1957 computer delivery

darcy · Post by **darcy** » Tue Dec 30, 2014 5:13 pm

Seen here is the Norwich City Council’s first computer, being delivered to the City Treasurer’s Department in Bethel Street, Norwich in 1957. The City of Norwich, and its forward-thinking Treasurer, Mr A.J. Barnard, were pioneers in the application of computer technology to the work of UK local authorities and businesses. In 1953-4, Mr Barnard and his team began looking for an electronic system to handle its rates and payroll. They began discussions with Elliott Brothers of London in 1955, and the City Council ordered the first Elliott 405 computer from them in January 1956. It was delivered to City Hall in February 1957 and became operational in April 1957. The event was celebrated by a demonstration of the machine in front of the Lord Mayor of Norwich and the press on 3 April 1957.
[Source: Norfolk Record Office]

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Tue Dec 30, 2014 5:27 pm

LOL - I was expecting it to be larger. Just step back and think of the power we have in our small electronics compared to the ones in the 50's.

Err · Post by **Err** » Tue Dec 30, 2014 6:24 pm

It looks like it barely fit through the door.

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Tue Dec 30, 2014 6:43 pm

cool thanks. they probably had to custom build the frame to fit the doors

darcy · Post by **darcy** » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:15 pm

~~~

I just had the urge to google what this thing looked like; here 'tis: ~

Koo Koo Mouse · Post by **Koo Koo Mouse** » Wed Dec 31, 2014 5:45 pm

Oh nice Darcy! TY!
Bet that thing was harder to figure out than windows 8.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Wed Dec 31, 2014 7:27 pm

So, what was it's job? What was it capable of doing? Probably not much more than a '70s era hand held calculator.

Koo Koo Mouse · Post by **Koo Koo Mouse** » Wed Dec 31, 2014 8:02 pm

Mr Barnard and his team began looking for an electronic system to handle its rates and payroll.

I Wonder how many payrolls it was doing? I don't think they bought this beast to manage Mayberry. Or?
I'll try to dig up more stuff b4 I 2 mest op. HNY! 2015!

Evil.. Your right but everyone would have to have one and no central output.

Just a guess..

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Jan 01, 2015 1:16 am

You didn't use the front panel to program, only diagnose and enter commands. You usually loaded programs and data via paper tape.

And yeah, for repetitive calculations like payroll for several hundred or a thousand employees, it made sense to use a computer (even a primitive one). Remember old time clocks? They used punch cards. Punch cards could be encoded to paper tape by an intermediate machine or fed directly into the computer via a card reader (computers with card readers directly connected to them were more common in the 60s than the 50s). That was a lot more efficient and accurate than having a room full of humans on adding machines.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Jan 01, 2015 1:26 am

Oh and that photo is ONLY the control panel. The entire unit is MUCH bigger. This was vacuum tube technology, remember. Found an interesting PDF with lots of technical details (the model 405 starts on page 40):
http://rabbit.eng.miami.edu/oldcomputer ... series.pdf

Here's a photo of the whole computer. I believe that's the paper tape PRINTER on the left (with the big waste basket to catch the tape), and the paper tape READER is probably on the right.

Err · Post by **Err** » Thu Jan 01, 2015 11:16 am

FlyingPenguin wrote:Oh and that photo is ONLY the control panel. The entire unit is MUCH bigger. This was vacuum tube technology, remember. Found an interesting PDF with lots of technical details (the model 405 starts on page 40):
http://rabbit.eng.miami.edu/oldcomputer ... series.pdf

Here's a photo of the whole computer. I believe that's the paper tape PRINTER on the left (with the big waste basket to catch the tape), and the paper tape READER is probably on the right.

I bet that thing ran very hot. The ceiling looks like they installed an exhaust to vent the hot air. Payroll is a pain now on modern software like Ultipro or ADT. I couldn't imagine having to track down a missing punch in that era.

darcy · Post by **darcy** » Thu Jan 01, 2015 1:02 pm

thanks for posting that pic, FP!

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Jan 01, 2015 1:20 pm

I bet that thing ran very hot. The ceiling looks like they installed an exhaust to vent the hot air.

Yeah, those are sealed, forced air flow cabinets. Must be a ventilator drawing air up to the ceiling (notice the individual air filters on the cabinet doors). I'm sure that's an air conditioned room.

I used to maintain sound systems at old horse and dog tracks in the 80s. While the amplifiers had been upgraded to solid-state by then, you'd occasionally see a sound room that still had racks with forced air systems for the older tube amps that were originally installed.

Pugsley · Post by **Pugsley** » Thu Jan 01, 2015 11:37 pm

What makes me step back and say wow was the MG unit that they had to get into that place to run it. Also I wonder what that device was that had all the wires and motor/gearbox did.

After reading it looks like that was the disc storage unit.

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 9:13 am

I remember when I took my first computer course in the early mid 80s at the US Dept Agriculture night school. For our field trip, we got to go into the main computer room and see the hard drive, which was like 100 MB and about half the size of a volkswagen.