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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Remington Rand P-11782 Punch Card
- Description
- This 90-column punch card has columns in two rows. Round punches indicate the letters from A through Z and the digits from 0 to 9 in the top row, and the digits 0 to 9 and letters A to Z in the bottom row.
- Reference:
- Sperry Rand Corporation, Glossary Systems Design and Programming Terminology, 1960, p. 5. This is 2015.3097.03. The card was received in this glossary.
- date made
- ca 1960
- maker
- Remington Rand Univac
- ID Number
- 2015.3097.02
- nonaccession number
- 2015.3097
- catalog number
- 2015.3097.02
- 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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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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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
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