Unit record equipment

Starting at the end of the nineteenth century, well before the advent of electronic computers, data processing was performed using electromechanical machines called unit record equipment, electric accounting machines (EAM) or tabulating machines.[1][2][3][4] Unit record machines came to be as ubiquitous in industry and government in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century as computers became in the last third. They allowed large volume, sophisticated data-processing tasks to be accomplished before electronic computers were invented and while they were still in their infancy. This data processing was accomplished by processing punched cards through various unit record machines in a carefully choreographed progression.[5] This progression, or flow, from machine to machine was often planned and documented with detailed flowcharts that used standardized symbols for documents and the various machine functions.[6] All but the earliest machines had high-speed mechanical feeders to process cards at rates from around 100 to 2,000 per minute, sensing punched holes with mechanical, electrical, or, later, optical sensors. The operation of many machines was directed by the use of a removable plugboard or control panel. Initially all machines were manual or electromechanical. The first use of an electronic component was in 1940 when a gas triode vacuum tube replaced a relay in an IBM card sorter.[7] Electronic components were used on other machines beginning in the late 1940s.

IBM was the largest supplier of unit record equipment and this article largely reflects IBM practice and terminology.


Sheet 1 of Hollerith's U.S. Patent 395,782 showing his early concept for recording statistical information by means of holes punched in paper.

History

Beginnings

In the 1880s Herman Hollerith invented the recording of data on a medium that could then be read by a machine. Prior uses of machine readable media had been for lists of instructions (not data) to drive programmed machines such as Jacquard looms and mechanized musical instruments. "After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched cards [...]".[8] To process these punched cards, sometimes referred to as "Hollerith cards", he invented the keypunch, sorter, and tabulator unit record machines.[9][10] These inventions were the foundation of the data processing industry. The tabulator used electromechanical relays to increment mechanical counters. Hollerith's method was used in the 1890 census. The company he founded in 1896, the Tabulating Machine Company (TMC), was one of four companies that were consolidated to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), later renamed "International Business Machines" (IBM).

Following the 1900 census a permanent Census bureau was formed. The bureau's contract disputes with Hollerith led to the formation of the Census Machine Shop where James Powers and others developed new machines for part of the 1910 census processing.[11] Powers left the Census Bureau in 1911, with rights to patents for the machines he developed, and formed the Powers Accounting Machine Company.[12] In 1927 Powers' company was acquired by Remington Rand.[13] In 1919 Fredrik Rosing Bull, after examining Hollerith's machines, began developing unit record machines for his employer. Bull's patents were sold in 1931, constituting the basis for Groupe Bull.

These companies, and others, manufactured and marketed a variety of general-purpose unit record machines for creating, sorting, and tabulating punched cards, even after the development of computers in the 1950s. Punched card technology had quickly developed into a powerful tool for business data-processing.

Timeline

Replica of the first Hollerith punched card tabulator with "sorting box" (right) at the Computer History Museum[14]


Hollerith machine in use at the London School of Economics in 1964

By the 1950s punched cards and unit record machines had become ubiquitous in academia, industry and government. The warning often printed on cards that were to be individually handled, "Do not fold, spindle or mutilate", became a motto for the post-World War II era (even though many people had no idea what spindle meant).

With the development of computers punched cards found new uses as their principal input media. Punched cards were used not only for data, but for a new application - computer programs, see: Computer programming in the punched card era. Unit record machines therefore remained in computer installations in a supporting role for keypunching, reproducing card decks, and printing.

Many organizations were loath to alter systems that were working, so production unit record installations remained in operation long after computers offered faster and more cost effective solutions. Specialized uses of punched cards, including toll collection, microform aperture cards, and punched card voting, kept unit record equipment in use into the twenty-first century. Another reason was cost or availability of equipment: for example in 1965 an IBM 1620 computer did not have a printer as standard equipment, so it was normal in such installations to punch printed output onto cards, using two cards per line if required and print these cards on an IBM 407 accounting machine and then throw the cards away.

Endings

Punched cards

Main article: Punched card

The basic unit of data storage was the punched card. For the IBM 80-column card, introduced in 1928, each column represented a single digit, letter or special character. A data value consisted of a field of adjacent columns. An employee number might occupy 5 columns; hourly pay rate, 3 columns; hours worked in a given week, 2 columns; department number 3 columns; project charge code 6 columns and so on.

IBM Stub cards or Short cards required unit record equipment with interchangeable feeds. For 51-column stub cards such feeds were available for the IBM 077, 080, 082, 402, 403, 419, 514, 519, and 523. Other stub cards could be read only by the IBM 514 and 519.[78]

Keypunching

Main article: Keypunch
IBM 029 Card Punch.

