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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Pamphlet, Wholesale House Punched Card Machine Accounting Manual
- Description
- his pamphlet introduces the use of tabulating machines at the Western Auto Supply Company in Kansas City, Missouri. It has Remington Rand form number SP TM-4282.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1955
- ca 1954
- maker
- Remington Rand Inc.
- ID Number
- 1997.3012.06
- catalog number
- 1977.3012.06
- nonaccession number
- 1977.3012
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Wright Model 2000 Card Punch
- Description
- This portable key punch for preparing punched cards was manufactured by the Massachusetts firm of Wright Line. Punched cards were central to large-scale data processing in the United States from the introduction of the Hollerith tabulating machine in the 1890s through the 1970s. Tabulating machine manufacturers such as IBM and Remington Rand (later Sperry Univac) rented card punches. Wright Line, founded in 1934, was one of relatively few independent data processing accessory manufacturers. It made and sold a large variety of files, magnetic tapes, card punches, and related machines.
- The device is designed for 80-column punch cards such as those made for IBM computers. It has a metal base painted black with 12 number keys and an "S" key. These keys, with their white key tops, are attached to a moveable carriage. A single punch card fits in the carriage. A mark on the top reads: Wright (/) PUNCH (/) MODEL 2600.
- This punch came to the Smithsonian from the United States Naval Observatory, a longtime user of tabulating equipment for scientific purposes.
- References:
- Accession file.
- "E. Stanley Wright, Manufacturer, 66," New York Times, September 8, 1959, p. 35.
- Wright Line, Data Processing Accessories Catalog ’69, p. 38.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1970
- maker
- Wright Line
- ID Number
- 2005.0174.01
- accession number
- 2005.0174
- catalog number
- 2005.0174.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Punch Card Probe
- Description
- This cylindrical metal stainless steel rod is about 8" long and resembles a crochet hook. The metal is serrated along the middle part of the rod. One end is hooked, the other is flattened and U-shaped. The donor worked with tabulating machines and then computer equipment from the 1940s into at least the 1960s.
- Reportedly the hook was used to line up punched cards and the flattened end to complete holes that had not punched properly.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1950
- 1950, roughly
- ID Number
- 2006.3088.01
- nonaccession number
- 2006.3088
- catalog number
- 2006.3088.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Powers Tabulating Machine Components
- Description
- This object consists of two identical shaped steel pieces from the printer section of a Powers tabulating machine. Each carries ten pieces of type that fit into the arch of the piece. At the top is a 0, at the bottom a 9.
- Powers took out patents for tabulating machines in the early 20th century. These pieces are similar but not identical to those shown in patents of 1917 and 1921, and to pieces from a Powers Accounting Machine Corporation parts catalog from 1923. They are more similar to drawings in a patent filed in 1926 by Joseph R. Merkle and assigned to Remington Rand, Inc., the successor firm to Powers Accounting Machine Company.
- References:
- Powers Accounting Machine Corporation, Powers Tabulating Equipment, Book 3, New York: Powers Accounting Machine Corporation, 1923, Plate 507, Plate 510. This document is 1992.3215.03.
- James Powers, "Tabulator-Printer for Statistical Purposes," U.S. Patent 1,245,502, November 6, 1917.
- James Powers, "Combined Perforating and Printing Tabulator Mechanism," U.S. Patent 1,388,299, August 23, 1921.
- Joseph R. Merkle, "Tabulating Machine," U.S. Patent 1,884,072, October 25, 1932. This patent was filed March 27, 1926.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1926
- ID Number
- 1991.3180.02
- nonaccession number
- 1991.3180
- catalog number
- 1991.3180.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Wiring Diagram Removed from Card Punch
- Description
- This diagram was removed from a Remington Rand card punch with museum number MA.336297.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- MA.305981.06.01
- accession number
- 305981
- catalog number
- 305981.06.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Punch Card Used at the Southern Railway Company
- Description
- Herman Hollerith began manufacturing tabulating machines to compile statistics to the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The nation only compiles a census every ten years, so Hollerith sought business from foreign governments and from commercial customers.
- As early as 1895, the New York Central began using tabulating equipment to track goods moved by the railroad. Hollerith radically redesigned the punch card, putting information in columns with the numbers from 0 to 9. Several columns of numbers comprised a field, which contained information on a single matter. By 1907, the Central was an established customer and other railroads adopted machine accounting. The Southern Railway Company used this 45-column card. It has fields for the date, the receiving station, the waybill number, the code, the forwarding station, the junction point, "Com.", "C.L.", freight, charges, and prepaid amounts.
- Reference:
- G. D. Austrian, Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Pioneer of Information Processing, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 111–141, 250–251.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1910
- 1910, roughly
- 1910 roughly
- maker
- Tabulating Machine Company
- ID Number
- MA.317982.01
- accession number
- 317982
- catalog number
- 317982.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Counter from a Hollerith Tabulating Machine
- Description
- This is a single counter from a Hollerith tabulating machine. It has square brass pieces on top and bottom, with a brass mechanism in between. A paper-covered metal dial on top is divided around the edge into 100 equal parts. Two hands are on the face of the dial. Advancing the small hand by 100 (one revolution) advances the large hand by one. Hence the counter can read up to 9,999.
- A mark around the center of the dial reads: THE HOLLERITH (/) ELECTRIC TABULATING SYSTEM (/) PATENTED, 1889.
- Compare to the dials on MA.312895.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1890
- ID Number
- MA.335638
- catalog number
- 335638
- accession number
- 1977.0114
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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IBM 001Card Punch
- Description
- For the first half of the 20th century, much data was entered into data processing machines using punched cards. This machine for punching such cards was manufactured by International Business Machines Corporation of New York.
