Computers & Business Machines

• 

  Apple Newton MessagePad Model H1000

  Description

  Apple released the Newton MessagePad Model H1000 in 1993 as one of the first personal digital assistant (PDA) devices. The device sported a 20 megahertz ARM 610 processor with 630 kilobytes of RAM and was powered by four AAA batteries. The MessagePad was designed to store contacts, notes, and calendars, and to provide word processing and rudimentary Internet browsing. The MessagePad’s most revolutionary feature was that it accepted handwriting input via a pen stylus. The novelty of handwriting recognition soon became notorious due its buggy translations, lampooned in popular culture, most notably in a week of Doonesbury comic strips.

  References:

  Apple, Inc., Newton Apple MessagePad Handbook, 1995.

  Kevin Strehlo, “Apple’s MessagePad is an Expensive Gadget at Best,” Info World, August 30, 1993, 1 & 104.

  date made

  1993

  maker

  Apple Computer, Inc.

  ID Number

  1999.0290.01

  accession number

  1999.0290

  catalog number

  1999.0290.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Altair 8800 Microcomputer

  Description

  Not long after Intel introduced its 8080 chip, a small firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, named MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) announced a computer kit called the Altair, which met the social as well as technical requirements for a small personal computer. MITS succeeded where other, more established firms had failed, and it was their machine that inaugurated the personal computer age. MITS got its start in computing in 1971, when it introduced an electronic calculator kit. Several thousand sold before 1974, when the sharp reduction in calculator prices drove the company out of that market.

  H. Edward Roberts, the Florida-born former U.S. Air Force officer who headed MITS, decided to design a small, affordable computer around the Intel 8080. His daughter named the new machine after the star Altair. It was the first microcomputer to sell in large numbers. In January 1975, a photograph of the Altair appeared on the cover of the magazine Popular Electronics. The caption read "World's First Minicomptuer Kit to Rival Commercial Models." According to the magazine, the machine sold as a kit for $395, and assembled for $498. Roberts had hoped to break even by selling 200 Altairs. Within three months he had a backlog of 4,000 orders.

  The kit offered by MITS represented the minimum configuration of circuits that one could legitimately call a computer. It had little internal and no external memory, no printer, and no keyboard or other input device. An Altair fitted out with those items might cost $4,000—the equivalent to the cheapest PDP-8 minicomputer, a reliable and established performer. Most purchasers found the kit was difficult to assemble, unless they had experience with digital electronics and a workbench fitted out with sophisticated test equipment. And even if one assembled the kit correctly it was sometimes difficult to get the Altair to operate reliably. Gift of Forrest M. Mims III

  Date made

  1974

  the head of MITS

  Roberts, H. Edward

  unspecified

  Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems

  component parts are used

  Intel Corporation

  maker

  Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems

  ID Number

  1987.0066.01

  catalog number

  1987.0066.01

  accession number

  1987.0066

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 Personal Computer

  Description

  In the early 1970s, most personal computers came as hobbyist kits requiring a high level of technical expertise to assemble. Don French, a buyer for the consumer electronics chain Tandy Radio Shack (TRS), believed that Radio Shack should offer an assembled personal computer and hired engineer Steve Leininger to design it. In the summer of 1977, Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80 for $599. This offering included a BASIC language interpreter, four kilobytes of RAM, a Zilog Z80 processor at 1.77 megahertz, a twelve-inch video monitor, a cassette recorder, a power supply, and a cassette tape containing the games Blackjack and Backgammon. While some Tandy executives were skeptical about the success of the PC market, the availability of the TRS-80 on five thousand Radio Shack store shelves helped the Model 1 sell over one hundred thousand units during its first year, which was 50 percent of the total PCs sold in 1978.

  The TRS-80 had its microprocessor inside its keyboard. While you could purchase just the TRS-80 for $400, most opted for the package that included the twelve-inch monitor and cassette recorder for $600. This example of the object includes the TRS-80 Expansion Interface for $299 (the monitor sits on it) that gave the machine an extra thirty-two kilobytes of memory. Also part of the system are two Mini-Disk drives that sold for $499 and a suitcase for carrying all this around.

  One also could purchase such accessories as a TRS-80 Telephone Interface II for $199 that allowed for network communication and printer for $399. Examples of these are in the Smithsonian collections, although they were not received with this specific microcomputer.

  References:

  Radio Shack, A Tandy Company, 1978 Catalog No. 289, page 166, accessed September 1, 2014, http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1978

  Radio Shack, A Tandy Company, 1979 Catalog No. 302, pages 79–82, accessed September 1, 2014, http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1979

  “BYTE News,” BYTE, May 1979, 117.

