3M Company Merchandise Data Recorder
name: label: maker
content: 3M
notes: label: Description
content: Automatic scanning and processing of informationabout merchandise Is now commonly done with bar code readers. In the 1950s, Howard Davis of the Jordan Marsh department stores began talking with Richad G. Zens about such processing. Engineers Henry Shunk and Joseph Welty of Massachusetts designed such a system, applied for a patent in 1959, and received it in 1963. They assigned the patent to Automatic Records, Inc. of Natick, Massachusetts. The machine used thermo-Fax paper produced by 3M Corporation, and 3M agreed to handle the recording part of the system, Scanners were produced by Automatic Records, a division of Printed Electronics Corporation of Natick. This object is the resulting "3M Merchancise Data Recorder." It has a beige metal case; metal reels and front platform; a plastic front window and on/off switch; a rubber cord, plug and wheel; and a paper tape. A mark on the object reads: 3M (/) MERCHANDISE DATA RECORDER. Another mark reads: MODEL 25AA (/) SERIAL NO. 4011034.
label: Description
content: For related documentation, and the historical information presented here, see 1984.0932.02.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Natick
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 P. W. Clark
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1984.0932.01
label: accession number
content: 1984.0932
label: catalog number
content: 1984.0932.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Data Recorder
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (case, reels, platform, circuitry material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (window, switch material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (tape material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (cord material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19 cm x 40 cm x 43 cm; 7 15/32 in x 15 3/4 in x 16 15/16 in