Trees Shut Down Northeastern US

August 14, 2003:  Blackout Hits Northeast United States

On this day in 2003, a major outage knocked out power across the eastern United States and parts of Canada. Beginning at 4:10 p.m. ET, 21 power plants shut down in just three minutes. Fifty million people were affected, including residents of New York, Cleveland and Detroit, as well as Toronto and Ottawa, Canada.

The outage stopped trains and elevators, and disrupted everything.  From cellular telephone service to operations at hospitals and traffic at airports.  Contamination of water supply as pumps failed, gas station pumps, cable TV (had to watch broadcast TV by candlelight), the internet, traffic lights, refrigeration and so on.

There were even some reports of people being stranded mid-ride on amusement park roller coasters. At the New York Stock Exchange and bond market, though, trading was able to continue thanks to backup generators.

American and Canadian representatives pointed figures at each other, while politicians took the opportunity to point out major flaws in the region’s outdated power grid. Finally, an investigation by a joint U.S.-Canada task force traced the problem back to the goat, FirstEnergy Corporation, an Ohio company.

FirstEnergy Corp East Lake plant

When the company’s East Lake plant shut down unexpectedly after overgrown trees came into contact with a power line, it triggered a series of problems that led to a chain reaction of outages. FirstEnergy was criticized for poor line maintenance, and more importantly, for failing to notice and address the problem in a timely manner.

Despite concerns, there were very few reports of looting or other blackout-inspired crime. In New York City, the police department, out in full force, actually recorded about 100 fewer arrests than average. In some places, citizens even took it upon themselves to mitigate the effects of the outage, by assisting elderly neighbors or helping to direct traffic in the absence of working traffic lights.

In New York City alone, the estimated cost of the blackout was more than $500 million

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Computer failure

The blackout’s primary cause was a software bug in the alarm system at a control room of the FirstEnergy Corporation in Ohio. Operators were unaware of the need to re-distribute power after overloaded transmission lines hit un-pruned foliage. What would have been a manageable local blackout cascaded into widespread distress on the electric grid. The first of several 345 kV overhead transmission lines in northeast Ohio failed due to contact with a tree in Walton Hills, Ohio.

A software bug known as a race condition existed in General Electric Energy’s Unix-based XA/21 energy management system. Once triggered, the bug stalled FirstEnergy’s control room alarm system for over an hour. System operators were unaware of the malfunction; the failure deprived them of both audio and visual alerts for important changes in system state. After the alarm system failure, unprocessed events queued up and the primary server failed within 30 minutes. Then all applications (including the stalled alarm system) were

Architectural Marvel – Largest Domed Structure in the World

August 9, 1975: First NFL Game in Superdome

Louisiana Superdome is dedicated Aug. 9 – The 1st football game is played in the Louisiana Superdome as the Houston Oilers beat the Saints, 13-7, in a preseason contest before 72,434

Plans were drawn up in 1967, by the New Orleans modernist architectural firm of Curtis and Davis. Its steel frame covers a 13-acre (5.3 ha) expanse. Its 273-foot (83 m) dome is made of a Lamella multi-ringed frame and has a diameter of 680 feet (210 m), making it the largest fixed domed structure in the world.

In 2005, the Superdome gained international attention of a different type when it housed thousands of people seeking shelter from Hurricane Katrina. The building suffered extensive damage as a result of the storm, and was closed for many months afterward.

Damage to Superdome Roof

On October 3, 2011, it was announced that German automaker Mercedes-Benz purchased naming rights to the stadium. The new name took effect on October 23, 2011.

The Superdome’s primary tenant is the NFL’s New Orleans Saints. The team regularly draws capacity crowds. The NFL has hosted seven Super Bowls at the Superdome, most recently Super Bowl XLVII in 2013.

20th Century Special Events

The Superdome held its official dedication ceremonies on August 3, 1975. Jazz musicians Al Hirt and Pete Fountain played for the event.

Al Hirt & Pete Fountain

Between August 28 and September 14, 1975, the Superdome continued to celebrate its grand opening, with appearances by Bob Hope, Telly Savalas, Dorothy Lamour, Karen Valentine, and Raquel Welch.

Photo from Allman Brothers concert at “The Dome”

The Allman Brothers, the Marshall Tucker band, Wet Willie, the Charlie Daniels band, the O’Jays, the Isley Brothers, the Temptations, Donald Byrd and the Blackbyrds, and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus also performed.

On October 3, 1975, June Carter, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter performed in the Dome. Fans included then Governor Edwin Edwards.

Johnny Cash & June Carter

The Superdome’s 1977 New Year’s Eve celebration opened with the Emotions and Deniece Williams, followed by Earth, Wind and Fire.

On May 29, 1977, the First Annual Superdome KOOL Jazz Spectacular featured Aretha Franklin, Al Green, The Spinners, and The Mighty Clouds of Joy. Jimmie “J.J.” Walker from the TV series “Good Times” was the guest M.C.

