Computers & Business Machines

• 

  Cromemco C-10

  Description

  In 1974 Stanford University doctoral graduates Harry Garland and Roger Melen established a partnership named for their former dormitory Crothers Memorial Hall. Cromemco was formally incorporated in 1976. For the life of the company Garland and Melen remained the sole shareholders and avoided outside investment. At the insistence of their accountant, the company held a bank credit line but never had to tap the full amount. Their business philosophy was to grow only within the parameters of available cash. Revenues in 1975 were $50,000 and grew to an estimated $55 million by 1987 when the owners sold the company to Dynatech.

  The company’s first products were a microcomputer system digital camera, the Cyclops, and a color graphics card called the Dazzler. From these products the company moved on to making reliable, high-quality business and scientific computers and in 1982, they introduced the C-10 Personal Computer. Cromemco systems were the first commercially marketed microcomputer certified by the U.S. Navy for use aboard ships and Ohio class submarines for data logging during tests. The United States Air Force became a major customer for their Theater Air Control System (TACS) and the Mission Support System (MSS) for F-16, F-15 and other aircraft. By 1986 more than 80 percent of the major-market television stations in the U.S. used Cromemco systems to produce news and weather graphics.

  According to the user manual, “The C-10’s high-quality construction, continual self-testing, and proven design assure that it will perform faithfully year after year.”

  This Cromemco C-10 microcomputer was used at Monroe High School in Monroe, MI from 1982-2008. In 1980 physics teacher Darol Straub started an after school computer class which led to the development of the school’s first formal computer curriculum. To be accepted into the course, students were required to take an aptitude entrance test. Classes were two periods per day for three years. Hardware and software topics included basic circuits to microcomputer design and building, and programming in binary code and assembly language as well as higher level languages such as BASIC, FORTRAN, PASCAL, COBOL, and “C.” The third year focused on developing advanced projects using speech recognition, numeric control, fiber optic communication, graphic design, and robotics.

  Many of Straub’s students went on to college to study computer science and earned jobs with companies such as Microsoft and Intel. Two brothers who completed the curriculum opened a computer company when they graduated from high school. According to Mr. Straub, the company was still in business in 2018. The brother of the donor, also a student of Straub’s, graduated from Monroe High School in 2009 and MIT in 2013. He now works for Space X.

  In 1988 the Computer Engineering Program students produced a 20 minute video “Monroe High School – Current Generation” which the school used to promote and recruit new students for the course.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1982

  user

  Straub, Darol

  Gagnon, Blair

  maker

  Cromemco Inc.

  ID Number

  2018.0113.01

  accession number

  2018.0113

  catalog number

  2018.0113.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  BASF Diskette

  Description

  This BASF 5 1/4” 2S/2D (double sided/double density) floppy diskette was purchased for use on a Cromemco C-10 microcomputer.

  Reference 2018.0113.01.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  maker

  BASF

  ID Number

  2018.3055.02

  nonaccession number

  2018.3055

  catalog number

  2018.3055.02

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Data Preparation Worksheet

  Location

  Currently not on view

  ID Number

  2017.3104.02

  nonaccession number

  2017.3104

  catalog number

  2017.3104.02

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Cray-1 Computer System Brochure

  Location

  Currently not on view

  ID Number

  2018.3063.04

  nonaccession number

  2018.3063

  catalog number

  2018.3063.04

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Hewlett-Packard HP-65 Handheld Electronic Calculator

  Description

  This programmable scientific handheld electronic calculator was Hewlett-Packard’s third model of a handheld scientific calculator (after the HP-35 and HP-45), and its first programmable handheld calculator. Hewlett-Packard staff dubbed it a “personal computer.”

  The gray plastic case holds a keyboard with thirty-five keys at the front, two switches, and a display. The keys are square or rectangular on top and slope downward at the front. Many of them may take on three meanings. One is shown on the top of the key, in black or white, one shown on the sloping front of the key in blue, and the third shown in gold behind the key on the keyboard.

  The lower part of the keyboard includes data entry keys for ten digits; as well as decimal point, enter, enter exponent, and clear display keys. It also has keys for the four arithmetic operations. Pressing the R/S (run/stop) key in the bottom right corner begins program execution.