Original data was usually punched into cards by workers, often women, known as keypunch operators. Their work was often checked by a second operator using a verifier machine. Cards were also produced automatically by various unit record machines and later by computer output devices.

Sorting

IBM 082 Sorter.

An activity in many unit record shops was sorting card decks into the order necessary for the next processing step. Sorters, like the IBM 80 series Card Sorters, sorted input cards into one of 13 pockets depending on the holes punched in a selected column and the sorter's settings. The 13th pocket was for blanks and rejects. Sorting an input card deck into ascending sequence on a multiple column field, such as an employee number, was done by a radix sort, bucket sort, or a combination of the two methods.

Tabulating

Main article: Tabulating machine
An IBM 407 Accounting Machine at US Army's Redstone Arsenal in 1961.

Reports and summary data were generated by accounting or tabulating machines. The original tabulators only counted the presence of a hole at a location on a card. Simple logic, like and's and or's could be done using relays.

Later tabulators, such as those in IBM's 400 series, directed by a control panel, could do both addition and subtraction of selected fields to one or more counters and print each card on its own line. At some signal, say a following card with a different customer number, totals could be printed for the just completed customer number. Tabulators had become complex: the IBM 405 contained 55,000 parts (2,400 different) and 75 miles of wire; a Remington Rand machine circa 1941 contained 40,000 parts.[79][20]

Calculating

In 1931, IBM introduced the model 600 multiplying punch. The ability to divide became commercially available after World War II. The earliest of these calculating punches were electromechanical. Later models employed vacuum tube logic. Electronic modules developed for these units were used in early computers, such as the IBM 650. The Bull Gamma 3 calculator could be attached to tabulating machines, unlike the stand-alone IBM calculators.[57]

Card punching

IBM 519 Document-Originating Machine

Card punching operations included:

Singularly or in combination, these operations were provided in a variety of machines. The IBM 519 Document-Originating Machine could perform all of the above operations.

The IBM 549 Ticket Converter read data from Kimball tags, copying that data to punched cards.

Collating

A collator had two input hoppers and four output pockets. These machines could merge or match card decks based on the control panel's wiring as illustrated here. Collators performed operations comparable to a database join.

Interpreting

An interpreter would print characters equivalent to the values of columns on the card. The columns to be printed could be selected and even reordered, based on the machine's control panel wiring. Later models could print on one of several rows on the card. Unlike keypunches, which printed values directly above each column, interpreters generally used a font that was a little wider than a column and could only print up to 60 characters per row.[81] Typical later models include the IBM 550 Numeric Interpreter and the IBM 557 Alphabetic Interpreter.

Transmission of punched card data

Electrical transmission of punched card data was invented in the early 1930s. The device was called an Electrical Remote Control of Office Machines and was assigned to IBM. Inventors were Joseph C. Bolt of Boston & Curt I. Johnson; Worcester, Mass. assors to the Tabulating Machine Co., Endicott, NY. The Distance Control Device received a US patent in Aug.9,1932: U.S. Patent 1,870,230. Letters from IBM talk about filling in Canada in 9/15/1931.

Processing punched tape

The IBM 046 Tape-to-Card Punch and the IBM 047 Tape-to-Card Printing Punch (which was almost identical, but with the addition of a printing mechanism) read data from punched paper tape and punched that data into cards. The IBM 063 Card-Controlled Tape Punch read punched cards, punching that data into paper tape.[82]

Control panel wiring and Connection boxes

IBM 402 Accounting Machine control panel[83]

The operation of Hollerith/BTM/IBM/Bull tabulators and many other types of unit record equipment was directed by a control panel.[84] Operation of Powers-Samas/Remington Rand unit record equipment was directed by a connection box.[85]

Control panels had a rectangular array of holes called hubs which were organized into groups. Wires with metal ferrules at each end were placed in the hubs to make connections. The output from some card column positions might connected to a tabulating machine's counter, for example. A shop would typically have separate control panels for each task a machine was used for.

Note: Control panel wiring is sometimes referred to as programming, however that term applies only to the control panels of calculators, such as the IBM 602 and IBM 604, that specified a sequence of operations.

Paper handling equipment

Main article: Continuous stationery
A decollator and a burster

For many applications, the volume of fan-fold paper produced by tabulators required other machines, not considered to be unit record machines, to ease paper handling.

