“PIERCING THE UNKNOWN” EARLY 1950s IBM COMPUTER PROMOTIONAL FILM XD81325

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Another excellent film! The scenes of workers assembling the systems in the factory are especially unique (20:05). Each machine took hours of manual labor to assemble and test. Nice bit of history! ~

[@personalbyedl]

The last piece of IBM has officially left the facility here in Endicott, New York on Sept. 1, 2023. Truly the end of an era. The footage the school (10:29 to 10:35) is on North Street in Endicott, across from the original facility. I currently work onsite at one of the newer buildings for a non-IBM company.

[@neerg63]

We closed today officially. The building is empty. IBM Endicott 1911 - 2023

[@BobbyS1981]

😮 Where did everything/everyone go?

[@monicaperez2843]

​@@BobbyS1981 Sadly, overseas.

[@joshhoman]

My grandfather was an engineer there

[@monicaperez2843]

@@joshhoman My father (born 1917), was an IBM engineer, too.

[@mikemcgonegal1616]

I like how they give this 'transistor' thing 10 seconds at the end. Oh well, they never worked out anyways.

[@davidhewson8605]

Still have my Thornton slide rule, Sinclair built calculator and other gizmos from 60s. to 90s. used in my engineering career. Mobile phone has inordinate power in comparison !. IBM were giants . Loved flow charts , box computers and machine time to calculate solutions. Thanks all. Dave

[@josephgaviota]

Nobody under 45 has ever _seen_ a slide rule.

[@davidhewson8605]

@@josephgaviota Thanks my friend. Actually am 29 sorry 71yrs and love Gizmos still. Regards, Dave

[@danstinson7687]

"I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I cant do that."

[@josephgaviota]

I always enjoy a good HAL reference ;-)

[@philboydstudge]

Beautiful views of the IBM 701, aka "Defense Calculator" in operation. Electrostatic memory was a bear to work with and IBM quickly replaced it with magnetic core memory, briefly mentioned toward the end of the film, within a few years. I'd date the film to 1954 but no earlier than 1953.

[@josephgaviota]

Ah, core memory. The best part of core memory was, you could drop power to the computer; and when power was restored, the cores would still be in the same position, and could continue.

[@CapstoneTider]

Good old cathode ray RAM. I still use vacuum tubes in my guitar amplifier.

[@jimeditorial]

Sure hope that "transistor" works out

[@nickdiamond7595]

😂 can't imagine life had it not worked.

[@sclogse1]

It really is amazing what has taken place so quickly. Most of us plebians can barely change a tire, but we still get all the bennies. My Samsung Android phone is now 7 years old, and works perfectly. I bought two backups for it that cost me 150 bucks. How much did your phone's cost you in 7 years? Great camera, great Google and youtube. (Keep your screen dim and you'll prolong your phone life immensely) On my front desk sits a No5 Blickensderfer typewriter from 1896. It's a marvel.

[@20000lbs_of_Cheese]

rapid calculation, rapid access to information!

[@woodhonky3890]

Wow. That was enlightening. Thanks guys for saving this stuff!

[@bobbyinalaska.4186]

It was donated to them. They don't make this stuff and they sure don't buy it.

[@josephgaviota]

I was surprised how much faster mag tape was than any other medium, by a long way. AND, to the modern eye, it's hard to imagine how memory was such a difficult problem to solve.

[@whirledpeas3477]

Another little gem 💎 thanks Periscope

[@thomasgoodwin2648]

"Now remember to clean and turn the stud regularly. Trust me, you don't want an infected unknown."

[@henrycarlson7514]

interesting , Thank You. Who knew that crt's were storage? So amazing

[@kc4cvh]

Yes, there is plenty of room for innovation and improvement.

[@Spookieham]

It looks like a commercial for fridges. All we need is an elegant woman in a beautiful evening dress to come flouncing in and start pawing the cabinets.

[@paulwomack5866]

Looks like this was 1953 - I found a newspaper reference to the "new" IBM film being shown at Stanford in May of that year.

[@dwightdau6563]

…and then Skynet became self aware

[@h.mattberetta3564]

Ah the days of positive and negative zeros.

[@ImpetuouslyInsane]

10:51 Huh. Odd use of a CRT; they're basically using it like a RAM stick.

[@richardsanjose3692]

1300 electronic tubes huh! And I'll bet the techs were always chasing down bad ones too.

[@curtwuollet2912]

Probably a rack or two of relays to add interest.

[@marmaly]

Very relaxing video.

[@warrenjones744]

I am watching this on on a Apple MacBook Pro. I wonder how much more powerful or should I say faster it is than the whole rooms full of machinery that they show in this film. Teamed with a simple to use Drobo file server or even simpler external data drive I can store and retrieve more information than I can ever need or use (I do concede I am not designing aircraft or something like that, my needs are simple) Plus it did not cost a whole lot of money. It's amazing where are now in less than 100 years. However the complex mechanical machinery, withe their vacuum tubes and electronic assemblies from IBM are still amazing after all these years. As a machinist and person who builds things I find these devices are very interesting.

[@gplunk]

Makes one ponder where we might be in another hundred....

[@RetroJack]

Who knew this would culminate in 12-year-olds playing Fortnite while shouting abuse at each other?

[@martyduncan2636]

I can’t imagine how rudimentary we’ll look 70 years from now as this does in 2023. However if past is prologue, as it often is, somehow people in 2093 will say how in the world did they get by way back in 2023? 😂

[@gplunk]

I suspect it will be exponential; rather than incremental....

[@paulwomack5866]

Another film (from the US Army, 1952) about the Card Programmed Calculator (CPC) kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIGnfWmQls6lmpY

[@James-nl6fu]

Their sci-fi is our (hi ab lm)technology, and we learned absolutely nothing despite our billion dollar brains

[@SuperBNAVARRO]

1953

[@gplunk]

"IBM is nicknamed Big Blue partly due to its blue logo and color scheme, and also in reference to its former de facto dress code of white shirts with blue suits." -Wiki

[@gplunk]

"Or from its blue-colored computer displays and cases, prevalent in the 1960s through 1980s." -Investopedia

[@gplunk]

"IBM mainframe computers today are more than 100,000 times more powerful than the original System 360 from the 1950s. The most recent mainframe (2012) has almost 800,000 times more memory than the original system."

[@J_Calvin_Hobbes]

👍

[@TheRoland444]

This is before AI (Artificial Intelligence) were the human mind reigns supreme.

[@MrSteamDragon]

aah, I miss my S/370...

[@ManInTheBigHat]

And then..... tiktok!

[@rayramos8435]

Wait,they skipped the part where IBM helped the Nazis count dead Jews! Must not forget that.

[@jamesparker4471]

Mach schnell .

[@Watchmaker_Gereon-Schloesser]

Konrad Zuse Z3 - the first true computer in 1941. Was not mentioned... U.S.A. prop.

[@Kerithanos]

You think Rod Serling saw the intro to this?

[@homunculous007]

And it all leads to the HAL 9000.

[@johnrobbins8093]

You do appreciate that HAL is IBM with each letter moved one notch earlier in the alphabet. HAL sounded better than JCN.

[@homunculous007]

@@johnrobbins8093 Indeed I do. 😎