Silicon City: Computer History Made in New York

November 13, 2015 – April 17, 2016 Selected PR Images

Every 15 minutes, 500 men, women, and children settled into the “people wall,” which rose majestically into an extraordinary theater known as “the egg.” Designed by Eero Saarinen the egg was the centerpiece of IBM’s pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Charles and Ray Eames multi-screen media experience titled THINK introduced visitors to the magic of the information machine. New York World’s Fair IBM Pavilion, 1964. Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives.

The Milton Bradley Company, The Official New York World's Fair Game, 1964. New-York Historical Society.

IBM looked to Madison Avenue designers like Paul Rand to craft its brand identity, and used the 1964 World’s Fair as a public “coming out party” for the Information Age. Paul Rand, World’s Fair IBM Booklet, 1964. Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives.

“Come back to the Fair” / New York World’s Fair poster, 1964. New-York Historical Society.

Thomas Edison did not invent computers. Yet, all early computers relied on Edison’s work. While refining his light bulb, Edison noticed that electrons in a vacuum flowed from a heated filament to a cooler foil plate. Nearly 30 years later, physicist John Fleming used this “Edison effect” (thermionic emission) to create the vacuum tube. For half a century, vacuum tubes were the voltage regulators and current amplifiers at the heart of radios and other electronic devices—including computers. Matthew Brady, Professor Thomas Edison and His Phonograph, 1878. Private collection.

If you asked to see a computer in the 1940s, you might have been introduced to Jean Bartik. Or Frances Bilas. Or one of the other women working on ENIAC. The Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), developed for the Army during World War II, had no built-in memory. Programming required connecting cables physically and setting switches by hand. In a wartime era when women dominated the field of programming, the ones who pioneered this painstaking task were called “computers” (just as the word “typewriter” once referred to people who used typewriting machines). Two women wiring the right side of the ENIAC with a new program, ca. 1946. Courtesy US Army. Standing: Marlyn Wescoff, Crouching: Ruth Lichterman.

Twelve thousand five hundred vacuum tubes and over twenty one thousand relays stood at the core of IBM’s Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator. Developed by astronomer Wallace Eckert of Columbia University, the calculator was installed in IBM’s headquarters at 590 Madison Avenue and was operated from 1948 to 1952. The SSEC is known for having calculated the positions of the moon and planets, the first computer to store data, as well as being the last electromechanical calculator ever built. IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator Operator Console, 1948. Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives.

The IBM 700/7000 series of mainframe computers dominated the market in the 50s and 60s, witnessing the transition from vacuum tube to transistors and from electrostatic storage to magnetic-core memory. These computers were built for specific tasks such as scientific, military or financial. IBM 702 was aimed specifically at business computing. IBM 702 Arithmetical and Logical CPU Unit, 1954. Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives.

IBM 729 Magnetic tape memory was used in the 700 and 1400 mainframe series. Up to 2400 feet of magnetic tape wound on reels with a 10.5 inch diameter. By the end of the 50s magnetic tape was replaced by RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control), also known as the first hard disk drives. IBM 729 Magnetic Tape Unit, ca. 1960. Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives.

IBM’s System/360 introduced a line of general-purpose machines. Instead of being designed for a particular use, these flexible computers could tackle virtually any task simply by changing software. Plus, the various models in the System/360 family were compatible with each other. System/360 transformed computing, setting the pattern for today’s world of versatile, flexible, general-purpose machines. Thomas Watson Jr. with IBM 360, 1964.Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives / Photograph, Mel Koner.

The more flexible and versatile a computer—like IBM’s System/360—the more it depends on software to tell the machine what to do and how to do it. FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslating), a computer programming language introduced by IBM in 1957, was suited to calculating numbers and formulas, making it ideal for scientists and engineers. COBOL (COmputer Business Oriented Language), designed for commercial data processing, debuted two years later. Its development team, sponsored by the Department of Defense, included Grace Hopper—called the “mother of COBOL." It is still used today. Grace Hopper Teaching Cobol, ca. 1960s. Courtesy of Computer History Museum.

463 West Street was the home of Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1898 to 1966 when the research work was relocated to Murray Hill, New Jersey. Known as Westbeth, the 13-building complex was once one of the largest industrial research centers in the United States. The first experimental talking movies, video telephones, radars, and black and white TVs were all developed in New York. Bell Telephone Laboratories at 463 West Street, ca. 1940s. Courtesy of Alcatel-Lucent / Bell Labs.

