M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net> wrote:
The IBM unit record or Tabulating machines that
we've been discussing
had their roots in the same principles as these calculators, adding
machines and cash registers (...)
Thanks for that interesting piece of history! Nice insight into the workings of unit
record equipment, a quite fascinating category of data processing in itself.
My contribution however was not targeted at the IBM equipment thread, btw.
"Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
"Roy J. Tellason" <rtellason at
verizon.net> wrote:
This stirs a vague recollection of an old
mechanical adding machine I
once had, the kind that had a big rectangular array of buttons instead
of just a "10-key" set of numbers. I have *no* idea how it stored a
number in there, though.
(...)
When you mention the big array of keys, I think of a comptometer.
There's a nice discussion on the web:
http://www2.cruzio.com/~vagabond/ComptHome.html
But the item I'm thinking of was alphanumeric, more like a Teletype.
Cheers,
Chuck
Yes, exactly that is the class of machines I meant. There were similar ones which printed
on a platten carriage mounted behind the adding machine body, and some of the latest
electromechanical models had a "type box" as a means of commenting the ledgers,
invoices - whatever. The letters were assigned as secondary functions to some of the keys
and the machine would print those instead of accepting numeric input when it was in a
column definded for comments (which was done by sticking pegs into a programming board
moving together with the carriage).
--
Arno Kletzander
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