Harvard Mark I Tape Transport, IBM ASCC
date: label: Date made
content: 1944
name: label: maker
content: IBM
label: maker
content: Harvard University
notes: label: Description
content: This is the control panel and tape transport for the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), known otherwise as the Harvard Mark I. The Mark I was one of the first machines that could be programmed to carry out calculations automatically. Initially designed to solve scientific problems, it was used during World War II to carry out computations for the United States Navy. It was a one-of-a-kind machine. After the war, IBM would greatly expand its activity in computing to include electronic computers. Harvard began one of the first degree programs in computer science. People who had worked on the Mark I, such as Grace Murray Hopper, also went to work for other early computer manufacturers. More generally, many scholars and ordinary people first learned about "giant brains," as early computers were called, through workshops and press releases of the Harvard Computation Laboratory.
label: Description
content: The cast iron object has gearing drive, card holder, electrical connection, and weight. Four drums carry punched tapes with programs.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: I. Bernard Cohen and Gregory W. Welch with the cooperation of Robert V. D. Campbell, Makin' Numbers: Howard Aiken and the Computer, Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 1999.
label: Description
content: I. Bernard Cohen. Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer, Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 1999.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge, Harvard University
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Computers & Business Machines
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of President and Fellows of Harvard University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.323581
label: accession number
content: 248831
label: catalog number
content: 323581
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Computer Component
label: Object Name
content: Electromechanical Computer Component
label: Other Terms
content: Computer Component; Electromechanical Computer Component; Tape Transport Unit
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 44.5 cm x 35 cm x 47 cm; 17 1/2 in x 13 3/4 in x 18 1/2 in