Multi-Processor Computing: 1924
November
24, 1924. Washington, D.C. "Bonus Bureau, Computing Division. Many
clerks figure the amount of the bonus each veteran is entitled to." View full size.
In
response to Aching Back, My mother was working in a Massachusetts
factory accounting department about 10 years after this photo. She said
that a 5 and 1/2 day work week was the norm for that job in the
mid-thirties.
Bonus Army Submitted by Anonymous Tipster on Wed, 08/27/2008 - 11:02am.
The
bonus this diligent staff is calculating was for veterans of WWI.
However, the money was not to be paid until 1945. With the onslaught of
the hardships of the Great Depression, the veterans wanted their money
sooner than later. In the spring of 1932 thousands of these veterans
formed what was called a “Bonus Army” and marched on Washington
demanding early payment. Congress refused and an Army contingent led by
General Douglas MacArthur, and Majors Dwight Eisenhower and George
Patton was ordered to forcefully remove the veterans from their
encampments in the city.
See: The Bonus Army Invades Washington, D.C., 1932 at http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/bonusarmy.htm
Milliflops stanton_square on Wed,
A stunning array of milliflops of raw computing power!
This photo reminds me of the Richardson "Forecast Factory":
a 1920s vision, never realized, to accomplish numerical weather
prediction by assembling a grand hall of thousands of human tabulators
under the direction of a central conductor.
Veterans bonus
Judging by the caption, this must have been temporary.
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief4.htm
[After Congress passed the Soldiers' Bonus Act earlier in the
year, the War Department hired thousands of clerks to do the
calculating. - Dave]
Burroughs Accounting Tabulator
Circa 1911 Burroughs Typewriter Adding Machine. More at the Early Office Museum. And at OfficeMuseum.com. These complex devices were electromechanical, as opposed to electronic. Some used punch cards.
Tabulators
There
are many interesting things in this photo. First of all, what caught my
attention was the lighting fixtures overhead. It looks like the whole
lighting circuit had been built hastily in a previously existing room;
exposed metallic tubes holding the electric cables would have been
embedded in the concrete slab of the roof if the installation had been
designed at the same time as the building.
[If I may interject: Overhead electrical conduits in modern slab
construction are generally not embedded in concrete -- the reason you
can't see them is that they're obscured by a dropped ceiling. - Dave]
Another interesting thing: those tabulating machines. They are old
antecedents of today's spreadsheets, and it's interesting to see that,
even in this early date, those machines were already electrical.
Evidently they didn't have much electronics inside - the machines must
work using electromagnets and mechanical parts, but must have been able
to perform basic mathematical calculations in a more precise and faster
fashion than by hand. Again, the electrical circuit used to power the
machines was built over an existing floor; another evidence that this
room was originally intended for other use and was adapted to this task.
No air conditioning; just a few electric fans scattered here and
there in the room. But there are several hot-water or steam radiators
near the walls, so the building was originally equipped with central
heating. Must have been a very uncomfortable place to work by the end
of the day; too hot and noisy and crowded.
These pics are excellent references to how life was like before our
modern world, before all the things we now take for granted were even
conceived. Thanks for sharing them, this site is definitely a very
valuable resource for people interested in history like me.