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
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Universal Business Machines Horizontal Card Sorter
- Description
- By the mid-20th century, a few firms challenged the dominance of IBM and Remington Rand Univac in the tabulating machine business. One of these was Universal Business Machines, Inc., of Columbia, S.C.This is a card sorter designed and sold by that company.
- The horizontal sorter has a keyboard that fits onto the left front with a set of three rows of letter keys and a number pad to the right of these. The cards apparently are fed from the left and sorted into 27 open compartments, 14 in an upper row and 13 in a lower row. These compartments are covered with metal flaps. The first row has compartments labeled A*0, B*1, C*2, D*3, E*4, F*5, G*6, H*7, I*8, J*8, K, L, M, and REJ. The second row has bins labeled N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z. Metal panels at the front of each row of bins can be lowered to remove cards.
- A mark on the left front of the sorter reads: MANUFACTURED BY (/) UNIVERSAL BUSINESS MACHINES, INC. (/) COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA. Another mark there reads: SERIAL NO 5531 (/) MODEL NO V1526. A mark on the right front reads: UNIVERSAL SORTER. A mark on the left side reads: TREASURY DEPARTMENT (/) US INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE. Marks in chalk on the back read: KEEP and: NO SCRAP.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1960
- maker
- Universal Business Machines
- ID Number
- MA.336182
- accession number
- 1977.0191
- catalog number
- 336182
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Forms and Printouts Relating to Remington Rand Univac
- Description
- The materials were owned by an employee of Remington Rand Univac.This number includes:
- 1. a blank invoice, to serve as a printout of Florida Wholesale Drug, Inc.
- 2. an undated printout on form-fed paper entitled Operating Statement
- 3. an undated printout on form-fed paper entitled Cash Disbursement Journal.
- 4. a form-fed document, dated 7-12-63 entitled Univac 1004 Card Processor Demonstration
- 5. an undated five-page glossary of terms associated with the use of magnetic tapes
- 6. a copy of an article reprinted from the September 8, 1962, issue of Business Week. The topic of the article is "Growing market in used computers."
- 7. photocopy of an article from The Miami News for April 11, 196q. The article describes an "electronic brain" used by the local Metro system and is entitled "Using The Wring Brain, Metro Told."
- Some documents are folded.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1960s
- ID Number
- 1997.3012.07
- catalog number
- 1997.3012.07
- nonaccession number
- 1997.3012
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Microcite Electromechanical Scanner
- Description
- The Microcite was an information retrieval machine originally created in the 1950s. This version of the machine was patented in 1964 by Joshua Stern, who worked at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institutes of Standards and Technology). Stern was in the Instrument Reference Services at the time, which was established in the early 1950s to gather and keep records of scientific instruments and their use. The Microcite was designed to more easily retrieve documents or records when searching through a large database, such as the National Bureau of Standards’ collection of abstracts for scientific instruments. The machine used punch cards and a document-matrix, a large microfilm-like roll of documents in a given collection, to search by key word. The Microcite was able to search millions of documents with its mechanized search process, and was used for many years at the Instrument Reference Services office itself. The Microcite in the Smithsonian’s collections came from the National Institute of Health, where it was used at the National Cancer Institute.
- The Microcite resembles a large desk with a spot for the user to sit while using the machine. To retrieve any desired documents, the Microcite used what is called the “peek-a-boo” technique, a method of developed by Stern and his colleague W. A. Wildhack. Each punched card represented a particular index word while the position of each hole on a card referred to a document that was associated with that word. A user picked which index words they wanted to search for, stacked the cards associated with those words, and inserted them into the Microcite with the face of the stack facing outward, so that they could see the holes. The machine would then shine a light from behind the stacked cards so the user could easily see which holes remained unobstructed and therefore which documents were associated with all of the selected index words. The light shining, or “peeking,” out through the holes as an indicator of the relevant documents earned the method its name. After inserting the cards, users turned two control knobs on the front of the machine to position a cursor over an unobstructed hole and these knobs would, in turn, move the document matrix to the document associated with that punched hole. The document images were projected onto a screen in front of the user with the serial number for each document shown above, so that it could be more easily found in the future. This mechanization of information retrieval allowed people working with large numbers of records to locate information more easily and efficiently.