  Above this set of keys are prefix keys (function, inverse function, store, recall, a second function) which are followed by other keystrokes to complete a command. Above these are five keys for programming – DSP (to format the display), GTO (go to), LBL (label), RTN (return) and SST (single step). Above this are five lettered keys that stand for user-definable functions or subroutines. Behind the keyboard are the on/off switch and a second switch that may be set for writing programs or for running them.

  Behind the keyboard is a red LED display for up to ten significant digits, plus two-digit exponent and appropriate signs for both.

  The HP-65 was specifically designed to assist in repeated calculations required in such disciplines as science, engineering, finance, statistics, mathematics, navigation, medicine, and surveying. Toward that end, it contained a small magnetic card reader and recorder. Users who had worked out a series of commands they wished to reuse could save the program to a magnetic card. The cards are 7.2 cm. w. x 1.1 cm. d. and made out of mylar coated with a layer of ferric oxide. Programs could have up to one hundred steps. A variety of prewritten programs were available for purchase.

  The back of the calculator has an outlet for a power adapter, a battery case, and a sticker that reads in part: HEWLETT-PACKARD HP-65 USER AIDS. A sticker below this one reads: HEWLETT•PACKARD (/) SER. NO. 1608S 02068. The first four digits of the serial number indicate that the calculator was made in the eighth week (March) of 1976. The S signifies manufacture in Singapore.

  The calculator has a battery charger and AC adapter, as well as a battery pack that holds three batteries (the batteries were decaying and discarded). A transparent plastic box labeled “STANDARD PAC” contains forty magnetic cards. Nineteen of these are fixed programming cards, one is for cleaning, and the remaining cards for programs by the user. The spiral-bound HP-65 Quick Reference Guide is copyrighted 1974. Also part of the object is a metal security cradle that can be taped or screwed to a desk or other stand. It also could be held via a security cord. The calculator cord (and the security cord, if it was used) were set in holes in the back of cradle and the cradle then locked with a key, making theft more difficult. The cradle is in a box with screws, tape, the security cord, and paper instructions.

  The HP-65 sold for $795.

  References:

  Chung C. Tung, “The ‘Personal Computer’: A Fully Programmable Pocket Calculator,” Hewlett-Packard Journal, May 1974, pp. 2–7. Further articles in this issue of the journal discuss other aspects of the HP-65 calculator.

  W.A.C. Mier-Jedrzejowicz, A Guide to HP Handheld Calculators and Computers , Tustin, California: Wilson/Burnett Publishing, 1997, pp. 42–44, 132.

  David G. Hicks, The Museum of HP Calculators, http://www.hpmuseum.org/, accessed July, 2014.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1976

  maker

  Hewlett-Packard Company

  ID Number

  2011.0023.01

  accession number

  2011.0023

  catalog number

  2011.0023.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Remington 1259S Electronic Calculator

  Description

  This small desktop scientific electronic calculator has nine digit keys, a zero bar, and a decimal point key at the center. Above these keys are two rows of keys for 16 scientific functions. On the left are a change sign key, a decimal selector (ranging from 0 to 8), and keys for memory recall, positive accumulation, memory clear, and negative accumulation. A switch allows one to choose between floating, round-off, or cut-off of decimals. On the right front are keys for positive result, negative result, multiplication, division and storage. The power switch is on the right side at the back. The Nixie tube readout shows up to 12 digits. The donor typed up a table giving the accuracy of 11 of the function keys, and taped the paper to the machine at the back. The cord is missing. The machine is marked at the front: REMINGTON 1259S. A tag on the bottom has the serial number: 305491. That tag also reads in part: MADE IN JAPAN. The black plastic cover is marked: REMINGTON (/) SPERRY RAND.

  A yellow sheet received with the machine reads: Remington (/) 1259S (/) The scientific (/) calculator with 16 specific mathematical functions. A pamphlet entitled "Remington 1259S Operators Instruction Manual," and an advertisement announcing a special on the machine, complete the accession. The ad indicates that the machines sold to dealers for $346 and had a suggested retail price of $495.

