Mystery Object - ancient electronics?

We'll see...

I also programmed an IBM1401 and all my programs were

In fact the 80 column punched card was used by IBM long before any computers had even been invented and were used for unit record machines so that the entire deck of cards could be sorted and split up so that collators could do stuff like get a subset of cards of say those who were married etc.

In fact 80-column punched cards were invented by Hollerith before IBM made their first machine.

However I was commenting on your statement "cards came in with the IBM S/360-67)" which reads as though that was the first use.

That isnt saying that was the first time that they were seen in the world, JUST that that may well have been the first time they were used IN THE COMPUTER LAB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE

Yep, that's what I meant Rod, thanks -- sloppy phrasing on my part I think!

Would have replied before, but I've been out of Usenet for a couple of weeks.

Another John

Sorry IJJ. (btw I'm responding here as I read each message ... not very advisable, but it's the quickest way to catch up.)

We [all] know that 80 columns cards ("Hollerith" cards as they were still referred to occasionally in the 60s-70s) came in long before the IBM S/360 series. It was my fault for not emphasising what Rod was trying to emphasise above: we didn't use punch cards _at Newcastle_ until we got the S/360-67 in

Further, (answering another point), I did say previously that the mystery object may not necessariiy have been used with either of the two previous "mainframes" [1], the English Electric KDF9 or the Ferranti Pegasus, because Our Founder collected *anything* that looked mechanically or electronically interesting; people very often brought stuff to him, once they knew he had a Collection.

Which reminds me to make another point: NUHCC is emphatically not a museum (which takes massively more resources than we have): we are a Historical Collection, which is intended for posterity, and for educational purposes in the meantime. We have a few small displays.

If sufficiently interested, you can find our catalogue (a work in progress) at

Cheers, and thanks everybody for all this "grist to the mill"

Another John

I will certainly report back, IJJ! :-), and thank you for your continuing interest, and valuable thoughts!

I'm collecting the opinions and will summarise eventually. I have to say: it's all being driven essentially by my own curiosity! Which, I believe, is in the true spririt of this Group :-D

AJ

Another John snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote

No problem, thanks for the followup

Hello all (posted separately to uk.d-i-y and to alt.folklore.computers).

Back in September I asked in these two groups if anyone could enlighten me as to the identity and the purpose of a “mystery object”. It is part of our Newcastle University Historical Computing Collection

To remind you, this is the object:

A decisive extract from the early discussion was this (from IndyJessJohn in DIY):

The first computer room I worked in had ancillary equipment for dealing with punched cards [including] an IBM Collator. … The whole thing was controlled by patch boards. By connecting one hole to another by a jump lead and using a collections of such connections it was possible to programme the machine to subdivide and/or merge depending on the outcome to be achieved. The key similarity was that the control boards had a handle like the one in the picture and that allowed the control board to be lowered into a slot; then a lever moved the slot and board into contact with fixed connectors in the machine. […] The unit pictured is a lot smaller than the ones I wired up ….

Further advice from the DIY group led me to alt.folklore.computing, where more discussion took place, Scott Lurndal's response neatly summarised 2 or 3 of the suggestions made in the group:

This appears to be a pre-programmed plug that plugs into a matching plug-board (rather than wiring with individual jumper wires; the user could simply plug in this entire board). Perhaps a crypto-key, but also could be a sort pattern for a card sorter.

which in turn led me to Glenn Henry’s Collection of patch boards and the like:

CONCLUSION: We would have liked to identify more closely the machine with which the patchboard might have been used, but discussions dried up, and so ...

(1) This patchboard obviously didn’t use jumpleads: it has been soldered.

(2) Therefore it was made in-house for a fixed purpose, which probably would never change (see above).

(3) It may possibly have been made for use with [a peripheral for] our first computer - a Ferranti Pegasus (1957-1963), or its successor an EE KDF9 (1963-1974). (Our subsequent mainframes were IBM S/360-67, IBM S/370-168 and an Amdahl 5860 - none likely to have used this object.)

(4) Or it may have nothing to do with anything in the University’s Computing Laboratory, and was simply given to our "founding father” as something for his collection: we will never know, because time has marched on, and there is no-one now alive who will have known this object ‘in person’.

Thanks All, and best wishes, Another John