  Peggy A. Kidwell and Paul E. Ceruzzi, Landmarks in Digital Computing (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), 96–99.

  date made

  1977-1981

  maker

  Tandy Corporation

  ID Number

  1983.0169.01

  catalog number

  1983.0169.01

  accession number

  1983.0169

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Monitor, Radio Shack TRS-80 Monitor

  Description

  Don French, a buyer for the consumer electronics chain Tandy Radio Shack (TRS), believed that Radio Shack should offer an assembled personal computer and hired engineer Steve Leininger to design it. In the summer of 1977, Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80 for $599. You could purchase the computer without a display for $399.95, but the most common configuration was buying the computer, monitor, and datacassette recorder for $599. For the accompanying keyboard and computer, see 1983.0169.01.

  date made

  1977-1981

  maker

  Tandy Corporation

  ID Number

  1983.0169.02

  catalog number

  1983.0169.02

  accession number

  1983.0169

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Radio Shack EC-2001 Desktop Electronic calculator

  Description

  This lightweight, non-printing electronic calculator has an array of nine digit keys at the center, with a zero bar and a decimal point key below these. On the right are arithmetic and clear keys. On the left are percentage, percent change, gross profit margin, item count, clear memory, recall memory, memory subtraction, and memory addition keys. Above the keys are switches between a floating and a fixed decimal point, a constant switch, and a power switch. Behind is a ten-digit vacuum fluorescent diode display. A cabinet has space for two D batteries. A jack for a cord is at the back but there is no cord.

  A mark on the front of the machine reads: Radio Shack. A label on the back reads: CAT. NO. 65-660 (/) MODEL EC-2001 (/) Radio Shack, A DIVISION (/) OF TANDY CORPORATION. It also reads: S/NO. 430793 4A2 (/) MADE IN TAIWAN. The interior of the calculator has a single circuit board which has a mark that reads: J (/) 5729 (/) K. The chip by Texas Instruments has a mark that reads: TMC1073NL (/) MBS 8205 (/) PHILLIPINES.

  Radio Shack advertised the EC-2001 in American newspapers as early as 1978 and as late as 1985. The regular price in 1978 was $29.95.

  Compare the Lloyd’s Accumatic E680-3 (1986.0998.006) and Unisonic XL-101 (1986.0988.004).

  References:

  [advertisement], Boston Globe, December 5, 1978, p. 15.

  [advertisement], New York Times, March 21, 1985, p. A22.

  date made

  1978-1985

  maker

  Tandy Corporation

  ID Number

  1986.0988.007

  catalog number

  1986.0988.007

  accession number

  1986.0988

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  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

• 

  Alexander Graham Bell Experimental Telephone

  Description

  Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated several experimental telephones at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. This unit features a single electro-magnet and could be used both as transmitter and receiver. Bell approached the problem of transmitting speech differently from other telephone inventors like Elisha Gray and Thomas Edison. They were mostly experienced telegraphers trying to make a better telegraph. Bell's study of hearing and speech more strongly influenced his work.

  date made

  1876

  maker

  Bell, Alexander G.

  ID Number

  EM.252599

  accession number

  49064

  catalog number

  252599

  patent number

  174465

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  IBM "THINK" Sign

  Description

  This rectangular orange plastic desk sign reads "THINK" in black lettering. “THINK” was the slogan developed by Thomas Watson Sr. when he was a sales manager for the National Cash Register Company, exhorting his salesmen to use their heads, not their feet—their job was to think. As IBM CEO during the 1920s, Watson continued to encourage innovation and “THINK” became a ubiquitous slogan in IBM paraphernalia including notepads, advertising, products—even the title of the company magazine. By the 1950s, IBM sales staffs distributed “THINK" signs like this one to their customers. An IBM customer representative gave the donor this sign.

  maker

  IBM

  ID Number

  1995.0248.02

  accession number

  1995.0248

  catalog number

  1995.0248.02

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  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

• 

  Reel of Magnetic Tape with COBOL Compiler

  Description

  Programs and data were entered into many early computers, including those made by Univac and RCA, using reels of magnetic tape like this one. This particular tape carried a compiler for the programming language COBOL. It was used in December 1960, when a COBOL program first ran successfully on computers made by two different manufacturers. Thus it stands as a symbol of the birth of one of the first common programming languages. Computer programmers would come to expect that different brands of computers ran the same languages. COBOL became a routine tool for business programming.