- References:
- “Microcite, an aid to more effective referencing.” National Bureau of Standards Technical News Bulletin, 41, 141 (1957).
- Stern, Joshua. “An Application of the Peek-A-Boo Principle to Information Retrieval.” In Proceedings of the Symposium on Materials Information Retrieval: Dayton, Ohio, November 28, 1962, 93-115.
- Stern, Joshua. Information Retrieval Apparatus. U.S. Patent 3,117,491 filed June 29, 1962, and issued January 14, 1964.
- Stern, Joshua and W. A. Wildhack. “Chapter 6: The Peek-A-Boo System – Optical Coincidence Subject Cards in Information Searching.” In Punched Cards: Their Applications to Science and Industry, edited by R. S. Casey, J.W. Perry, M. M. Berry and A. Kent. New York: Rheinhold Publishing Co, 1958.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1964
- maker
- Stern, Joshua
- ID Number
- MA.314612.01
- accession number
- 314612
- catalog number
- 314612.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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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
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Commodore 201 Adding Machine
- Description
- By the 1960s most adding machines on the market had ten keys and printed results. Often they were manufactured overseas. This ten-key, printing adding machine was made in Japan and imported by Commodore, a firm then based in Toronto. It has nine digit keys, a slightly larger digit bar, and keys marked with two vertical lines and with three vertical lines. It also has four function keys right of the digit keys and what appears to be a place value lever on the left, with a mechanical display of the place value above this.
- Behind the keyboard at the back of the machine is a paper tape holder with a paper tape, a printing mechanism, and a two-colored ribbon. A rubber cord fits in the back of the machine and there is a plastic cover. At the front of the machine is a metal carrying handle.
- A mark on the top reads: commodore. A tag on the bottom reads: commodore 201 (/) No 22742. The tag also reads: COMMODORE BUSINESSS MACHINES INC. MADE IN JAPAN. A mark on the cord reads: KAWASAKI.
- Commodore Business Machines was incorporated in Toronto in 1955 under the direction of Jack Tramiel, a Holocaust survivor who had spent some years in the United States. The company initially distributed typewriters and came to sell electronic calculators and then personal computers. Commodore adding machines were advertised in American newspapers as early as 1962 and as late as 1972 (by this time they faced severe competition from electronic calculators). The Commodore 202, which is quite similar to this model, was advertised in 1968 as “all new.”
- References:
- Pine, D., “Jack Tramiel, Founder of Commodore Computers, Lodz Survivor, Dies at 83,” The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, 116 #16, April 20, 2012.
- Los Angeles Times, January 21, 1968, p. C87. This is one of many advertisements found through the ProQuest database. It is for the Commodore Model 202.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1968
- maker
- Commodore Business Machines, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1998.0246.01
- accession number
- 1998.0246
- catalog number
- 1998.0246.01
- 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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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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Booklet, A Report of Automatic Records, Inc., with Leaflet on EMC (Electronic Merchandise Control)
- Description
- This booklet describes the development of the 3M Company Merchandise Data Recorder (see 1984.0932.01 for an example). In a plastic pocket at the back of the binder is an advertising leaflet discussing EMC (Electronic Merchandise Control) and showing the system in use.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965
- ID Number
- 1984.0932.02
- accession number
- 1984.0932
- catalog number
- 1984.0932.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Leaflet, UNIVAC 60 Computer Simplifies Order Filling and Accounting for Wholesale Drug Firm
- Description
- This leaflet presents an account of the installation of a Univac 60 computer at the Walker Drug Company, a wholesaler in Birmingham, Alabama. The document has Remington Rand Univac form number U3212.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1960
- ca 1957
- author
- Remington Rand Univac. Division of Sperry Rand
- ID Number
- 1997.3012.04.24
- catalog number
- 1997.3012.04.24
- nonaccession number
- 1997.3012
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
UCLA Computer Club Punch Card
- Description