- This key-driven, manual punch has 14 black keys. Twelve are for the 12 rows on a punch card. These are labeled from 0 to 9, X, and blank. Another key moves the card one space to the left and the last releases it. Keys are fed in from the right. A portion of a punch card attached in back of the machine has a pointer attached to it which allows one to determine the column of the card one is punching. The device is set up for 80-column cards and punches rectangular holes. A cylindrical protrusion extends from the back of the machine.
- A metal tag attached to the front of the object reads: PROPERTY OF (/) INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. (/) 001-12036-JH (/) ENDICOTT, NEW YORK, U.S.A. A mark stamped into the back of the card bed reads: 01 202.Two rods are marked at the front below the punching position: 202.
- IBM cards with rectangular holes and 80 columns were introduced in 1928. Cards with 12 rows of holes date from the early 1930s.
- Reference:
- E. W. Pugh, Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995, pp. 48–49.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- after 1930
- maker
- International Business Machines Corporation
- ID Number
- MA.333894
- accession number
- 304350
- catalog number
- 333894
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Punch Card Marked DO-5081, Received with Key Punch
- Description
- This eighty-column paper punch card is rectangular, with the upper left corner cut off. It is punched symmetrically. Text along the top reads: MANUAL KEY PUNCH - ABOUT 70 YEARS OLD. A form number printed along the bottom reads: DO-5081. Further text reads: PRINTED IN U.S.A.
- Received with card punch with museum number 1987.0601.01.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1930s
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1987.0601.01.02
- accession number
- 1987.0601
- catalog number
- 1987.0601.01.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Powers Tabulating Machine Component
- Description
- This very small section of a Powers tabulating machine comes from the adding machine part of the device. It consists of two shaped metal pieces held together by a rivet such that one swings freely. It has no maker’s marks.
- Reference:
- Powers Accounting Machine Corporation, Powers Tabulating Equipment, Book 3, New York: Powers Accounting Machine Corporation, 1923, Plate 507, Plate 607 (AM Sec 150). This document is 1992.3215.03.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1920s
- maker
- Powers Accounting Machine Corporation
- ID Number
- 1991.3180.01
- nonaccession number
- 1991.3180
- catalog number
- 1991.3180.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Card Showing Images of Remington Rand Univac Punched Cards
- Description
- This wallet-sized card shows punched cards on both sides. One is a ninety-column card with round holes, the other an eighty-column card with rectangular holes. The image of the ninety-column card has text along the left side that reads: Printed in U. S. A. REMINGTON RAND. The image of the eighty-column card has text along the left side that reads: Printed in U. S. A. REMINGTON RAND U-2173.
- Remington Rand tabulating machines had used ninety-column punched cards. By 1959, Remington Rand computers could use either ninety-column punched cards, punched with round holes, or eighty-column cards, punched with rectangular holes. The latter form of card had been introduced by IBM. This small card shows the choices.
- Reference:
- Gille Associates, Inc., The Punched Card Data Processing Annual, 1, 1959, pp. 43-47.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1955
- ca 1959
- author
- Remington Rand Univac. Division of Sperry Rand
- ID Number
- 1997.3012.04.06
- nonaccession number
- 1997.3012
- catalog number
- 1997.3012.04.06
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Powers Tabulating Equipment Component
- Description
- This component consists of two aluminum pieces that hold ten parallel flexible rods. It may have served as a flexible connector for Powers Accounting Machine Company equipment.
- A mark stamped on one of the pieces reads: 1---U. Several letters scratched on the other piece read: 1Y J-POWERS. A mark scratched on the other side of this piece reads: 1914.
- Reference:
- William W. Lasker, "Flexible-Connection Box," U.S. Patent 1,311,565, June 24, 1919.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1914
- maker
- James Powers
- ID Number
- 1991.0871.02
- accession number
- 1991.0871
- catalog number
- 1991.0871.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Electrotype Printing Block Showing a Manual Hollerith Key Punch
- Description
- This electrotype printing block is engraved in metal and attached to a wooden block. It shows a manually operated, key-driven Hollerith card punch with 11 keys. Hollerith patented such a machine in 1901, but it had only ten keys, numbered from 0 to 9. The machine shown on the electroplate has these number keys, plus one marked X.
- For key punches similar but not identical to that shown, see MA.335634, MA.335635, and MA.333894.
- Reference:
- H. Hollerith, "Apparatus for Perforating Record Cards," U.S. Patent 682,197, September 10, 1901.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1902
- ID Number
- 1977.0503.02
- catalog number
- 336121
- accession number
- 1977.0503
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Record of Punching Cards at the New York Central for the Month of April 1904
- Description
- From 1895 inventor Herman Hollerith wooed the New York Central Railroad as a commercial customer for his tabulating machines. This small paper card records his success. It reports that in April 1904, key punch operators at the Central punched a total of 428,502 cards, averaging 258 cards per clerk per hour. The record for one clerk was 70,535 cards punched, averaging 413 cards per hour.
- Reference: G. D. Austrian, Hermann Hollerith: Forgotten Pioneer of Information Processing , New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 111–141.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1904
- ID Number
- 1977.0114.08.01
- accession number
- 1977.0114
- catalog number
- 1977.0114.08.01
- 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
-
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
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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
-
Tabulating Machine Company Card Punch
- Description
- From the early 20th century into the 1970s, Americans used punched cards to enter data into tabulating equipment and then electronic computers. This is an early key-operated punch, 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 that releases the card guide. Three 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: 17262. Two rods are marked at the front below the punching position: 392.
- 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 United States 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.335635
- accession number
- 1977.0114
- catalog number
- 335635
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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