Tuesday, October 12, 2021
IBM had Pascal in 1957!
No, not Turbo Pascal. Pascal's adder.
Continuing my 1957 IBM theme:
IBM's field engineers sometimes needed to figure in hexadecimal. IBM made sure its engineers were equipped with superdeluxe pocket-size hex calculators.
But they weren't electronic. IBM's engineers were using the original mechanical adding machines while servicing the most advanced electronic sorting machines.
I saw this on Ebay and had to buy it. Closeup view:
On the back it says MADE IN USA, and lists Patent number 2797047. The patent (for decimal, not hex) was granted to Sterling Plastics in New Jersey in 1957.
Somebody had scratched 'Bad Carry' on the back, but the carry action works fine. It just needed to be loosened up. The only problem is that it doesn't have a convenient way to reset to zero. The older Addometer pictured above it had a reset lever.
Sterling sounded familiar but I couldn't place it at first. I have several slide rules made by Sterling.
The Slide Rule Museum gives a history of Sterling and shows its decimal adders, which were sold commercially. Presumably the hex version was a special 'fleet order' for IBM.
I saw this on Ebay and had to buy it. Closeup view:
On the back it says MADE IN USA, and lists Patent number 2797047. The patent (for decimal, not hex) was granted to Sterling Plastics in New Jersey in 1957.
Somebody had scratched 'Bad Carry' on the back, but the carry action works fine. It just needed to be loosened up. The only problem is that it doesn't have a convenient way to reset to zero. The older Addometer pictured above it had a reset lever.
Sterling sounded familiar but I couldn't place it at first. I have several slide rules made by Sterling.
The Slide Rule Museum gives a history of Sterling and shows its decimal adders, which were sold commercially. Presumably the hex version was a special 'fleet order' for IBM.Labels: Happy Ending, new toy
¶ 1:50 PM
