comptometers

[maitiustandun]

hi , many years ago 60 years to be precise , i had a sister who worked in a government office where she operated this machine , it punched little square holes in a card with columns on it , the card was about the size of a road map folder , with a triangular piece cut from one corner , so that the cards could only fit into the machine one way , the position of these punched squares in the columns , donated how much rations each family in the state were entitled to , can anyone tell me was this the earliest type of crude computer ? regards maitiu

[ppppenguin]

Contomotors? Do you mean comptometers?

The cards sound like standard Hollerith/IBM 80 column punch cards. Herman Hollerith invented his first punch card system over 100 years ago for census work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith

Hollerith mechanical card machines were used during WW2, notably for calculations in the Manhattan Project (A-bomb). I think the card size was the same as "modern" computer punch cards by then.

[Kat Manton]

Hi,

My mother was a comptometer operator (most usually working in the "comp pool" on company accounts.) When I was a kid she'd occasionally bring one home if some work needed doing over a weekend. All were driven by electric motor, though I remember one had a socket in the side for a handle. Another type she brought home once coped with pounds, shillings and pence. Fascinating things, but none of the types she brought home had a card punch, so this perhaps is something different.

Regards, Kat.

[Dave Moll]

Here is a computer punched card in case anyone hasn't seen one:

[maitiustandun]

thanks for that jeffrey , and point taken a bout the pronounciation , but it was sixty years ago, i was about ten then , and used to play with the discarded cards , regards maitiu.

[ALANS ANITAS]

The Holerith punch card syatms were still in use when I worked at (now defunct) Painton and Co. in Northampton, in the early 60's and at Leicester City Transport in the early 70's.
Comptometers were developed by Felt and Tarrant of Chicago, and marketed by Bell Punch in the UK. Later, Bell Punch started building comptometers, Sumlock Comptometer, another company within the same group was the sales and service organisation in the UK


Regards


ALAN

[Dave Moll]

Istel Ltd (also, I believe, now defunct) still hadn't completely got rid of Hollerith punched cards when I left them in 1986, although for some time they had been gradually replacing them with "card images" stored on disc and submitted from computer terminals.

I hasten to add that the example I showed above was MUCH earlier - from my schooldays.

[evingar]

Originally Posted by Dave Moll

Istel Ltd (also, I believe, now defunct)

It's still about, but now part of America's AT&T.

A potted history can be found here :-

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/compa...y-History.html

[maitiustandun]

the head offices of the irish hospitals sweepstakes [also defunct ] the first lotto ever, with addresses all over the world also used these machines for customers records etc . maitiu.

[Tom_I]

Originally Posted by maitiustandun

the head offices of the irish hospitals sweepstakes [also defunct ] the first lotto ever, with addresses all over the world also used these machines for customers records etc . maitiu.

I'm still not clear exactly what this machine is. If it was used to store names and addresses etc, then it's not what I understand as a comptometer, which is just a calculating machine.

Like Kat's, my mother was a comptometer operator just after WW2, often involved in trials of new machines being considered by various Civil Service departments. I never head her mention any of them using cards, or anything similar.

And the early machines didn't work in pounds, shillings and pence. When doing currency calculations the operators were required to mentally convert shillings and pence to decimal values, and back again at the end. Time was when you could give my mother any £sd sum, down to the farthing, and she could instantly tell you the decimal value. It's strange that she constantly complained about not liking the "new money" from 1971 onwards, and sadly now, as her faculties decline, she thinks more in shillings than in pounds.......

Tom

[jay_oldstuff]

This is what i've alwayse known to be a comptometer i got this recentely to go with another smaller hand operated one i got years ago. i guess this one dates to sometime in the 60/70's

sorry about poor quality of the pic i used my phone camera.

Jay

[paulsherwin]

Before the computer era, Hollerith punch cards were used in a wide range of machinery including textile equipment and mechanical musical instruments, but the main office use was in tabulators. These produced counts of values and were used in censuses and the like. They could also crosstabulate so could produce lists of people falling into different categories. I would imagine this was how they were used in the Irish social security system.

Paul