  According to the donor, Steven Lett, his father, office machines dealer Joseph E. Lett III, brought this machine home for his son to explore.

  Like other American firms, Sperry Rand imported desktop electronic calculators from Japan. Compare this machine to the Casio fx-1.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1972

  maker

  Casio

  ID Number

  2011.0108.01

  accession number

  2011.0108

  catalog number

  2011.0108.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Wang 600 Electronic Calculator

  Description

  This desktop programmable printing calculator has a variety of digit and function keys. Above these, on the right side, is a space that holds a cassette tape. Left of this is a small display screen. Above the screen is the printing mechanism with a paper tape 9 cm. (3 1/2") wide. A metal tag glued to the front left reads: WANG 600. A sticker on the back of the machine reads: WANG LABORATORIES INC (/) TEWKSBURY MASS U.S.A. Another mark there reads: MODEL 600 2TP (/) SERIAL NUMBER CC5187.

  An electric cord extends from the back. The machine has a plastic cover. The dimensions given do not include cord and cover.

  Chinese-born An Wang (1920–1990) came to the United States after World War II to do graduate work at Harvard University. Not wishing to return to a Communist regime, he stayed on to work at the Harvard Computation Laboratory, where he and Way Dong Woo invented magnetic core memory, an important improvement in computer memory for the time. Wang soon left Harvard to establish Wang Laboratories. In the mid-1960s, he invented a transistorized logarithmic electronic calculator that would sell in several forms. The Wang 600 is a modified and less expensive version of the earlier Wang 700. Wang soon turned his attention to the manufacture of minicomputers.

  The Smithsonian’s Conservation Analytical Laboratory acquired this Wang 600 in about 1974. When it was replaced in 1983, it was transferred to the NMAH historical collections.

  Compare 1983.0171.01, a Wang 700 series calculator, and 1980.0096.01, a Wang LOCI 2.

  Reference:

  Accession File.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1974

  maker

  Wang Laboratories

  ID Number

  2011.0022.01

  accession number

  2011.0022

  catalog number

  2011.0022.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Integrated Circuit with Chip Art

  Description (Brief)

  Integrated circuits consist of electric components such as transistors, resistors, capacitors, and metallic interconnects manufactured at a nanometer scale on a silicon chip. Chip designers are constantly seeking to pack more components into less space making the engineering requirements of chip design almost an art. In the 1970s and early 1980s design engineers began to personalize their chip designs by leaving microscopic images etched inside the chips’ functioning design. These images took a variety of forms; company logos, funny animals, comic characters, or inside jokes between the engineering team. This hidden art helped to show that chip layers were correctly aligned and could prove that a competitor had stolen a chip design. Once chip designs were covered by copyright in 1984, chip art became a way for engineers to assert their individuality into the mass production of chip manufacturing.

  This 21msp50/55/56 digital signal processor chip was created by Analog Devices Incorporated around 1994. The chip contains an image of a fire-breathing Godzilla.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1994

  maker

  Analog Devices, Inc.

  ID Number

  1996.3017.32

  nonaccession number

  1996.3017

  catalog number

  1996.3017.32

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Compaq button

  Location

  Currently not on view

  ID Number

  1993.3146.03

  nonaccession number

  1993.3146

  catalog number

  1993.3146.03

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  NCR Class 18-22 Electronic Calculator

  Description

  In the late 1960s and 1970s, desktop electronic calculators replaced mechanical adding and calculating machines. The Nippon Calculating Machine Corporation of Japan sold such machines under the brand name Busicom. It also supplied other firms with electronic calculators sold under other names. This is a Busicom electronic calculator sold by the Dayton, Ohio, firm of NCR.

  The machine has nine digit keys and a 0 bar. Clear and clear entry keys are left of the digit keys. Keys to the right of the digit keys are for the four arithmetic operations and memory access. Apparently nine or ten digit numbers may be entered, with results of up to twelve digits.

  A tag attached at the top reads: NCR. A tag attached to the back reads; NCR (/) Class 18-22. It also reads: THE NATIONAL CASH REGISTER COMPANY. (/) MADE IN JAPAN. It also reads: NO. 1-9940221. This serial number indicates a date of 1972.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1972

  maker

  Nippon Electric Co.