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Origin of the term unit record: It was in 1888 that Mr. Davidson conceived the idea... The idea was that the card catalog, then in fairly general use by libraries, could be adapted with advantage to certain 'commercial indexes'. ... Directly connected with these is one of the most important principles of all - the 'unit record' principal in business. Hitherto, the records of a business house had been kept, each for one fixed purpose, and their usefulness had been restricted by the inflexible limitations of a bound book. The unit record principle, made possible by the card system, gave to these records a new accessibility and significance. ... The Story of the Library Bureau. Cowen Company, Boston. 1909. p. 50.
  2. ↑ By 1887 ...Doctor Herman Hollerith had worked out the basis for a mechanical system of recording, compiling and tabulating census facts... Each card was used to record the facts about an individual or a family - a unit situation. These cards were the forerunners of today's punched cards or unit records. General Information Manual: An Introduction to IBM Punched Card Data Processing. IBM. p. 1.
  3. ↑ Data processing equipment can be divided into two basic types - computers and unit record machines. Unit Record derives form the common use of punchcards to carry information on a one-item-per-card basis, which makes them unit records. Janda, Kenneth (1965). Data Processing. Northwestern University Press. p. 47.
  4. ↑ Like the index card, the punched card is a unit record containing one kind of data, which can be combined with other kinds of data punched in other cards. McGill, Donald A.C. (1962). Punched Cards, Data Processing for Profit Improvement. McGraw-Hill. p. 29.
  5. ↑ International Business Machines Corp. (1957). Machine Functions (PDF). 224-8208-3.
  6. ↑ International Business Machines Corp. (1959). Flow Charting and Block Diagramming Techniques (PDF). /C20-8008-0.
  7. ↑ Phelps, Byron E. (1980). "Early Electronic Computing Developments at IBM". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 2 (3): 253–67. doi:10.1109/MAHC.1980.10035. ISSN 1058-6180.
  8. ↑ Columbia University Computing History - Herman Hollerith
  9. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau: The Hollerith Machine
  10. ↑ An early use of "Hollerith Card" can be found in the 1914 Actuarial Soc of America Trans. v.XV.51,52- Perforated Card System
  11. ↑ Truesdell, Leon E. (1965). The Development of Punch Card Tabulation in the Bureau of the Census 1890-1940. US GPO.
  12. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau: Tabulation and Processing
  13. 1 2 A History of Sperry Rand Corporation (4th ed.). Sperry Rand. 1967. p. 32.
  14. ↑ The "sorting box" was controlled by the tabulator. The "sorter", an independent machine, was a later development. Austrian, Geoffrey D. (1982). Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Giant of Information Processing. Columbia University Press. pp. 41, 178–79. ISBN 0-231-05146-8.
  15. ↑ "IBM Archives: Hollerith Automatic Horizontal Sorter".
  16. ↑ Computing at Columbia: Timeline - Early
  17. ↑ Durand, Hon. E. Dana (September 23–28, 1912). Tabulation by Mechanical Means - Their Advantages and Limitations, volume VI. Transactions of the Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography.
  18. ↑ Cortada, James W. (1993). Before the Computer: IBM, NCR, Burroughs, & Remington Rand & The Industry they Created 1865—1956. Princeton. pp. 56–59.
  19. ↑ Cemach, Harry P. (1951). The Elements of Punched Card Accounting. Pitman. p. 5.
  20. 1 2 Know-How Makes Them Great. Remington Rand. 1941.
  21. 1 2 IBM Archives: Endicott chronology, 1951-1959
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Information Technology Industry TimeLine
  23. ↑ Cortada p.57
  24. ↑ Pugh p.259
  25. ↑ Van Ness, Robert G. (1962). Principles of Punched Card Data Processing. The Business Press. p. 15.
  26. ↑ Punched Hole Accounting. IBM. 1924. p. 18.
  27. ↑ Engelbourg p.173
  28. ↑ "IBM Archives: 1920". IBM.
  29. ↑ Rojas, Raul (editor) (2001). Encyclopedia of Computers and Computer History. Fitzroy Dearborn. p. 656.
  30. ↑ Know-How Makes Them Great. Remington Rand. 1941.
  31. ↑ IBM Type 80 Electric Punched Card Sorting Machine
  32. ↑ IBM 301 Accounting Machine (the Type IV)
