IBM 1401 COMPUTER & DATA PROCESSING FOR THE ROPER CORPORATION 72392

Dating to the 1960s, this IBM produced film tells the story of the George D. Roper Corporation, a manufacturer of gas and electric stoves, and how its business was transformed by high tech data management. The film features IBM's Clyde Janson, who helped install IBM's 402 and 602 computers at Roper in 1958. Also shown are O56 Verifiers and O52 Keypunch, 557 interpreter, 519 reproducer, O83 and O84 sorter, and O88 Collator, and the processing system. The computer being used is the 1401, including a CPU, typewriter, printer, keypunch, and two 7330 Magnetic Tape Drives and a 1405 Ramack. 450 programs generate 1000 reports monthly covering order billing, sales analysis, payroll, etc.
The IBM 1401 was a variable wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on October 5, 1959. The first member of the highly successful IBM 1400 series, it was aimed at replacing electromechanical unit record equipment for processing data stored on punched cards. Over 12,000 units were produced and many were leased or resold in less developed countries after they were replaced with newer technology. The 1401 was withdrawn on February 8, 1971.
Commonly used by small businesses as their primary data processing machines, the 1401 was also frequently used as an off-line peripheral controller for mainframe computers. In such installations, with an IBM 7090 for example, the mainframe computers used only magnetic tape for input-output. It was the 1401 that transferred input data from slow peripherals (such as the IBM 1402 Card Read-Punch) to tape, and transferred output data from tape to the card punch, the IBM 1403 Printer, or other peripherals. This allowed the mainframe's throughput to not be limited by the speed of a card reader or printer.
Elements within IBM, notably John Haanstra, an executive in charge of 1401 deployment, supported its continuation in larger models for evolving needs (e.g., the IBM 1410) but the 1964 decision at the top to focus resources on the System/360 ended these efforts rather suddenly. Then, faced with the competitive threat of the Honeywell 200 and the 360's incompatibility with the 1401 design, IBM pioneered the use of microcode emulation, in the form of ROM, so that some System/360 models could run 1401 programs.
During the 1970s, IBM installed many 1401s in India and Pakistan where they were in use well into the 1980s. Some of today's Indian and Pakistani software entrepreneurs started on these 1401s. The first computer in Pakistan, for example, was a 1401 installed at Pakistan International Airlines.
Two 1401 systems have been restored to operating order at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, complete with a raised floor typical of the mainframe era (and modern data centers), used to hide cabling and distribute cooled air.
Roper Industries' historical roots reach back to its founder, George D. Roper, and the company he started in 1919, the Geo. D. Roper Corporation. Founded in Rockford, Illinois, as a manufacturer of gas stoves and gear pumps, Geo. D. Roper Corp. became best known for its production stoves, developing into a flourishing concern that eventually manufactured electric and gas kitchen ranges, power gardening tools, and a host of other home-related goods. In 1957, Florence Stove sold its manufacturing facility in Florence, Massachusetts, and transferred production to Illinois, then purchased the inventories of finished products, receivables, and all capital stock of Geo. D. Roper Corp. The entire new operation took the name Geo. D. Roper Corp. in 1958.
Sears not only was Geo. D. Roper Corp.'s largest customer but also owned nearly half of the Illinois-based appliance manufacturer. This relationship between Sears and Geo D. Roper Corp. was strengthened when Geo D. Roper Corp. merged with a wholly owned Sears subsidiary, Newark Ohio Co., in 1964.
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[@calvinsaxon5822]

Wow! I didn't know my alcoholic high school football coach doubled as "Clyde Jackson" (7:42) and worked for Roper in the 1950s.

[@mikeklaene4359]

By today's standards, a 1401 must seem very crude. My first 'DP' after getting out of the Army in 1968 was with the Kroger Co in Cincinnati as a computer operator. There were two IBM 1410 80K systems, each with 6 729 tape drives and two IBM 360/50 512K systems each with two banks of 8 2314 disk drives and 8 2401 tape drives. Later I got into programming at the Shillitos department store in Cincy, where I first learned IBM 360 Assembler on a 32K 360/30 and then 1401 Autocoder that ran under the CS30 feature on the 360 that allowed 1401 programs to run. Lets just say that there was a lot to be learned and I sure did have fun doing it!

[@richardkirka5977]

Wow, somebody even older than me. Your description of gray iron apps running on more modern hardware is common. No matter how fast the computer, everything revolved around the punch card, because the original apps were expressed on plug boards, and the client considered treading water as a big victory. The biggest benefit was increased speed, as long as nothing depended on the speed of handling punched cards, which always legged behind the speed of the CPU. The City of Detroit assessor's system depended on the 17 million punch cards that were the soul of everything. The plugboard processing for the gray iron dictated that 1401 versions of the application operate on the same principles as the original cards. They went to IBM S/360 just because the 1401 emulator software was faster than the 1401 hardware. System/370, and VM/370 allowed the creation of virtual 1401s, assigned to an individual operator to run however he wanted. CPU speed increased, compute time for the assessors system decreased, but more cards to handle meant that growing data volume would quickly swamp the time window required for all the reports. So here was the city of Detroit, running the first VM/370 in regular production, my particular pride and joy, running city and police copies of their production DOS systems, while the police converted to OS/VS, and all the punch card systems ran on 1401 Emulator with Assembler apps simulating the original unit-record plugboard from the late 1940s to mid 1950s. And I had fun, as long as a took a sanity break, instead of a coffee break.