  The reel is marked: UNIVAC. It is also marked: COBOL. A piece of tape attached to the back reads: 12/6/60 UNIVAC COBOL COMPILER 2319 UC.

  date made

  1960

  maker

  Remington Rand Univac

  ID Number

  CI.317980.01

  catalog number

  317980.01

  accession number

  317980

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  iPod

  Description

  Originally sold in 2001 by Apple Inc. as a portable music player exclusively for Macintosh’s operating system, the iPod’s market share began to grow as it included Windows operability in 2002 and introduced its iTunes Store in 2003. In June of 2004 this fourth generation iPod was announced, notably adopting the “Click Wheel” controls from the iPod mini and vaulting the iPod to a 90 percent share of the portable music player market. The fourth generation iPod priced the 20GB version at $299 and the 40 GB model for $399.

  date made

  2004

  maker

  Apple Computer, Inc.

  ID Number

  2008.0025.01

  catalog number

  2008.0025.01

  accession number

  2008.0025

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Woman's Federal Express Uniform

  Description

  This 1990s-era Federal Express uniform consists of black pants, a white blouse with orange and purple stripes, a black wind breaker, a pair of striped white socks, a black belt, and a black cap. The windbreaker and cap are embroidered “FEDERAL/EXPRESS.”

  Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express, believed that customers desired mass-produced electronic gadgets but that the decentralization of American industry created a logistics problem. Smith’s company provided door-to-door delivery by operating its own aircraft from a centralized sorting depot in Memphis, Tennessee. Federal Express was founded in 1971 in Little Rock, Arkansas, before moving to Memphis in 1973.

  Reference:

  Christopher Lovelock, “Federal Express (B),” (case study, Harvard Business School, Boston, 1982).

  date made

  ca 1992

  ID Number

  1993.3115.01

  catalog number

  1993.3115.01

  nonaccession number

  1993.3115

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Morse-Vail Telegraph Key

  Description

  Alfred Vail made this key, believed to be from the first Baltimore-Washington telegraph line, as an improvement on Samuel Morse's original transmitter. Vail helped Morse develop a practical system for sending and receiving coded electrical signals over a wire, which was successfully demonstrated in 1844.

  Morse's telegraph marked the arrival of instant long-distance communication in America. The revolutionary technology excited the public imagination, inspiring predictions that the telegraph would bring about economic prosperity, national unity, and even world peace.

  Date made

  1844

  used date

  1844

  demonstrator

  Morse, Samuel Finley Breese

  Vail, Alfred

  maker

  Vail, Alfred

  Morse, Samuel Finley Breese

  ID Number

  EM.181411

  catalog number

  181411

  accession number

  31652

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  U. S. Robotics Palm Pilot 5000

  Description

  U. S. Robotics' subsidiary company Palm, Inc. produced this Pilot 5000 personal digital assistant (PDA) in 1996. With a purchase price of $369, the Pilot 5000 had a Motorola processor that operated at 16 megahertz and 512 kilobytes of memory. A touch screen accepted input via a stylus pen. Unlike the Apple Newton released a few years earlier, the Pilot’s system of “graffiti” shorthand provided users with an effective text input system. The back of this Pilot shows the characters that can be “drawn” by the “graffiti” system. Default applications for the Pilot included an address book, calculator, date book, memo pad, and to-do lists that could be synchronized with a personal computer via a special cradle connected to a serial port.

  date made

  1996

  maker

  U.S. Robotics

  ID Number

  2003.0095.024

  accession number

  2003.0095

  catalog number

  2003.0095.024

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Blackberry

  Description

  Research in Motion (RIM) produced this Blackberry model 957 Internet Edition in 2000. The first Blackberry was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager before pivoting to become a device featuring an always-connected e-mail with personal digital assistant functionality. The Blackberry 957 came with 5 megabytes of flash storage, 512 kilobytes of random access memory, with an Intel 386 processor running at 20 megahertz. Blackberrys came with applications that included e-mail, address book, calendar, alarm, calculator, memo pad, and a task list that could by synchronized with a user's PC through the included dock. The Blackberry 957 Internet Edition was one of the first devices that allowed mobile web use and e-mail, now ubiquitous in smart phones.

  date made

  2000

  maker

  Research In Motion

  ID Number

  2003.0095.030

  accession number

  2003.0095

  catalog number

  2003.0095.030

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Underwood Model 5

  Description

  The Underwood Model 5, introduced in 1899, is the result of almost thirty years of innovation and improvements in typewriter manufacture. It became the ubiquitous office machine for another thirty years, and its sales led Underwood to dominate the market. The Model 5 became the modern standard of how a typewriter worked and what it looked like.

