PDP-15 Teletype Unit
date: label: date made
content: 1972
name: label: maker
content: Digital Equipment Corporation
notes: label: Description
content: This is the teletype for the PDP-15 computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation to serve as part of the Finder prototype fingerprint reader, a minicomputer used by the FBI to match fingerprints after they had been through the preprocessor.
label: Description
content: From the late nineteenth century, fingerprints have been used by police agencies to identify both criminal suspects and bodies of the deceased. With the introduction of the FBI Finder system in 1972, fingerprints became electronic information that could be processed and communicated at electronic speeds. Hence this system symbolizes changes in the connections between electronic information technology and privacy, government power, and the limits of law enforcement.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1988.0467.02
label: catalog number
content: 1988.0467.02
label: accession number
content: 1988.0467
objectType: label: Object Name
content: teletype
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 37 in x 20 in x 24 in; 93.98 cm x 50.8 cm x 60.96 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 93.9 cm x 50.1 cm x 60.9 cm; 36 31/32 in x 19 23/32 in x 23 31/32 in