The Telstar 1 was the product of a multi-national agreement including ATT, Bell Telephone Labs, NASA, United Kingdom’s General Post Office, and France’s National Telegraph and Telephone. The first images were broadcasted publicly via satellite on July 23, 1962, and included the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, the New York Harbor and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.. “Bell Labs Engineers working on Telstar 1”, ca 1961. Courtesy of Alcatel-Lucent / Bell Labs.

The invention of the transistor in 1947 unleashed the era of miniaturization of electronic devices. Developed at Bell Labs by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley, transistors are amplifiers that boost electric current, allowing devices to use less energy to send signals long distances. Transistors also act as switches, letting a small current turn a larger current on and off. This goes to the core of computing, where data is coded as a series of 1s and 0s—essentially, on/off switches. Sony Corporation, TR-620 Portable Radio, 1960. New-York Historical Society.

Just a couple of years after he patented the phone, Alexander Graham Bell envisioned a product he called the telephonoscope. Experimentation with videophones continued at at Bell Labs through the 1920s. The picturephone was introduced at the 1964 World’s Fair but the prohibitive cost ($200 in today’s dollars for a 3 minute call) doomed it from the very beginning. The service faded away in the 70s. Picturephone - Opening Ceremonies - Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington chats via see-as-you-talk telephone with Dr. Elizabeth A. Wood, Scientist for Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York, June 24 1964. Courtesy of Alcatel-Lucent / Bell Labs.

The evolution towards miniaturization laid the foundation for printing transistors on microchips used inside personal computers through the present day. By the late 1980s more than two million components could be fit on a fingernail size chip. A half inch square microprocessor found in a personal computer had the computing power comparable to that of a room size computer from mid 1960s. IBM 5150 Personal Computer, 1981. Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives.

Stan VanDerBeek, Poemfield # 2, 1966-71. Video still. 16mm film. Realized with Ken Knowlton. Soundtrack: Paul Motian. © Estate of Stan VanDerBeek.

One in a series of eight computer-animated projects VanDerBeek made in collaboration with Kenneth Knowlton at Bell Laboratories in the 60s. The results of their collaboration were a number of cathode-ray mosaics, typically brief, non-narrative and abstract.

Watson joined the Computer-Tabulating-Recording Company in 1914, becoming president in less than a year. In 1924, he rebranded the firm as International Business Machines (IBM). Emphasizing sales and services alongside technology and innovation, Watson transformed IBM into a household name. His son, Thomas Watson, Jr. succeeded him in 1956, expanding his father’s legacy.

Malvina Hoffman, Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874-1956), 1946. Painted

Stan VanDerBeek, Poemfield # 2, 1966-71. Video still. 16mm film. Realized with Ken Knowlton. Soundtrack: Paul Motian. © Estate of Stan VanDerBeek.

New York, home to both Wall Street and Madison Avenue, took center stage in the transformation of electronics from laboratory tools to consumer products. IBM in particular distinguished itself by combining technical innovation with a laser-like focus on branding, design, marketing, and sales. Eliot Noyes, IBM Selectric Typewriter, 1961. Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives.

plaster. New-York Historical Society, Gift of the artist, 1951.454.

Max Mathews had first wired a violin to a computer in 1957. He wrote MUSIC, a sound-generating program, and GROOVe, software for live performances. Recalling his pioneering work, Mathews observed, “The timbres and notes were not inspiring, but the technical breakthrough is still reverberating. Courtesy of the Mathews family

At the climax of 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, moviegoers heard the HAL 9000 computer sing “Daisy Bell” (Bicycle Built for Two). The eerie song was a tribute to Max Mathews, the father of computer music. Writer Arthur C. Clarke had heard Mathews perform the work on an IBM 704 computer while visiting him at Bell Labs in 1961. Max Mathews and his Radio Batons, © Peter Menzel / menzelphoto.com

William Higinbotham, Tennis for Two Electronic Game, 1958. Video game set up at a visitor's day at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1961. This "Tennis for Two" game was a forerunner to today's modern video game technologies. Courtesy Brookhaven National Laboratory.