Mainframe Computer Component, Magnetic Shift Register from the Mark IV Computer
date: label: date made
content: 1951-1952
name: label: maker
content: Harvard University. Harvard Computation Laboratory
notes: label: Description
content: This is a magnetic shift register which was part of the Harvard Mark IV computer. It is one of two hundred such registers used in the computer. The unit is mounted in a metal rack with a square cross-section. Four metal rods run end-to-end in the rack, holding the magnetic cores. Thirty-two cores are mounted on each of three of the rods; the fourth rod holds thirty-four. The cores are separated by individual holders fastened to the rod, as well as by insulators and magnetic isolators. they are also linked by rectifiers and resistors. Each core is about 5/8 inches in diameter, wound with multiple turns of fine copper wire. The end of the rack with a handle has sockets for four 6V6 vacuum tubes which would drive the unit - the tubes themselves are missing.
label: Description
content: The Mark IV computer was, as the name suggests, the fourth in a series of computers built under the direction of Howard Aiken - the Mark I and Mark II were relay machines, while the Mark III had some electronic parts. The Mark IV was the first all-electronic machine in the series. Like the others, it was built at the Harvard Computation Laboratory - in this case the sponsor was the U.S. Air Force. The machine was built in 1951 and 1952 for use at Harvard. This component was one of two saved by the donor, Vincent E. Giuliano, when the machine was destroyed in 1958 or 1959, when he was a Harvard graduate student working on a doctorate at the Computation Lab.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Vincent E. Giuliano
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1987.0041.01
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0041.01
label: accession number
content: 1987.0041
objectType: label: Object Name
content: computer component, mainframe
label: Object Name
content: mainframe computer component
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 73.7 cm x 12.3 cm x 12.3 cm; 29 1/32 in x 4 27/32 in x 4 27/32 in