- In the 1960s, when UCLA (the University of California at Los Angeles) purchased a commercial computer from IBM, students formed a club where they could share their knowledge of the new machines. At that time, data and programs were entered onto computers using punched cards like this one. The decoration of the card was up to the individual customer. This is a pink eighty-column punch card for an IBM computer. Each column contains the digits from 0 to 9. The background of the card shows the head of a moose propped in front of a log. An open book lies on the left, and magnetic tape is in the mouth of the moose.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1960s
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1996.0142.25
- catalog number
- 1996.0142.25
- accession number
- 1996.0142
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Printing Cylinder for IBM Punch Cards
- Description
- This chrome-plated hollow brass cylinder has embossed on its outer surface the numbers and letters for an 80-column IBM punch card. Sections of the card are for several quantities associated with shipping (amount, miles, hours, job number, account number, rate per hour, department number, order number, day, month, etc.) The cylinder was used to print the IBM cards. According to the donor, the object dates from the early 1960s.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1960s
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1995.0248.01
- accession number
- 1995.0248
- catalog number
- 1995.0248.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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JTC E-7583 1967 Punch Cards with Bell Telephone Laboratories Logo
- Description
- One of these eighty-column punch cards is blue, the other yellow. The corners are rounded with the upper left hand corner truncated. A Bell Telephone Laboratories logo is at the center of both cards. A mark along the bottom edge of both cards reads: BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES, INCORPORATED JTC 1967 MILITARY MANUFACTURING INFORMATION DEPT. E-7583-E(7-57). A mark along the left side reads: GENERAL APPLICATIONS CARD.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1967
- maker
- Jersey Tab Card Corporation
- ID Number
- 1996.0142.04
- catalog number
- 1996.0142.04
- accession number
- 1996.0142
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
E-8451 JTC 6697 Punch Cards Marked with Bell System Logo
- Description
- These five eighty-column paper punch cards for the GE 600 computer are differently colored - yellow, white, orange, pink, and green. They have rounded corners, and are truncated in the upper right corner. Each is marked with the Bell System logo. Each also is marked: 600. Another mark, this on the left side, reads: E-8451 (10-65) JTC 6697.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1965
- maker
- Jersey Tab Card Corporation
- ID Number
- 1996.0142.05
- catalog number
- 1996.0142.05
- accession number
- 1996.0142
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
SDC A1004 Punch Cards
- Description
- These bright yellow eighty-column punch cards are rounded at the corners except at the upper right corner, which is cut off in a straight line. The cards contain fields in which the date was indicated with two digits for the year, two for the month and two for the day of the month. A mark in the bottom left corner reads: SDC A1004. According to the donor, they were from a firm of dry cleaners that used tabulating equipment in the 1960s (and perhaps the 1950s) for record keeping.
- Compare 1997.3099.02.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1960s
- ID Number
- 1997.3099.01
- nonaccession number
- 1997.3099
- catalog number
- 1997.3099.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
IBM D10687 Punch Card Used with IBM Port-a-Punch
- Description
- This eighty-column paper punch card has serrations for easy punching of holes. The columns are divided into eight fields for entering data. A mark along the right edge reads: IBM D10687 Port-A-Punch General Purpose 8 Field. The card was designed for use with an IBM Port-A-Punch (see 1990.0113,02). Several similar cards received at the same time are stored with the object.
- The materials in this accession were used in Robert A. McConnell's research on parapsychology.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1960s
- Maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1990.0113.04
- accession number
- 1990.0113
- catalog number
- 1990.0113.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
IBM Punch Card Gauge
- Description
- This gray metal instrument checked the "registration" or alignment of a card punch. Its surface is marked and numbered like an IBM punch card, with 80 columns of numbers. A sample punched card, held in place by three protrusions, fit over the surface and was compared to the rectangles below. Machines out of registration could then be reported.
- A mark on the bottom reads: MFG. BY I.B.M. Another mark there reads: GAUGE CARD FACE UP.
- The device fits in a brown cardboard envelope that is covered with cellophane. A mark on the envelope reads: 450550.
- This is a gauge for an IBM 5081 punch card and a related card punch. It was used at the University of Pittsburgh in Professor Robert A. McConnell’s research on parapsychology.
