Despite bitter winter weather, a recent conference on computers drew some 4,000 delegates to Washington, D.C.; indicating the importance and scope of the new industry. The 1962 domestic market for computers and associated equipment is estimated at just under $3 billion, with more than 150,000 people employed in manufacture, operation, and maintenance of the machines.
In the short time since the first electronic computer made its appearance, these thinking machines have made such fantastic strides in so many different directions that most of us are unaware how much our lives are already being affected by them. Banking, for example, employs complex machines that process checks and handle accounts so much faster than human bookkeepers that they do more than an hour’s work in less than thirty seconds.
General Electric Co., Computer Dept.
Programmer at console of computer used in electronic processing of bank checking accounts.
Our government is one of the largest users of computers and “data-processing machines.” The census depends on such equipment, and it played a part in the development of early mechanical types of computers when Hollerith invented a punched-card system many years ago. In another application, the post office uses letter readers that scan addresses and sort mail at speeds faster than the human eye can keep up with. Many magazines have put these electronic readers to work whizzing through mailing lists.
General Electric Co., Computer Dept.
Numbers across bottom of check are printed in magnetic ink and can be read by the computer.
In Sweden, writer Astrid Lindgren received additional royalties for one year of 9,000 kronor because of library loans. Since this was based on 850,000 total loans of her books from thousands of schools and libraries, the bookkeeping was possible only with an electronic computer.
Computers are beginning to take over control of factories, steel mills, bakeries, chemical plants, and even the manufacture of ice cream. In scientific research, computers are solving mathematical and logical problems so complex that they would go forever unsolved if men had to do the work. One of the largest computing systems yet designed, incorporating half a million transistors and millions of other parts, handles ticket reservations for the airlines. Others do flight planning and air traffic control itself.
Gigantic computerized air defense systems like SAGE and NORAD help guard us from enemy attack. When John Glenn made his space flight, giant computers on the ground made the vital calculations to bring him safely back. Tiny computers in space vehicles themselves have proved they can survive the shocks of launching and the environment of space. These airborne computers make possible the operation of Polaris, Atlas, and Minuteman missiles. Such applications are indicative of the scope of computer technology today; the ground-based machines are huge, taking up rooms and even entire buildings while those tailored for missiles may fit in the palm of the hand. One current military project is such an airborne computer, the size of a pack of cigarettes yet able to perform thousands of mathematical and logical operations a second.