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Volunteer Information Exchange
Sharing what we know with those we know
Volume 3 Number 1
January 5, 2013
CHM's New Blog
Contribute To The VIE
Happy New Year to all our readers. We look forward
to 2013 as another exciting year of growth and
change at the CHM.
Recent CHM Blog Entries
Kirsten Tashev keeps us up-to-date on our new CHM
Blog. Recent Entries are:
We start the new year with articles by several past
and present CHM volunteers. Their personal
experiences and knowledge are invaluable to the
rest of us. Thank you to all.
•
•
And many thanks to all who have written for the VIE
in the past and those many, many folks who plan or
have promised articles for 2013.
Jim Strickland
12/19 - Dag Spicer on Suffering for Science
http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/sufferingfor-science/
01/02 Doug Fairbairn on Gartner Donation of
25+ Years of Dataquest Market Research
http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/25-yearsof-dataquest/
[email protected]
In Memoriam
Jack Clemens
CONTENTS
Contribute to the VIE
1
CHM's New Blog
1
In Memoriam: Jack Clemens
1
More on Joe Woodland
2
Stories From the PC Gallery
3
Water Computer
3
Cyclone: an IAS Computer
4
Flexowriter: Early computer I/O
4
NTDS (Continued)
5
Coming Events
6
1933 - 2012
Jack Clemens spent a career
working on
computer storage. He was part of
the IBM
team at 99 Notre Dame that
developed
RAMAC, the grandaddy of today's
hard
drives.
Jack Clemens contributed much to
the
industry, beginning in 1957 with IBM
on Notre
Dame Avenue. He went on to work
at
Memorex, Datapoint, Winchester
and
Maxtor before becoming an industry
consultant.
His daughter, Nancy, worked with her father late in his career when
he was a consultant to high-tech companies. She appreciated his
technical talents but also with his ability to brainstorm, write well and
tell a good story. She knew he was a tech star, but the full impact of
his work didn't hit her until she toured the Computer History Museum
with him during its 2006 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the
disk drive.
"Going through this whole tour, it was just one thing after another,"
she says. "He mentioned how he had touched it, what he had done
to solve this problem and that problem, and it felt really like a tour of
the whole disk drive industry from his perspective of solving
problems."
The Computer History Museum recorded his oral history in 2007,
"The RAMAC was the most animated disk drive ever built," he said.
"It was an exciting thing to just watch it."
In Silicon Valley style, after being part of that revolutionary team,
Jack Clemens worked to make its replacements smaller, faster,
cheaper and more functional.
Page 1
More on Joe Woodland and the Barcode
In the previous issue of the VIE, we noted the passing
of Joe Woodland, the man who patented the circular,
original, but not final barcode.
Former docent and friend of the CHM, Bill
Selmeier, was intimately involved with the project
that developed the industry standard code, the
Universal Product Code. He knew and worked with
Joe Woodland. In his book, Spreading the
Barcode: http://spreadingthebarcode.com Bill tells
the story of his first meeting with Joe Woodland.
The story is reprinted with Bill's permission.
Meeting Joe Woodland
So here I am, a naive store systems person
trying to figure out what to do with the first
electronic scanning checkstand and register. I
wasn’t making a lot of progress. Even though I
could converse knowledgeably with chain store
executives, I didn’t really understand in my gut
about the details of running a checkout
register; where you needed to void an item, or
do a no-sale. I didn’t know what store reports
to get out of the register. I wouldn’t have known
why some of the entries on them were
significant, etc. So I was mostly futzing along
when in walked Joe Woodland and Doug
Antonelli (Human Factors engineer). Joe
Woodland is the man who in 1949 had filed a
patent for putting symbols on grocery products
and later created a test for scanning them at
the checkstand in the back room of a Colonial
Supermarket in Atlanta, GA. This is the man
whom I had heard was the chief strategist and
definer of how IBM should get into the
supermarket checkout business, the guy who
is only referred to with great reverence and
whose words had been quoted to me by
Gordon Vick almost as if it was gospel. Joe
was a short middle-aged man with salt and
pepper hair that was never completely
combed, a little of the mad professor about
him. He walked with a little bounce and
enjoyed even the hint of an ironic situation. He
saw the humor in almost everything.
Joe asked if they could use the system for only
a minute to check something out. I was only
too happy to oblige if I could stay in the room
and learn more about what they were
interested in. So I stepped around to the side
where the customer would usually stand, my
hand on the lip of the scanner while Joe and
Doug gazed down into scanner pointing out
something to each other. Suddenly Joe
shouted out, “Oh my eyes! My eyes! You’ve
burned my eyes! Oh my eyes,” then covered
each eye with one of his fists in pain, whirled
around and walked fist first with a loud thud
into the door they had just come through to
enter the lab.