- For a related card, see 1990.0113.03.
- Reference:
- Accession File.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1960s
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1990.0113.01
- catalog number
- 1990.0113.01
- accession number
- 1990.0113
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Burroughs Punch Cards DSG 623 618013 for Gardner-Denver Wire Wrap Machine
- Description
- Each of these pink punch cards has square corners and is truncated in the upper left corner. They apparently are designed for use with a wire wrap machine, and do not have the standard arrangement of rows and columns of numbers.
- Each card is marked with the Burroughs logo. Each is marked: GARDNER-DENVER (/) WIRE WRAP (/) MACHINE (/) CARD. Each is marked near the bottom edge: DSG 623 4/68. Each is marked: 618013.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1968
- maker
- Burroughs Manufacturing Corporation
- ID Number
- 1996.0142.11
- catalog number
- 1996.0142.11
- accession number
- 1996.0142
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
JTC E-8450 6698 Punch Cards Marked with Bell System Logo
- Description
- These two eighty-column paper punch cards were made for Bell Telephone Laboratories. One is cream-colored with a blue stripe, the other cream-colored with an orange stripe. The cards have rounded corners and are truncated in the uppler right corner. Columns 1 to 50 and 73 to 80 have the digits 0 to 9 in each column. The intervening columns have a variety of letters and punctuation marks. A Bell System logo is in the center of the card. A mark on the right side reads: GE 600 SELF INTERPRETING CARD. A mark along the bottom toward the left reads: BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES, INCORPORATED. A mark along the bottom toward the right reads: GE 600 CHARACTER SET. A mark along the left side reads: E-8450 (10-65) JTC 6698.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1965
- maker
- Jersey Tab Card Corporation
- ID Number
- 1996.0142.06
- catalog number
- 1996.0142.06
- accession number
- 1996.0142
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Tabulating Machine Component, Control Panel for an IBM 403 Tabulating Machine
- Description
- By the late 1940s, the calculations and printout of IBM accounting machines were determined by setting a plugboard like this one and then feeding in data punched on cards. This control panel was used specifically in an IBM 403 tabulating machine, a device introduced in the late 1940s and distributed at least into the late 1960s.
- The object has a rectangular metal frame with a metal handle on one of the long edges. It is divided into three sections, each containing a plastic circuit board with numerous holes. Many colorful plastic and cloth-coated wires are plugged into the holes. The board is wired for calculating invoices.
- A red tag attached under the handle reads: 403 INVOICE. A tag glued under the panel reads: MFG. BY (/) MAC PANEL (/) COMPANY. This tag also reads: HIGH POINT (/) N. C. and: TYPE 913. A mark stamped at the bottom of one circuit board reads: TYPE 402-403 22573 PRINTED IN USA.
- According to the company website, MAC Panel Company was founded in High Point in 1958.
- This example came from a programmer who worked with punch card equipment and computers from 1940 until 1985.
- References:
- IBM, IBM 402, 403 and 419 Accounting Machine Manual of Operation, New York: IBM, 1953, pp. 4–7. This is 2006.3088.03.20.
- Accession file.
- M. Campbell-Kelly, ICL: A Business and Technical HistoryOxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, pp. 90–92.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1960
- maker
- International Business Machines Corporation
- MAC Panel Company
- ID Number
- 2006.0174.01
- accession number
- 2006.0174
- catalog number
- 2006.0174.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
SDC A968 Punch Cards
- Description
- This bright yellow punch card has eighty columns of digits, with the digits from 0 to 9 in each column. It is rounded at the corners except at the upper right corner, which is cut off in a straight line. The card contains fields in which the date was indicated with two digits for the year, two for the month and two for the day of the month. According to the donor, the card was from a firm of dry cleaners that used tabulating equipment in the 1960s (and perhaps the 1950s) for record keeping.
- A mark in the lower left corner reads: SDC A968.
- Compare 1997.3099.01.
- The mark looks somewhat like the trademark of Systems development Corporation of Santa Monica, California.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1960s
- ca 1960s
- ID Number
- 1997.3099.02
- nonaccession number
- 1997.3099
- catalog number
- 1997.3099.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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