Microcite Electromechanical Scanner
date: label: date made
content: ca 1964
name: label: maker
content: Stern, Joshua
notes: label: Description
content: The Microcite was an information retrieval machine originally created in the 1950s. This version of the machine was patented in 1964 by Joshua Stern, who worked at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institutes of Standards and Technology). Stern was in the Instrument Reference Services at the time, which was established in the early 1950s to gather and keep records of scientific instruments and their use. The Microcite was designed to more easily retrieve documents or records when searching through a large database, such as the National Bureau of Standards’ collection of abstracts for scientific instruments. The machine used punch cards and a document-matrix, a large microfilm-like roll of documents in a given collection, to search by key word. The Microcite was able to search millions of documents with its mechanized search process, and was used for many years at the Instrument Reference Services office itself. The Microcite in the Smithsonian’s collections came from the National Institute of Health, where it was used at the National Cancer Institute.
label: Description
content: The Microcite resembles a large desk with a spot for the user to sit while using the machine. To retrieve any desired documents, the Microcite used what is called the “peek-a-boo” technique, a method of developed by Stern and his colleague W. A. Wildhack. Each punched card represented a particular index word while the position of each hole on a card referred to a document that was associated with that word. A user picked which index words they wanted to search for, stacked the cards associated with those words, and inserted them into the Microcite with the face of the stack facing outward, so that they could see the holes. The machine would then shine a light from behind the stacked cards so the user could easily see which holes remained unobstructed and therefore which documents were associated with all of the selected index words. The light shining, or “peeking,” out through the holes as an indicator of the relevant documents earned the method its name. After inserting the cards, users turned two control knobs on the front of the machine to position a cursor over an unobstructed hole and these knobs would, in turn, move the document matrix to the document associated with that punched hole. The document images were projected onto a screen in front of the user with the serial number for each document shown above, so that it could be more easily found in the future. This mechanization of information retrieval allowed people working with large numbers of records to locate information more easily and efficiently.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: “Microcite, an aid to more effective referencing.” <I>National Bureau of Standards Technical News Bulletin</I>, 41, 141 (1957).
label: Description
content: Stern, Joshua. “An Application of the Peek-A-Boo Principle to Information Retrieval.” In <I>Proceedings of the Symposium on Materials Information Retrieval: Dayton, Ohio, November 28, 1962</I>, 93-115.
label: Description
content: Stern, Joshua. Information Retrieval Apparatus. U.S. Patent 3,117,491 filed June 29, 1962, and issued January 14, 1964.
label: Description
content: Stern, Joshua and W. A. Wildhack. “Chapter 6: The Peek-A-Boo System – Optical Coincidence Subject Cards in Information Searching.” In <I>Punched Cards: Their Applications to Science and Industry</I>, edited by R. S. Casey, J.W. Perry, M. M. Berry and A. Kent. New York: Rheinhold Publishing Co, 1958.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Information Technology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Computers & Business Machines
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Transfer from Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.314612.01
label: accession number
content: 314612
label: catalog number
content: 314612.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Scanner, Electromechanical
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 127 cm x 216.5 cm x 96 ft; 50 in x 85 1/4 in x 29.2608 m
label: Measurements
content: code converter: 9 in x 21 in x 23 in; 22.86 cm x 53.34 cm x 58.42 cm
label: Measurements
content: black box: 44.3 cm x 54 cm x 46 cm; 17 7/16 in x 21 1/4 in x 18 1/8 in