“Oh My God!” I thought. This is horrible! To call
this a terrible accident is not strong enough.
I’ve just blinded the person most central to this
product. I’ve hurt someone badly and de-railed
the whole program. And of course I’m through!
How could this have happened? And, then I
heard Joe laughing, then Doug started
laughing, and I timidly asked “are you really
OK?”
This was Joe’s way of introducing me to the
fundamentals of the IBM 3666 Checkout
Scanner. He showed me the two horizontal
electric eyes before and behind the scanning
window that opened and closed the beam. I, by
putting my hands on the edge rail while
observing them, had unknowingly let the laser
come up through the scanning window. Of
course checkout scanners use very, very low
powered lasers. They take advantage of a
laser’s precise frequency to keep the relevant
energy very low. Lasers were chosen for its
precision characteristics, not for its power. The
IBM laser operated at .0004 watts. As designed
it wouldn’t cause real physical damage. Now
my psyche was another matter. Good thing Joe
and I were to become good friends in the next
few months. If you had seen us then, Joe was
laughing, Doug was laughing, and I was still
looking a little shocked.
Bill, has promised to write more of his experiences
for future issues of the VIE.
IBM has documented the creation of the Universal
Product Code in a web site devoted to the “100
IBM innovations that helped shape the last
century.”
The creation of the UPC is one of them.
http://www03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/upc/
And you can see our old friend Bill Selmeier in the
video on that site.
Page 2
Stories from the PC Gallery
ERIK KLEIN
Part I.
In the back corner of the Personal Computing gallery in
the Computer History Museum’s R|Evolution exhibit
each section is designed to tell a story. From the
Homebrew era to the first commercial PCs, to killer apps
to sales and marketing the “zones” in the Personal
Computing gallery all contribute to the overall story.
Two of those sections hold a special place in my heart.
Machines in those sit near each other to tell stories of
firsts and stories of how seconds should, and shouldn’t,
come about.
When you look at the Apple I you are peering at a
significant first: The first Apple computer. But this
inspired design is not nearly the first PC, although many
of our visitors seem to think it might be. You need to
follow the wall to the right in order to get to that story. In
the corner there are several machines in a stack, each
representing true firsts in the Personal Computer world.
On the bottom shelf sits the Scelbi-8. This impressive
machine was introduced in 1974 and represents
America’s first microprocessor based PC. The machine
was built around the Intel 8008 CPU and was available
as a kit (the Scelbi-8H – for Hobbyist) or as a fully
assembled machine (the Scelbi-8B – for Business.) The
Nat Wadsworth designed Scelbi-8 was likely the worlds’
first computer kit, as well, since that version pre-dated
the Mark-8 (late 1974) and the more famous MITS Altair
8800 (January 1975.)
Scelbi sold a few machines but the company ultimately
turned to developing software and documentation for the
nascent Personal Computer industry in lieu of
competing in the hardware space.
As impressive as it is, the Scelbi wasn’t the first 8008
based machine to market. The Réalisation d'Études
Électroniques (R2E – please don’t ask me to pronounce
the full name) corporation in France produced the Micral
N in 1973 and ultimately sold thousands of Micral
machines. These never came as kits and, as far as
microprocessor-based PCs go, this was the first by all
reliable accounts. For those who only consider PCs to
be PCs if they have a microprocessor inside the Micral
would be the first of them all.
As a side note, probably the most interesting thing to
come from R2E was a gentleman by the name of
Philippe Kahn who wrote software for the Micral in its
early days and who eventually migrated to America and
founded Borland along with a number of his sidekicks...
What do you do if you want to make a PC but don’t have
access to Microprocessors because they haven’t been
invented yet?
If you’re John Blankenbaker you design a machine that
doesn’t need one.
John himself has said that “when I was in college in
1949, I read about a computer (Eniac?) which inspired
me to try and design a computer. I didn't get far.”
Years later he revisited the idea and had an epiphany:
“What started me thinking about a "personal" computer
was the realization that a computer only needed one
flipflop. So it would, in theory, be possible to have a low
cost computer.”
Armed with this inspiration and a career’s worth of
technical experience John went on to design what would
be the Kenbak-1. Once complete, in 1971, this $750
system would be advertised for sale in the back pages
of Scientific American and, ultimately, other publications
as a fully functional Personal Computer. Many of them
were used to train future engineers in the basics of
computing without the need for expensive mini or
mainframe access.
The name for the machine was drawn from the middle of
his surname and the belief that the computer, and his
company, should have a catchy moniker akin to Kodak.