  The first successful commercial typewriter, developed by Christopher Scholes and Carlos Glidden, was brought to the public in 1874 by the Remington Company. Two elements from that first machine remained dominant in the design of eventual typewriters: the QWERTY keyboard, a pattern of letters on the keyboard, and the telegraph type key movement. At first sales were slow, but the typewriter industry grew as businesses expanded along with their need to retain records, and process paperwork at fast speeds. More and more people, mostly women, learned the new skill of typing, creating a new class of clerical worker, according to historian JoAnne Yates.

  There were a handful of typewriter manufacturers by the end of the 1880s such as Remington, a leader in the industry, L.C. Smith & Brothers, Caligraph, Hammond, and a number of smaller firms. As the number of manufacturers grew, so too did the improvements, including the addition of a shift key to activate upper and lower case letters, the size and weight had been reduced but until 1895, but typists could not see what they had typed until the typed page advanced forward.

  In the early 1890s, Franz X Wagner, a German immigrant, engineered the first reliable "visible" typewriter that allowed the typist to see the text as they typed. Wagner had already designed several earlier typing machines. John T. Underwood, producer of office supplies such as carbon paper and ribbons, purchased Wagner's design and manufactured it as the Underwood Model 1 in 1895. Unlike earlier machines, which had an up strike type bar from underneath the paper, the new design in

  After six years and two other models that improved touch, and tab function and provided quieter operation, Underwood came out with the Model 5 in 1900. Compared to earlier machines of the 1870s, this machine is plain. The machine in the collection was produced in 1910. It has a black frame with gold lettering and stripping.

  Date made

  1914

  maker

  Underwood Typewriter Company

  ID Number

  ME.312108

  accession number

  161692

  catalog number

  312108

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  PC'S Limited Microcomputer

  Description

  In 1984 Michael Dell was a freshman at the University of Texas, building PCs and selling them to fellow students and faculty. By 1985 Dell’s company, PC’s Limited, was selling Turbo PC IBM clones that came with an Intel 8088 microprocessor, 640 kilobytes of RAM, a 360-kilobytes drive, a 130-watt power supply, eight expansion slots, and the ability to connect to local area networks (LAN). One of Dell’s selling points was the option to order a PC over the phone with customized components. This connection with the consumer and the ability to keep inventory low until a computer was ordered gave Dell a distinct business advantage going forward. This computer was sold to Clint Johnson, a freelance writer in North Carolina. In 2005 he donated the computer back to Dell Inc., which gave it to the Museum in 2007.

  References:

  Owen Edwards, “Baby Dell,” Smithsonian Magazine, August 2007.

  Nancy Fowler Koehn, Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2001), 276–305.

  date made

  1985

  maker

  Dell Inc.

  ID Number

  2007.0042.01

  catalog number

  2007.0042.01

  accession number

  2007.0042

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  PC's Limited Turbo Keyboard

  Description

  Michael Dell’s PC’s Limited Turbo PC came with an eighty-four-key AT-style keyboard. The AT-style keyboard was compatible with the IMB PC/AT computer and featured the function keys to the left, ten numerical keys at the top, and light-up buttons indicating Caps Lock, Number Lock, and Scroll Lock. The keyboard connected to the Turbo PC via a five-pin DIN connector.

  date made

  1985

  maker

  Dell Inc.

  ID Number

  2007.0042.03

  catalog number

  2007.0042.03

  accession number

  2007.0042

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Amdek Video 310A Monitor

  Description

  The Amdek Video 310A twelve-inch cathode ray tube monochrome display monitor accompanied a 1985 PC’s Limited Turbo PC (2007.0042.01). Monochrome monitors only have the ability to display text in one color. The shade of the text depends on the type of phosphor used in the cathode ray tube. The Amdek 310A contained P3 phosphor, displaying amber characters on the screen.

  Reference:

  Amdek Corporation, Model 310/310A Owner’s Manual, 1984.

  date made

  1985

  maker

  Dell Inc.

  ID Number

  2007.0042.02

  catalog number

  2007.0042.02

  accession number

  2007.0042

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Employee Badge for Michael Dell

  Description

  This employee badge was used by Dell Inc. founder and CEO Michael Dell and provided global access to all Dell facilities. The ID badge was used from around 1994 until the time it was donated to the Museum in 2007. The badge is white with a blue Dell logo at the top and a head shot of Michael Dell in the center. The bottom of the badge features the employee's name, "Michael Dell," and his employee number, "1.” An image of Dell Inc.’s headquarters, Round Rock 1, is in the background, and the badge is covered with a holographic layer to prevent tampering.

  date made

  1984

  maker

  Dell Inc.

  ID Number

  2007.0042.05

  catalog number

  2007.0042.05

  accession number

  2007.0042

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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