Happy birthday to IBM’s first Personal Computer! The IBM 5150 PC changed the way the world works upon its debut thirty-seven years ago. As the 5150 grew in popularity, “PC” became a household name, with computers moving into small businesses, home offices, and living rooms. And with a release year of 1981, the IBM 5150 is technically a millennial—an 80’s baby that makes us proud to this day.
Nanotechnology is the area of science and innovation concerned with material of less than 100 nanometers. Specifically, it involves the control and manipulation of individual atoms and molecules. On this day in 1979, IBM created the smallest electronic circuit elements ever reported. The nano devices had a thickness of only 100 by 200 atomic diameters – that’s smaller than the fibers of a human nerve. This breakthrough was one of the first steps in the still-ongoing development of nanotechnology. Today, IBM scientists continue to explore and improve the design of semiconductors and computer chips, making them smaller, smarter and more energy efficient. It’s another way IBM is investing in practical technology development for the future.
IBM was one of the first companies to begin manufacturing punched cards. For almost four decades, punched cards were the major medium for storing, sorting and reporting data processed first through punched card equipment and—later—computers. Colloquially known as “IBM cards,” the punched cards were so embedded in business operations that by the 1950s, they represented over 20% of IBM’s revenue. On this day in 1971, IBM announced a new version of the IBM 3525 Card Punch replacing incandescent lamps with LEDs—a new technology at the time—to read punched cards. While the punched card may now be a thing of the past, LEDs are as relevant as ever, with new applications being actively developed. In retrospect, with a bit of serendipity, one great innovation passed the baton to another.
Today in 1973, the iconic Sydney Opera House was completed. One of the unsung heroes behind this marvel of human engineering was a Frenchman named Joe Bertony. Bertony designed the truss that supports the famous arches. Because each arch was differently curved, the mathematical equations required were extremely complex. So complex, in fact, that Bertony conducted over 30,000 separate equations to figure out how much stress could be applied to the arch structure. Because of this complexity – and because the margin of error could be no more than half an inch – a computer was required to double-check each of his brilliant equations. At the time, the only computer powerful enough was the IBM 7090, which was selected for the task. IBM is proud to have supported the construction of this amazing building and to continue supporting human ingenuity to create amazing things.
On this date in 1973, IBM introduced the universal product code, or UPC. Along with the introduction of laser scanning technology, the UPC barcode quickly revolutionized the grocery and retail industries, making checkout faster and inventory tracking a lot easier. The barcode changed the information processing system for almost every industry around the world and remains one of the most pervasive inventory tracking tools in the world today. Though just a small group of black bars, the UPC changed the world in a very big way.
I was listening to the In Our Time episode on the measurement of time and the guests were talking about incense clocks, which were an East Asian thing.
Basically you take a stick of incense that burns at a known rate, put some marks on, burn it, and use the marks to measure the passage of time. Or in more elaborate ones like in the image above, you put bells on strings and hang them on the stick of incense, so that when the incense burns to a certain point, the bells drop down and chime. Or things along those lines.
Others involved a trail of incense powder, and you told the time by where the trail had burned, or in the case of ones like in the image above, by where the smoke was being emitted from. Wiki says some designs could burn for a month.
But by far the method I was most taken with was one where you connect multiple types of incense into a single stick or a line of powder, so that each hour (or whichever unit of time) has a particular smell. I find that totally delightful for some reason. A very, very charming premodern way of doing things. Imprecise, but charming.
Here’s the full playlist of National Histories event, a series of conversations with key people from the National Theatre’s 50 years reflecting on their experiences. A personal favourite is Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton, who first met at the National in 1982 whilst working on Guys and Dolls.