Without an available Microprocessor Blankenbaker was
forced to create all of the logic inherent in a computer
using small-scale microelectronics, mostly TTL
(Transistor to Transistor Logic) parts. His product was
hardly a success and fewer than 50 were built and sold.
This Personal Computer was an idea before its time.
After selling Kenbak to a company called CTI John went
on to help found Symbolics and later joined Quotron as
a manager.
15 years after Kenbak, John was recognized by The
Computer History Museum, then the Boston Computer
Museum, as the inventor of the world’s first Personal
Computer – the first fully functional computer system
designed for personal use and sold at a price
considered affordable for a personal device.
1936 Water Computer
In 1936 Vladimir Lukyanov built a water computer that was the world's first computer for solving (partial)
differential equations. The operator solved the equations by "playing around" with a series of interconnected
tubes filled with water.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/13518651-in-1936-soviet-water-computer-could-solvedifferential-equations
Page 3
Cyclone, an IAS machine
LAFARR STUART
When Lyle Bickley wrote “Program an IAS Machine”
(VIE Vol 2 Issue 16), it reminded former CHM docent,
LaFarr Stuart, of his experiences with an IAS type
computer, Cyclone at Iowa State University. LaFarr
wrote the following.
When I got to Iowa State (a graduate student in
statistics), the Cyclone had been running for a year. It
was a duplicate of the ILLIAC, using 5-level paper tape,
and its' memory was Williams Tubes (41 of them for
1024 40-bit words of memory and one as a monitor that
could be dialed to display any bit position of the 1024
words). There was no parity or error checking in the
hardware.
During the summer, (before I arrived) they replaced the
memory with 4 banks of 4096 words of core memory;
and 8-bit paper tape I/O. This caused a major change in
the address decoding in the hardware, (2 instructions
per 40 bit word, each instruction was 8-bit op code and
12-bit address.) The older memory only used 10-bit
address, and much of the software used the 2 high
Flexowriter: Early computer I/O
JIM STRICKLAND
In his article regarding Cyclone, (above), LaFarr Stuart
mentioned that input/output was via paper tape and that
the paper tape was created and printed using Friden
Flexowriters. What was a Friden Flexowriter?
(Long story short) in the late 20's a company was
formed to make electric typewriters. Several changes of
ownership later, it was called Electromatic Corp.
In 1932, a code for the paper tape used to drive
Linotype and other typesetting machines was
standardized, allowing use of a tape of five to seven
holes wide to drive typesetting machines and automatic
typewriters, teleprinters and similar equipment.
Electromatic built machines capable of reading and
punching such tape.
In 1933, IBM wanted to get into the electric typewriter
business. To do so, they acquired Electromatic Corp.
and created the Electric Writing Machine Division of
IBM. In 1935 they announced the Model 01 typewriter.
Had IBM marketed the paper tape versions of the
typewriter, they would have been competing directly
with Western Union and AT&T, two of their largest
customers–which they did not wish to do. In addition,
IBM was very concerned with anti-trust issues. So, in
1938, they sold Flexowriter (and factory) to Commercial
Controls Corp. which, in 1957 sold it to Friden, a
manufacturer of calculators. Then IBM was “free” to sell
electric typewriters aggressively and build its electric
typewriter business.
Standing alone, Flexowriters were used to produce form
letters. (The term “word processor” did not exist at that
order bits, which were ignored by the hardware, as flags
or whatever.
After the changes the "New Cyclone" had zero software,
and the instructions were being being upgraded when I
arrived. But three new Flexowriters were working, and
the 8-bit paper tape reader and punch were being
connected.
Getting a computer going, without another computer to
make a cross-assembler, run a simulator, and develop
software on, was an interesting experience few have
had; and nobody will have in the future.
Our input/output was Friden Flexowriters that had no
electrical link to the Cyclone whose only input/output
was paper tape. We did not use Octal on the Cyclone.
We used a form of hexadecimal, that did not use letters
of the alphabet for digits greater than 9. It used
characters like: , . ; for them. Our Flexowriters were
slightly customized to have on one key we called "subten" it was a little "10" lower than most letters; and its
hex value was 15. The intended output use of that key
was to print large decimal values using a power of ten
notation.
time, but Flexowriter was one.)
In the 50's, Friden developed a significant OEM
business selling Flexowriters as I/O devices for
computers to such companies as Burroughs. In time,
Friden developed 5, 6, 7 and 8 channel tape devices.
Also, it created a market segment of creating paper tape
automatically from the typing of business documents
such as orders and invoices. Such tapes could be input
directly to computers or, more commonly, converted to
punched cards to be processed by IBM punched card
machines and later computers.
