
Identifying the “Early IBM Computer” in a Twitter Photo - stablemap
http://www.righto.com/2017/11/identifying-early-ibm-computer-in.html
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TazeTSchnitzel
These would have been the kind of machines that IBM sold to Nazi Germany and
configured for use by the concentration camps, right? I didn't realise the
technology was so sophisticated.

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krapp
I don't know why you're being downvoted - IBM did, in fact, custom make and
sell tabulators to the Nazis[0]. The Holocaust might not have been possible at
the scale or efficiency with which it was undertaken without the force
multiplier of IBM computational and processing power.

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust)

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userbinator
Interesting, but I think it also shows the neutrality of the company --- they
would sell to anyone, regardless of what their technology was being used for.

A stark contrast to the actions taken by Cloudflare's CEO[1], incidentally
also involving Nazis.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15031922](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15031922)

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jamiek88
There is no 'neutral' in genocide.

No middle ground.

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mirimir
Is there any evidence that IBM knew that it was enabling genocide? It was
selling to Germany, certainly. But the US didn't officially enter the war
until Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Also, the Nazis weren't just collecting data on Jews, gypsies, homosexuals,
etc. They collected data on everyone. It was arguably essential for resource
management for the war effort.

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moomin
Bear in mind that the resources the Nazis were managing included shells made
by slaves from Auschwitz and soap made from people killed in Birkenau. There’s
no dividing line between the Nazi war machine and their atrocities.

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mirimir
Yes, of course :(

But if IBM sold the gear long enough before it was clear that the Nazis were
doing that, IBM arguably isn't at fault. And if they did, they are.

Notwithstanding Edwin Black's _IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance
between Nazi Germany and America 's Most Powerful Corporation_, it's my
understanding that all suits against IBM over this have been dismissed or
withdrawn.

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mathgenius
Somehow I really want to _hear_ what these machines sound like. It would be
great to have an audio engineer make some good quality sound recordings of one
of these machines. The pictures just aren't enough for me.

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jacquesm
The mainframe server room I used to frequent was pretty loud, loud enough that
you had to get close to someone and raise your voice to be heard. The worst
racket was made by the line printers, and even if the ambient noise really was
quite bad those were still encaged in their own sound-proof enclosure.

Not an environment you want to spend a whole lot of time in.

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mathgenius
Well I wouldn't want one of these 405's in my bedroom, but I realize that I do
even miss hearing the sound of my harddrive clicking away. It makes me feel
like something real is happening.

Do you remember the scene in "the day after" when all the shit is going down,
and the clatter and buzzing of the teletype machines...? Just so terrifying
with all those sounds.

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js2
One could imagine that IBM could have failed to make the transition from
analog machines like this to digital computers, yet they didn't. Meanwhile,
other companies such as Kodak failed to capitialize on the analog to digital
transiton. Was it just a difference in executive leadership?

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mrob
Aren't these machines also digital? I see discrete notches in the counter
wheels, and I can't imagine accountants accepting analog noise in their
results. Digital doesn't have to mean binary.

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codezero
It was a bit hard for me to extract if he identified the machine, but it's
there:

    
    
      Thus, although the machine in the photos is very similar to the IBM 403, it's not an exact match.
    
      After more research into IBM's various accounting machines, I conclude that machine in the photos is the IBM 405, an IBM accounting machine introduced in 1934 (earlier than that 1948 IBM 403 despite the larger model number).4 The IBM 405 (below) had curved legs that match the Abbott photos. In addition, the 405 has a narrower main cabinet than the 403, with bulky additional components attached to the left and right, outside the legs. This matches the narrower cabinet in the Abbott photos. (The 403 was an improved and modernized 405, explaining the overall similarity between the two machines.)

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userbinator
It's in the title of the page too:

    
    
        Identifying the "Early IBM Computer" in a Twitter photo: a 405 Accounting Machine
    

...which confused me a bit, because at first he said he thought it was a 403.

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kens
I was originally going for drama and suspense about what the machine was, but
maybe writing that way didn't work as well as I hoped.

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codezero
It was a good write up, don't be too hard on yourself :)

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ngcc_hk
The article has not elaborated or hinted the impact of punch card to
computing. Those horrible cobol, fortran, 360/70 assembler and jcl ... those
field, zone, continuation ...

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GnarfGnarf
I have fond memories of programming with punched cards in the 60's and 70's.
Assembler was a magic communion with the hardware. FORTRAN captured
mathematical beauty. COBOL was powerful. It's all relative.

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GrumpyNl
IBM gave me an original plugboard as seen in the foto.

