled together and punched along the left side. A "Serviceman's Part Order" is stapled to one page.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1940-02-09
- maker
- Underwood Elliot Fisher Company
- ID Number
- 1990.3188.01
- nonaccession number
- 1990.3188
- catalog number
- 1990.3188.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Envelope with Mark 2to the power(19937-1) Is a prime
- Description
- This envelope is an example of the stationery used by the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, to announce the discovery of a Mersenne prime using a computer there.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1975
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1999.3080.01
- nonaccession number
- 1999.3080
- catalog number
- 1999.3080.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Pamphlet, Glossary for Information Processing
- Description
- This IBM reference manual gives definitions of terms ranging from abacus to zone punch tto ninety-column card. It also has a list of acronyms and other abbreviations. All the text is in capital letters, presumably computer-processed. The document has IBM form number C20-8089-1.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1963
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1994.3128.07
- nonaccession number
- 1994.3128
- catalog number
- 1994.3128.07
- 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
-
Pamphlet, IBM Electronic Data-Processing Machines Type 705 Case Study Problems
- Description
- The problems described in this pamphlet concern "exception payrool" and "file maintenance."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1957
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1995.3080.04.19
- nonaccession number
- 1995.3080
- catalog number
- 1995.3080.04.19
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
IBM Reference Manual, 709/7090 Programming Systems: FORTRAN Assembly Program (FAP)
- Description
- This manual has IBM form number C28-6235. Included are a loose sheet entitled "Multiple Layout Form for Electric Accounding Machine Cards" as well as an IBM Technical Newsletter from November 15, 1962, listing errata in the document.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1962
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1994.3128.09
- catalog number
- 1994.3128.09
- nonaccession number
- 1994.3128
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
IBM Machine Load Computer Slide Rule
- Description
- This plastic rectangular instrument calculated the time required for different types of IBM punched card equipment to process given numbers of cards. The black side is for accounting machines, sorters, and collators. The white side is for card punches, verifiers, and auxiliary machines. These machines were in use from roughly 1953 through 1959. The white side is marked: IBM; International Business Machines Corp. (/) 590 Madison Ave. New York 22, N.Y. (/) Patent Applied For. It is also marked THINK and MADE IN U.S.A. An instruction card is provided. A tan envelope is marked: IBM (/) MACHINE LOAD COMPUTER (/) AND DESCRIPTIVE FOLDER (/) Form 20-8704-1. No patent record was located.
- Benjamin S. Mulitz, the donor, worked with punched card equipment and then with computers from 1940 until 1985. He used both Remington Rand and IBM products. He was employed by the U.S. government and then in the wholesale drug industry.
- Reference: accession file.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1953-1959
- maker
- International Business Machines Corporation
- ID Number
- 2006.0174.02
- accession number
- 2006.0174
- catalog number
- 2006.0174.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Documentation, IBM System/360 Models 25, 30, 40, 50, 65, 75, 85, and 195
- Description
- This paper pamphlet describes the components of an IBM 360 system. This is the fifth edition. It relates to object 2013.0129.02.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1970
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 2013.0129.03
- accession number
- 2013.0129
- catalog number
- 2013.0129.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Pages
Filter Your Results
Click to remove a filter:
- data source
- topic
-
object type
- Typewriters 19
- typewriter; Manual 8
- Models (representations) 7
- Pamphlets 7
- Patents 7
- patent model, typewriter 7
- typewriter; Portable; Manual 5
- Slide rules 3
- card punch 3
- patent model, typewriter; typewriter; Standard; Manual 3
- sheets, set of 3
- typewriter; Standard; Manual 3
- documentation 2
- patent model, typewriter; typewriter; Manual 2
- typewriter; Standard; Electric 2
- Books 1
- Calculators 1
- Cash registers 1
- Envelopes 1
- Microcomputers 1
- date
- place
-
set name
- Work and Industry: Mechanisms 26
- Typewriters 25
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics 20
- Medicine and Science: Computers 8
- Tabulating Equipment 5
- Science & Mathematics 4
- Slide Rules 3
- Adding Machines 1
- American Enterprise 1
- COBOL 1
- Cash and Credit Registers 1
- Family & Social Life 1
- National Museum of American History 1
- Work 1