In 1965, Friden was acquired by Singer Corporation, a
company with no understanding of data processing. In
addition, the Flexowriter's market segments began to
disappear. CRTs (Cathode Ray Tubes) became the
preferred computer input/output devices and word
processing
systems from
many
companies
drove the final
nail in
Flexowriter's
coffin.
Production
ended in the
early 70's but
Flexowriter's
Friden Flexowriter shown stand-alone.
place in early
The CHM's Librascope LGP-30 has a
computer
Flexowriter electrically connected as
history is
its input/output device.
assured.
Page 4
NTDS on the USS King
ROBERT CLINTON
I was rummaging through my
files today and came across this
composite set of photos taken on
the USS King in September
1965.
Upper Left: One of the two CP642 computers with the doors
open, showing the maintenance
panels. To the right is the other
one with the doors closed.
Upper Right: Both of the CP642s, buttoned up.
Middle left: at left, the magnetic
tape unit. It could read and write
tapes at two densities - "high"
density was 256 bpi. Keeping the
mag tape units cleaned and
aligned was one of the main
maintenance efforts. To the right
of the MTU is the paper tape
reader/punch. Patches to the
operational program were
received on paper tape and
sometimes diagnostic information
was punched out on paper tape.
The cabinet at the right of the
photo is the symbol generator for
the AN/SYA-1 display system.
Middle right: This is the keyset
central, which was essentially a
multiplexer which interfaced the
key entry devices to the
computers. Since there were only
four keysets, this looks like a
considerable overkill and indeed
the keyset central could have
handled a much larger number of
keysets. The lower left bay held
analog-digital converters which
provided the NTDS system with
data on course, speed, pitch and roll. To the extreme right is visible the model 28 teletype which was the only
keyboard device included in the shipboard installation.
Lower left: The desk in the computer room, looking uncharacteristically tidy. One of the grey Navy flashlights
hanging above the desk is probably the one I used in my "programming under fire" exercise.
Lower right: A view of the NTDS workshop. The rack of coffee mugs is an essential feature of any Navy workshop.
On the bulkhead in the center you can see an outline of the King. This is a sampler worked by my late wife's fair
hand, bearing the inscription "God Bless our Happy Ship". Since she was not religious, there was probably a bit of
irony intended. But the King was a relatively happy ship and the NTDS maintenance gang was a great bunch of
guys.
Robert Clinton, a recent museum visitor wrote a three part article on his experiences on the USS King where he
supported the NTDS system that is now on display at the CHM.
Page 5
Ya Gotta Be From Back East
A wife texts her husband on a frosty morning
and says, “Windows Frozen.”
He texts back, “Pour lukewarm water on it.”
Five minutes later, she responds, “Computer is
completely messed up now!”
On Jan 1, I changed my screen resolution to
1200 X 1600.
That's my New Year's resolution.
The VIE Cumulative Index is stored at:
http://s3data.computerhistory.org.s3.amazonaws.co
m/chmedu/VIE-000_Cumulative_Topic_Index.pdf
Coming Events
Date
Day
Time
Jan 22
Tues.
Jan 29
Tues. 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Author David Alan Grier on The Company We Keep
Feb 19
6:00 PM Member Reception
Tues. 7:00 PM Program
8:30 Book Signing
Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent
Government
Author Gavin Newsom in Conversation with KQED’s Michael
Krasny
Mar 14
Thur. 12:00:00 PM
The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern
America. Author Ernest Freeberg in conversation with Museum
CEO John Hollar
Apr 17
Wed.
Apr 29
Mon. 12:00 PM
Jun 11
Tues.
6:00 PM Member Reception
7:00 PM Program
An Evening with IBM Research’s Dr. John Kelly
Jul 10
Wed.
6:00 PM Member Reception
7:00 PM Program
Intel’s Justin Rattner in Conversation with John Markoff of The New
York Times
Oct 23
Wed.
6:00 PM Member Reception
7:00 PM Program
Game Changers: Trip Hawkins with the New York Times’ John
Markoff
6:00 PM Member Reception
7:00 PM Program
6:00 PM Member Reception
7:00 PM Program
Event
An Evening with Elon Musk
Innovating the Future: SRI's Curt Carlson and Bill Mark in
Conversation with John Markoff of The New York Times
The Martian's Daughter: A Memoir. Author Marina von Neumann
Whitman in conversation with John Hollar
Please contribute to the Computer History Museum
Volunteer Information Exchange.
Share your stories, your interesting facts (and factoids) and your knowledge.
Send them to Jim Strickland
([email protected])
Page 6