[@wmffmw1854]

I went from 1960's vintage Main Frames, to Microprocessors of the 1970's with 64K Memory and 8 1/2 inch floppy disks. Today I am designing circuit boards with 2GHz clock speeds and Giga Byte memories. You see 1950's vintage machines in this video. Today a computer you can hold in your hand has 10,000's to 1,000,000's of times more processing power. It's pretty amazing what's been done it the 50+ year span of my carrier.

[@TatevossianA]

The Roper Corporation (now a wholly-owned subsidiary of GE Appliances) is now part of a Chinese company called Haier. (Haier acquired the appliance business of GE some years ago.)

[@CARLiCON]

Actually, GE acquired the home appliance business of Roper Inc in the 1980s. Roper Technologies, Inc., descendant of the original GD Roper company, is now an American diversified industrial company, still in business today. Stock symbol: ROP.

[@rabbittguy1410]

It’s still sad that a lot of our great American companies are now owned by Chinese companies aka the ccp. I was so bummed to find out caterpillar was no longer owned by a us company, China got them too 😕 my 1941 d2 still runs and is able to put in a days work 😎 see if anything made in China still works after 80 years let alone anything else made these days 😐 your lucky if you can get 4 years use out of anything

[@miguelmouta5372]

Blame Americans for such choice.

[@morlanius]

@8:57 WoW they really had all the gear! Showing off that they have all the latest tech, very cool stuff.

[@RaymondHng]

14:16 This IBM 1001 Data Transmission System is basically card reader attached to a modem that transmits 80 characters per card to another modem attached to a remote keypunch machine that punches out duplicate punch cards which are then manually fed to card reader attached to a mainframe.

[@RaymondHng]

@Philip Noah It's like the early days of booking airline tickets where you call the airline company and they mail you your reservations a couple of weeks later.

[@Sennmut]

Back when stuff was actually manufactured here in the USA.

[@robertwolfiii8711]

Remember the I's in IBM do IT all for you.

[@mysterymayhem7020]

The company still exists to this day.

[@waltsullivan8986]

IBM 1401 was my 2nd 'puter. SPS, Autocoder, COBOL. Wordmarks, fixed, blocking I/O. E.g. cards were always read into locations 1-80, and if one too too long processing the previous card, and missed the card reader Ka-Chunk, the single byte "read-a-card" instruction would wait until the card reader cycled again, every time. No interrupts, no registers, memory-to-memory computations.

[@Stache987]

I did data processing in high school. But I saw a safety flaw with the forklifts flying all around each other.

[@headpox5817]

7:58 Lots of "data processing" hardware: 026 Keypunch 056 Verifiers (two) 557 Interpreter 519 Reproducer 083 Sorter 084 Sorter 088 Collator 1001 Teleprocessing system 8:31 ...and then the computer itself: 1401 CPU Reader/punch Typewriter inquirer Printer 7330 Tape drive (two) 1405 RAMAC Almost more floor space for the all the computer gear than to manufacture stoves ! Over 1000 reports per month ! - Information overload, anyone ?

[@rugcutter284]

As he gets more and more excited talking about the 1401, Clyde Jackson is visibly sweating every minute

[@RaymondHng]

AND HE"S SHOUTING EVERY WORD TOO.

[@someonespadre]

Probably had a bar in his office.

[@bob4analog]

10:31 "Maintain the human element at all times." We've lost that today.

[@therealxunil2]

OUR COMPUTER IS THE 1401! Clearly not used to being on camera lol

[@jasonligo895]

Not being able to see the copyright, this film would have been made in 1959/1960 at the earliest.

[@robertwolfiii8711]

You can buy one at the store but what can you do with a system. Data collection.

[@theposguy1435]

1401 !!!

[@MattSiegel]

with a name like bill miser, you know he's gonna find ways to save money

[@Tee_Leaf]

Okay Clyde, Calm down and stop yelling haha

[@AgentPepsi1]

If I had such computer technology, I would rule the world!!! 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 Yet I am writing this on this combination wireless telephone, teletype, portable television studio, high resolution camera, address book, calendar, electronic calculator, global positioning localizer, flashlight, music entertainment system, television, alarm clock, and flashlight.... And the thing is small enough to fit in my purse and weigh just a few ounces. It has to be of ALIEN ORIGIN!!! 🤨

[@benculp922]

A purchase part explosion!

[@J_Calvin_Hobbes]

👍

[@saskiavanhoutert3190]

How is everything going with the great lady of International Business Machines (IBM), doing well I hope.kind regards

[@relathan1]

Hmm. "Clyde Jackson" aka Luka Brasi

[@almostfm]

"I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your daughter... 's wedding... on the day of your daughter's wedding. And I hope their first child be a masculine child. I pledge my ever-ending loyalty."

[@freddyfriend5462]

God bless Capitalism

[@kakabukkake0]

0:16 - my favorite classic american dish, baby vomit fried inside of a green pepper with a cherry on top

[@robertwolfiii8711]

Frequency windows makes frequency. Thanks for copying that.

[@pitdog75]

All white guys.

[@ronaldocastillo2630]

Liar