  ID Number

  1987.0339.01

  accession number

  1987.0339

  catalog number

  1987.0339.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Federal Express SuperTracker

  Description

  This is a Federal Express SuperTracker handheld barcode scanner, first introduced in 1986. The SuperTracker is a critical part of FedEx’s Customers, Operations, and Services Master On-line System (COSMOS) used to track packages and confirm deliveries. Customer agents, couriers, and sorting personnel use the SuperTracker to scan barcodes on packages as they move through the Federal Express system. Providing information about a package’s location, status, and movement became an integral part of delivery companies, with every major carrier implementing a package tracking system.

  Reference:

  Carl Niehls, “Custodial Package Tracking at Federal Express,” in Managing Innovation: Cases from the Services Industries, ed. Bruce R. Guile and James Brian Quinn (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1988), 57–81.

  date made

  1986

  ID Number

  1993.0228.01

  catalog number

  1993.0228.01

  accession number

  1993.0228

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Texas Instruments SR-52 Handheld Electronic Calculator

  Description

  This handheld programmable scientific electronic calculator has a black plastic case and forty-five small rectangular plastic keys arranged in nine rows. In addition to ten digit keys, a decimal point key, and a change sign key (all light gray), the calculator has a total key, four arithmetic function keys, a clear key, a clear entry key, and a "2nd" key (all gold). The remaining keys are brown. Pushing the “2nd” key allows the keys to serve a “dual function,” which is given in text above the keys.

  The space for programming cards is just above the keyboard. A mark behind this reads: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS SR-52. Behind it are an R/D (radians/degrees) switch and an on/off switch. Behind this is an LED display that shows ten positive or negative digits of the result as well as powers of ten from -99 to +99.

  The power supply plugs into the calculator along the back edge. A mark on it reads: MODEL AC 9130A.

  A sticker on the back of the calculator reads in part: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS (/) SR-52 (/) Serial No. (/) SR-52 011415. It also reads in part: ASSEMBLED IN USA. Below the sticker is a compartment that holds three batteries. A sticker for it reads in part: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS BATTERY PACK BP-1. Removing the battery pack reveals two chips. The larger has text that reads: TMC0501NL (/) EΔ7537. The small one has the mark: TMC 0595 NL (/) BA7539. A mark on the back of the calculator near the bottom reads: 4675DTA.

  Also included with the object is a black plastic folder that holds twenty-six magnetic cards with programs on them, a tablet of preprinted forms for writing programs, and two small spiral-bound notebooks of documentation. One is the Owner's Manual, the other is the Operating Guide. These documents are copyrighted 1975.

  Compare 1987.0435.01 and 1987.0487.297.

  Ball & Flamm give a 1976 price of $229.

  Reference:

  Guy Ball and Bruce Flamm, The Complete Collector’s Guide to Pocket Calculators, Tustin, CA: Wilson/Barnett, 1997, p. 154.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1975

  maker

  Texas Instruments

  ID Number

  2010.3093.01

  nonaccession number

  2010.3093

  catalog number

  2010.3093.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Experimental Sound Recording, Disc Layers of Cardboard, Plaster and Foil

  Description

  This is an experimental sound recording made in the Volta Laboratory, Washington, D.C. In a ring around the center, it is marked with the initials for Sumner Tainter, one of the Volta Laboratory Associates, and a date: “S.T. Dec. 29th 1881.” This recording was copied from an 1881 master at an unknown later date.

  Sound was recovered from this recording in 2013.

  Content transcript: “…[indistinct] I am a magnetical graphophone. What are you? To be, or not to be: that is the question. [trilled r sounds] How is that for high?”

  References:

  Patrick Feaster, “A Discography of Volta Laboratory Recordings at the National Museum of American History”

  Leslie J. Newville, “Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory,” in Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, United States National Museum Bulletin 218, Paper 5 (1959): 69-79.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  ID Number

  ME.287860.02

  accession number

  58498

  catalog number

  287860

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Volta Laboratory Experimental Sound Recording, Green Wax on Brass Disc

  Description

  This is an experimental sound recording made in the Volta Laboratory, Washington, D.C., about 1884. The wax, poured into a brass holder, has been dyed a bright green.

