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Computers
Popular Science
Issue: May, 1960
Posted in: Advertisements, Computers
Posted: 06/02/2006
2 Comments
Wizard Pocket Calculator (May, 1960)

My girlfriend actually bought me one of these at a garage sale a while back. I’ll have to find it to make sure I have a genuine Thoresen model not one of those “cheaper, erratic, look-alike, all-plastic calculators imported from the Orient, near communist China”. Apparently being made in a country near communists brings down the quality of your goods. Unlike West Germany which was right next to communist East Germany…

Also, why can you only use the wallet to hold $1, $5 and $10 dollar bills. Is there something wrong with the $2, $20 and the $100? Do you need an advanced model to handle those denominations?

New 1960 German Adding Machine Adds & Subtracts to ONE BILLION!

Now with 9 NEW exclusive features-Still Only $1.98

Pocket for Coins and $1, $5, $10 Bills!
200 Year Perpetual Calendar!
Fine Grain Fitted WALLET!
Easy-Flow Clearing Lever!
Magic Reckoner for Multiplying & Dividing!
Fitted Slot for Notes, Memo Pad!

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Science And Mechanics
Issue: Jun, 1932
Posted in: Computers
Posted: 05/31/2006
No Comments
Early Analog Computers (Super-Brains) (Jun, 1932)

Mechanical SUPER-BRAINS

Calculations in Higher Mathematics Performed by Complex Machinery

• FOR thousands of years after arithmetic and geometry had been worked out, these forms of mathematics were sufficient for most purposes of even learned men. However, when science became complex, and especially in the development of modern astronomy, it was apparent that new methods of calculation were needed. Two hundred and fifty years ago, Sir Isaac Newton and Wilhelm Leibnitz, working independently, devised methods of procedure which have been refined into what is now called, for short, calculus. Without this, modern science and engineering could never have reached their present development.

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Scientific American
Issue: Apr, 1956
Posted in: Advertisements, Computers
Tags: ,
Posted: 05/26/2006
No Comments
Bendix electro-span (Apr, 1956)

Liquid levels monitored hundreds of miles from your central office by Bendix electro-span!

Important storage reservoirs for water, crude oil, gas, brine and other liquids are located in many remote and isolated sections of this country. It takes crews of men stationed at these points to keep a constant check of volumes and to open and close valves to balance supply and demand. The work is lonely, expensive to maintain, and sometimes dangerous.

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Scientific American
Issue: Sep, 1979
Posted in: Advertisements, Computers
Tags:
Posted: 05/21/2006
9 Comments
Putting color to work in computers. (Sep, 1979)

This computer has the same display resolution as a single Mac OSX icon.

Putting color to work in computers.

Computers that present a wealth of confusing information serve only to slow the information process. At ISC. we use color graphics as a highly-effective communications medium. Why color? Research has shown that color conveys information more quickly and effectively than any other visual method. Thus, when compared to black and white a color CRT display results in faster, more accurate user response. And that means faster decisions from the ultimate processor, the human brain.

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Scientific American
Issue: Nov, 1956
Posted in: Advertisements, Computers, Origins
Tags:
Posted: 05/19/2006
8 Comments
1956: World’s First Hard Drive (5MB) (Nov, 1956)

More at Wikipedia.

putting IDEAS to work — research at IBM

•Random Access Memory Accounting: RAMAC®, magnetic-disk memory storage, gives fast access to 5,000,000 characters. IBM Bulletin No. 400.
•Slanting Rain: “Shadows” created on a surface by its irregularities and discontinuities magnified 200,000 times through electron microscopy.

Random Access Memory Accounting
RAMAC, IBM’s newest data processing system, needed a unique memory storage system. Ordinary methods of memory storage—magnetic tape, drums, ferrite cores—couldn’t store enough “bits” of information. It took a research team of ours,withTriggNoyes and Wes Dickinson as key men at IBM’s San Jose Research Labs, to find the answer. The heart of this new idea: magnetic disks, played and replayed like the records in coin-operated music machines!

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Popular Science
Issue: Jun, 1968
Posted in: Computers, History
Tags:
Posted: 05/18/2006
No Comments
THE TRANSISTOR’S 20th ANNIVERSARY (Jun, 1968)

THE TRANSISTOR’S 20th ANNIVERSARY:
How Germanium and a Bit of Wire Changed the World

The nuts and bolts of modern electronics, transistors lie at the heart of our rockets, computers, radar, radio, TV, and a thousand other devices

By W. STEVENSON BACON

The time: December, 1947. The place: Bell Telephone Laboratories at Murray Hill, N.J. The event: the invention of a new kind of electronic “valve” that can amplify signals—an invention so basic that it will virtually remold all science and technology.

Unlike the vacuum tube, it will not need a power-consuming hot filament, nor will it require a vacuum. Is it an impractical dream? Many skeptics think so.

After years of experimenting, Bell scientists, faced with repeated failures, have turned back to basic research.

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Scientific American
Issue: Jun, 1953
Posted in: Advertisements, Computers
Tags: , ,
Posted: 05/17/2006
2 Comments
UNIVAC MAGNETIC TAPE (Jun, 1953)

Wow, this baby can hold over 120 bytes per inch!

UNIVAC MAGNETIC TAPE
saves 90% In storage and handling over punched cards

Remington Rand Univac Electronic Computers Now Make Available…

Reels of magnetic tape are utilized with remington rand electronic computer systems solving intricate computations for business, for industry, for science, for government. They operate at speeds that put facts at management’s fingertips with breathtaking rapidity. They give management today data which it formerly had to wait months to obtain.

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Scientific American
Issue: Mar, 1955
Posted in: Advertisements, Computers
Posted: 05/16/2006
No Comments
“Giant Brains” for Business & Industry? (Mar, 1955)

“Giant Brains” for Business & Industry?

Would modern electronic equipment really improve a company’s operations…
decrease its costs?
If so-where?
In production control?
Payroll accounting?
Customer billing? Factory automation?
What make of equipment is best? What changes in company methods and procedures would be required?

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Scientific American
Issue: Jan, 1956
Posted in: Advertisements, Computers, Space
Tags: , ,
Posted: 05/15/2006
No Comments
Ad: Launching Tomorrow’s Satellite (Jan, 1956)

Launching Tomorrow’s Satellite
When the first man-made satellite is launched on its orbit around the earth, it will owe its existence to the thousands of missiles which have preceded it, and to the careful analysis of their patterns of flight. The Univac Scientific of Remington Rand has speeded this effort immeasurably, handling flight analyses for the nation’s guided missile program.
Each missile firing, each analysis, involves enormous amounts of in-flight data, with manual computations normally requiring from 250 to 500 hours. This staggering work load is accomplished by the Univac Scientific Electronic Computer in approximately 4 to 8 minutes.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: May, 1936
Posted in: Computers
Posted: 05/14/2006
No Comments
Robot Bookkeeper Actually Thinks (May, 1936)

Robot Bookkeeper Actually Thinks
ELIMINATING all possible chance of errors occuring in bookkeeping and accounting a new machine, recently introduced in New York City, is far more accurate than any human being in keeping records. Special automatic mechanisms operated by electric motors handle the various accounts giving both sub and grand totals.
The machine which operates as a combination typewriter, adding and bookkeeping machine is expected to save users thousands of dollars through its elimination of errors.

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