Mainframe Computer Component, SEAC Mercury Delay Line Memory
name: label: maker
content: National Bureau of Standards
notes: label: Description
content: This is a portion on the memory of the Standards Electronic Automatic Computer (SEAC), the first electronic computer with internally stored programs built in the United States. The first of three computers made at NBS, the SEAC was designed, built, and operated by engineers, scientists, and mathematicians there, with funding from the U.S. military and other government agencies.
label: Description
content: Originally, SEAC was developed as an interim facility while NBS was awaiting the delivery of the first commercial computer to be used by the Bureau of the Census and subsequently by the Army and the Air Force. Its successful completion made computation possible at NBS before any commercial computer was delivered. Notwithstanding the original interim nature of SEAC, this successful resource, with all its subsequent enhancements, continued to function usefully for the government for over 13 years.
label: Description
content: The SEAC had sixty-four mercury filled glass tubes with a quartz crystal at each end. One crystal was used as a transmitter and one as a receiver in this acoustic delay line memory storage unit. The acoustic delay line had a capacity of eight words. Information traveled in the form of sound waves through the mercury in the tubes. Each tube had a corresponding amplifier. For tubes, see 1980.0305.04 and.05. For amplifiers, see 1985,0305.06 and 1985.07.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1980.0305.04
label: catalog number
content: 1980.0305.04
label: accession number
content: 1980.0305
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Mainframe Component
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 8.8 cm x 65.5 cm x 4.5 cm; 3 15/32 in x 25 25/32 in x 1 25/32 in