  33. ↑ Columbia University Professor Ben Wood
  34. ↑ Pugh, Emerson W. (1995). Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology. MIT. p. 67. ISBN 0-262-16147-8.
  35. ↑ Cortada p.57
  36. ↑ Pugh p.259
  37. ↑ Van Ness, Robert G. (1962). Principles of Punched Card Data Processing. The Business Press. p. 15.
  38. 1 2 Pugh (1995) p.50
  39. ↑ Heide, Lars (2002) National Capital in the Emergence of a Challenger to IBM in France Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
  40. ↑ H.W.Egli - BULL Tabulator model T30 Archived May 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  41. ↑ Bashe, Charles J.; Johnson, Lyle R; Palmer, John H.; Pugh, Emerson W. (1986). IBM's Early Computers. MIT. p. 14. ISBN 0-262-02225-7.
  42. ↑ Eames, Charles; Eames, Ray (1973). A Computer Perspective. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. p. 95. The date given, 1920, should be 1931 (see the Columbia Difference Tabulator web site)
  43. ↑ Columbia Difference Tabulator
  44. ↑ Columbia Alumni News, Vol.XXIII, No.11, December 11, 1931, p.1
  45. ↑ New York Times, July 15, 1933, All subsidiaries of the International Business Machines Corporation in this county have been merged with the parent company to obtain efficient operation.
  46. ↑ William Rodgers (1969). THINK: A Biography of the Watsons and IBM. p. 83.
  47. ↑ IBM 077 Collator
  48. ↑ IBM Archive: Endicott card manufacturing
  49. ↑ Phelps, B.E. (July 1980). "Early Computers at IBM". Annals of the History of Computing. IEEE Computer Society. 2 (3): 254. doi:10.1109/mahc.1980.10035.
  50. ↑ Equipements à cartes perforées (Punched cards machines) type A (GR) 1941-1950 Archived August 21, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  51. ↑ Bashe (1986) p.21
  52. ↑ The IBM 602 Calculating Punch
  53. ↑ IBM 603 Electronic Multiplier
  54. ↑ Bashe (1986) p.62
  55. ↑ IBM Archives: Endicott chronology 1941-1949
  56. ↑ Bull Gamma 3 1952-1960 Archived July 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  57. 1 2 Bull Gamma 3
  58. ↑ Bashe, Charles J.; Pugh, Emerson W.; Johnson, Lyle R.; Palmer, John H. (1986). IBM's Early Computers. MIT Press. pp. 461–474. ISBN 0-262-02225-7.
  59. ↑ Computer History Museum: Underwood Corporation
  60. ↑ An Underwood-Samas sorter
  61. ↑ Bashe, Charles J.; et al. (1986). IBM's Early Computers. MIT. p. 386.
  62. ↑ Pugh, Emerson W.; Johnson, Lyle R.; Palmer, John H. (1991). IBM's 360 and early 370 systems. MIT Press. p. 34. ISBN 0-262-16123-0.
  63. ↑ IBM Archives - DPD chronology
  64. ↑ IBM 1940 products brochure
  65. ↑ Bashe (1986) pp.465–494 Chapter 12 Broadening the Base, a history of IBM's 1401 and 1403 development.
  66. ↑ Columbia University: The IBM 609 Calculator
  67. 1 2 IBM System 3
  68. ↑ Dyson, George (1999) The Undead (Cardamation), Wired v.7.03
  69. ↑ IBM 407 Accounting Machine
  70. ↑ IBM Rochester chronology, page3
  71. ↑ IBM Rochester chronology
  72. ↑ IBM 029 Card Punch
  73. ↑ Visit to a working IBM 402 in Conroe, Texas
  74. ↑ Conroe company still using computers museums want to put on display By Craig Hlavaty, Houston Chronicle, April 24, 2013
  75. ↑ http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/philly/obituary.aspx?n=robert-g-swartz&pid=155113064
  76. ↑ https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/bit.listserv.ibm-main/ck2jMiqBY_w
  77. ↑ "California Tab Card Company".
  78. ↑ IBM (1956). The Design of IBM Cards (PDF). p. 22. 22-5526-4.
  79. ↑ Cambell-Kelly, Martin; Aspray, William (2004). Computer: a history of the information machine (2 ed.). Basic Books. p. 42.
  80. ↑ IBM (1949). The How and Why of IBM Mark Sensing (PDF). 52-5862-0.
  81. ↑ IBM Card Interpreters
  82. ↑ IBM (1958). IBM 063 Card-Controlled Tape Punch (PDF). 224-5997-3.
  83. ↑ IBM (1963). IBM Accounting Machine: 402, 403 and 419 Principles of Operation (PDF). 224-1614-13.
  84. ↑ IBM (1956). IBM Reference Manual: Functional Wiring Principles (PDF). 22-6275-0.
  85. ↑ Sutton, O. (1943). Machine Accounting for Small or Large Business. Macdonald & Evans. pp. 173–178.

Further reading

Note: Most IBM form numbers end with an edition number, a hyphen followed by one or two digits.

For Hollerith and Hollerith's early machines see: Herman Hollerith#Further reading

Histories
Punched card applications
The machines
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.