Computer History Museum

How to print an image using an IBM 1401: Step 1: Find an IBM 1401. Comment below when you finish Step 1. (Or come see ours!)

Before USB and cloud storage, there was… the punch card. There wasn’t even a single worldwide standard until IBM’s 80-column card became dominant (IBM switched to rectangular holes on 80-column cards in 1928). Watch a keypunch in action in CHM’s IBM 1401 Demo Lab. Bonus: the “salary” offer in the demo is $0.90/hour (historically accurate, per our volunteers).

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, CHM volunteer Jack programmed an ASCII-art American flag to run on an IBM 1401 and print on an IBM 1403, both of which can be seen in action during one of our demonstrations (check with our front desk for the schedule). Jack used a web-based simulation system to write, assemble, and test the program in IBM 1401 Autocoder. This software saves time, simplifies troubleshooting, and reduces wear and tear on the vintage equipment. Once the program was complete, Jack transferred it to 74 punched cards and printed the design on an IBM 1403. Created in the 1960s, ASCII became a common language that allowed different computers to exchange text reliably. ASCII art was prevalent in an era before computer graphics and is still made today.

Fifty-two minutes. That’s how long the experimental Manchester “Baby” ran a 17-instruction program using a “memory tube” devised by Freddy Williams and Tom Kilburn. On June 21, 1948, the first stored-program computer had been born. By 1949, the Manchester University team had developed a full-scale version: the Manchester Mark I.

Storage technology has come a long way. Former Seagate CTO Mark Re reflects on seeing the IBM RAMAC 350 (the world’s first disk drive) still running.

Introduced in 1956, IBM’s RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) 350 was the world’s first disk drive. CHM volunteer, RAMAC restoration team member, and former IBM hard drive engineer John Best explores the pioneering technology that helped make fast, random access to data possible. Historical images courtesy of the IBM Corporate Archive and the Official Report of the 1960 Olympic Winter Games, digitally published by the LA84 Foundation.

On this day 75 years ago (June 14th, 1951), UNIVAC I was unveiled at a Philadelphia dedication, marking nearly five years of construction and a formal handoff to the Census Bureau. In the demo, UNIVAC produced a publish-ready table of 1950 Census population characteristics for Monroe County, Iowa (11,814) in “lightning-like” fashion. Even with UNIVAC’s speed, a single machine could not tabulate the entire U.S. population, so most 1950 Census work still relied on punched-card equipment.

Is healthcare at a turning point? Join us for a free CHM Live book talk with Robert Wachter, MD—UCSF Department of Medicine chair and a leading voice on healthcare innovation—as he explores how artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape healthcare with author/journalist Katie Hafner. 

If you thought mechanical keyboards were ear candy, wait until you hear a mechanical calculator.

How did the early internet help shape today's transgender identity and activism? On Jun 23, join CHM Book Prize winner and scholar Avery Dame-Griff and moderator Joshua Reason to uncover the digital origins of a movement that began long before today’s social platforms existed. Register at https://lnkd.in/gN9RFfPD *Photo of Trans activists outside the U.S. Capitol during the 2nd Annual National Gender Lobbying Day, with Phyllis Frye speaking (May 1997), courtesy of the Digital Transgender Archive.