  Sound was recovered from this recording in 2011.

  Content summary: Hamlet’s soliloquy

  Content transcript (17 seconds):

  “To be, or not to be: that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? To die, to sleep…”

  References:

  Patrick Feaster, “A Discography of Volta Laboratory Recordings at the National Museum of American History”

  Leslie J. Newville, “Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory,” in Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, United States National Museum Bulletin 218, Paper 5 (1959): 69-79.

  Steven E. Schoenherr, “Charles Sumner Tainter and the Graphophone,”

  Wile, Raymond R. "The Development of Sound Recording at the Volta Laboratory," Association for Recorded Sound Collections Journal 21, No. 2, 1990, pp. 208-225.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  ID Number

  ME.287920

  catalog number

  287920

  accession number

  58498

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  National Cash Register, Model 79

  Description

  This large, nickel-plated, manually operated cash register is an NCR Model 79. It has three columns of keys for entering numbers, and a fourth column of function keys. The operating crank is on the right side, the cash drawer is below, and a receipt dispenser on the left side. Pop-up indicators above the keys indicate the total purchase. The Model 79 was introduced by NCR in 1892, this example dates from 1894. Principles introduced with this cash register would prove important on numerous later NCR cash registers. For a model of part of the mechanism of this machine, see MA.316703.

  Reference:

  Richard R. Crandall and Sam Robins, The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. 2, Vestal, N.Y.: Vestal Press (1990), pp. 157–169.

  date made

  1894

  maker

  National Cash Register Company

  ID Number

  MA.316701

  accession number

  225455

  catalog number

  316701

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Monroe EPIC 3000 Electronic Calculator

  Description

  In 1966, Monroe International, Inc., a descendent of the Monroe Calculating Machine Company and a division of Litton Industries, introduced its EPIC electronic programmable printing calculator. The device includes a desktop keyboard and printing unit, and an attached calculating unit that sits on the floor. It has transistors, but not microprocessors.

  At the center of the desktop part of the machine is an array of nine digit keys with a 0 bar below it. To the right of these keys are function keys for the four arithmetic operations as well as a square root key and enter and print bars. To the left of the digit keys are keys for start, decimal point placement, interchange of the contents of two registers, repeat, and other operations. The printing mechanism is behind the keyboard. It displayed entries as well as the answer. A mark next to the paper tape reads: EPIC 3000. A mark below this reads: MONROE li.

  Monroe also sold a similar electronic calculator called the EPIC 2000.

  The calculator was given to the Museum by George C. Davis, who apparently used it in work as a consulting engineer in radio and television in Washington, D.C.

  References:

  Accession file, instructions 1983.0471.03.

  Personal Communication, Monroe Systems for Business.

  Vintage Calculators Web Museum.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1966

  maker

  Monroe International Corporation

  ID Number

  1983.0471.01

  accession number

  1983.0471

  catalog number

  1983.0471.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Daystrom 046 Mainframe Computer, "Little Gypsy"

  Description

  This section of the Daystrom 046 consists of the multiplexer, logic cabinets, and auxiliary memory. The 046 was manufactured by Daystrom's La Jolla division and was the company's first product utilizing transistors and core memory. Daystrom guaranteed a 99 percent availability, which was demonstrated at Louisiana Power & Light's Sterlington Plant. This 046 is the second purchased by Louisiana Power & Light. It was installed at the Little Gypsy Power Plant in 1961 in LaPlace, La., and was the first computer to control a power plant from startup to shutdown.

  Date made

  1961

  maker

  Daystrom Incorporated

  ID Number

  1990.0551.01

  accession number

  1990.0551

  catalog number

  1990.0551.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Documents Distributed by Grace Murray Hopper

  Description

  This group of documents and photocopies of documents was distributed by Grace Murray Hopper at a lecture to Smithsonian volunteers on March 15 1985. The dates of the materials range from 1955 until 1985. Topics include preliminary definitions for a data processing compiler, data base machines, privacy, microcomputers, and certified compilers for different computer languages

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1955-1985

  ID Number

  1985.3088.02

  nonaccession number

  1985.3088

  catalog number

  1985.3088.02

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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