Evening star., 1960-08-10
TALKING OF BUSINESS ~:-.>
Business Machine Firm Founded
On Old System of Doto RetrievoI
By WILLIAM MacDOUGALL
: Star stan Writer


memory may help to solve some
of Americas growing tech
biological problems.
At least that's what the in.
Ventor. Frederick Jonker o.
Washington. hopes. He's bank.
ing his fledgling company. Jon.
ker Business Machines, Inc. or
the prospect Of success in that
field.
Mr.. Jonker, Al, an aeronau-
tical engineer who learned tC
speak English while hiding
from the Nazis in his native
Netherlands, founded the firm
two years ago. In a modest
Gaithersburg MD factory, he
is producing business machines
which he hopes will revolu-
tionize the Nations scientific
effort.
Mr.. Jonker knows full well
he's taking on the roughest
kind of competition in this
field. But the prospect doesn't
frighten him.
Confident of Ability
He figures he is marketing
one Of the simplest and least
expensive business machines
on the market. AS a result, he
is confident it will prove to be
of such universal adaptability
that technical data will be
easier to store and research.
Americas scientific effort, he
pointed out, has become so far
reaching and complex it is a
major task simply to sort and
file the information.
He thinks an inexpensive
and easy-to-operate business
machine-such as his own
would go a long way to solve
the problem. From a central
indeXing agency, cardboard
"cells" of information could be
sent out to owners of similar
machines throughout the coun-
try-thus assuring widespread
and rapid dissemination of in
formation.
y These are the dreams he
eherishes for his company. So
far his firm has not returned
q profit. but some $50 investors,
most of them in the Washing
ton area, had enough conf
dence in the companys future
to buy $4,000 worth of stock
in an initial public offering last
spring.
Ancient Idea
Mr.. Jonker freely admits that
his system-called TermatreX
Information Retrieval-is based
on an ancient idea which he
has updated and refined for
modern usage.
In essence, his device is this:
A machine with an awesome
memory carved on a set of card
board brains. Unlike most other
mechanical business machines,
the Termatrex indexes material
by breaking it down into sub
ject matter and separating
those subjects on cards.
There is nothing very COM
plicated about the machine. 1t
has no electronic tubes. no cir
cult breakers and no printing
mechanisms-only a scaled
board, an electric light and
hand punched cardboard
squares.
Simple Procedure
Consequently, practically any,
body can use the machine to
locate the sort of material he
wants. All he has to do is pull
category cards from a file. line
them up on board and record
the number of a hole that ap-
pears in the light. The unit
represented by that hole will
combine all the characteristics
sought.
Mr.. Jonker makes no ex-
travagant claims for the
machine, which is not in the
mathematical computer class.
But that is its big advan-
tage," the inventor declared.
1T is lower in cost and anybody
can operate it in his own
Office"
Ranging in price from less
than $100 to $2,700, the Terma-
trek machines are capable of
indexing up to 10000 units in
an unlimited number of cate
gories. The company is also
working on plans to increase
that number many times over
by n1iniaturizing the holes.
Even though the Jonker Co.,
now numbering Is persons, has
practically no sales organiza-
ton yet, it has sold its products
to such buyers as the du Pont
Co., General Electric and the
National Science Foundation.
Brokerage Firm Note
One Washington brokerage
firm, noting this list of
distinguished clients" recently
concluded that "Jonker is a
small company with a good
chance of beating the big COM
puter companies to the informa-
ton retrieval market - and
making them like it,"
A resident of the United
States since 1948 and a citizen
since the early sos. MI. Jonker
is accustomed to f1ghting-and
winning.
He recalls that he, like most
other Dutchmen, was active ir
the resistance against German
occupation of the Netherlands
in World War II. AS was his
custom, he used even the idle