In boxing, Muhammad Ali defeated Leon Spinks, in Ali’s last professional win, in front of a crowd of 65,000 in 1978.

On December 5, 1981, a concert by The Rolling Stones attracted more than 87,500 spectators, with attendees filling in the floor area, as well as the regular seating sections.

Pope John Paul II addressed 80,000 children at the stadium in 1987.

The Republican National Convention was held there in 1988.

In June 1996, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Disney’s 34th animated feature, had a gala world premiere at this stadium, with over 65,000 people attending the event.

Britney Spears performed at the dome on September 20, 2000 during her Oops!… I Did It Again Tour.

‘N Sync performed here during their 2001 PopOdyssey Tour. The August 22nd show was filmed and released on VHS and DVD.

Beyonce performed at the dome on July 7, 2013 during her Mrs. Carter Show World Tour. The concert was a part of the Essence Music Festival and broke the attendance record of the annual festival.

The Superdome was used as a “shelter of last resort” for those in New Orleans unable to evacuate from Hurricane Katrina when it struck in late August 2005. During the storm, a large section of the outer covering was peeled off by high winds. A few days later the dome was closed until September 25, 2006.

Reopening after Katrina

The reopening of the dome was celebrated with festivities including a free outdoor concert by the Goo Goo Dolls before fans were allowed in, a pre-game performance by the rock bands U2 and Green Day performing a cover of The Skids’ “The Saints Are Coming”, and a coin toss conducted by former President George H. W. Bush.

In front of ESPN’s largest-ever audience at that time, the Saints won the game 23–3 with 70,003 in attendance and went on to a successful season reaching their first ever NFC Championship Game.

Before Dolby Digital, or . . . . . . . . I Hates Rabbits

August 6, 1926:  Vitaphone System Premiers

In New York, New York, the Warner Bros.  Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.

Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931.  Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one which was widely used and commercially successful.

A Vitaphone projection setup at a 1926 demonstration. Western Electric Engineer E. B. Craft (on the left) is holding a soundtrack disc. The turntable, on a massive tripod base, is at lower center

The soundtrack was not printed on the film itself, but issued separately on phonograph records. The discs, recorded at 33 1/3 rpm and typically 16 inches in diameter, would be played on a turntable physically coupled to the projector motor while the film was being projected.  Many early talkies, such as The Jazz Singer (1927), used the Vitaphone system.  The name “Vitaphone” derived from the Latin and Greek words, respectively, for “living” and “sound”.

The “Vitaphone” trademark was later associated with cartoons and other short subjects that had optical soundtracks and did not use discs.

Warner Bros. kept the “Vitaphone” trademark alive in the name of its short subjects division, most famous for releasing the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.  In the 1960s the end titles of Merrie Melodies cartoons (beginning with 1960’s From Hare to Heir) carried the legend “A Vitaphone Release”.

Vitaphone was among the first 25 inductees into the TECnology Hall of Fame at its establishment in 2004, an honor given to “products and innovations that have had an enduring impact on the development of audio technology.”  The award notes that Vitaphone, though short-lived, helped in popularizing theater sound and was critical in stimulating the development of the modern sound reinforcement system.

Don Juan Preview Clip

I Hates Rabbits

♪ I Left My Heart…♫

August 2, 1873: First San Francisco Cable Car

The Clay Street Railroad begins operation, making it the first cable car in San Francisco’s now famous cable car system.

Starting at the intersection of Kearny and Clay Streets the line proceeded up the sixteen percent grade on Clay to Leavenworth Street.  The Clay Street line, an immediate success, was promptly extended west to Van Ness Avenue in 1877, replacing horsecars along the .4-mile route.

Hallidie’s (the car designer) design involved a dummy car with driver pulling a trailer for passengers.  The trailer was enclosed, similar to a horsecar, while the dummy, or gripcar, was open to the air, with bench-type seating.

Hallidie

The system employed two turntables at the bottom terminus of the line.  The dummy and car were uncoupled and each was moved onto one of the turntables, where it was rotated 90 degrees by the crew, hooked up again and sent back up the hill.  At Leavenworth a single turntable with turnout was used to reverse the cars for the trip back down.

The Clay Street Hill Railroad ran as an independent line until 1888, when it was sold to the Ferries and Cliff House Railroad, and incorporated into its Clay-Sacramento line.

   ♪ I Left My Heart…♫

toy

Seeing The Invisible

August 1, 1774:  Joseph Priestly Discovers Oxygen

On August 1, 1774, an experiment conducted by the British clergyman Joseph Priestley focused sunlight on mercuric oxide (HgO) inside a glass tube, which liberated a gas he named “dephlogisticated air”.  He noted that candles burned brighter in the gas and that a mouse was more active and lived longer while breathing it.

Priestly

After breathing the gas himself, he wrote:

“The feeling of it to my lungs was not sensibly different from that of common air, but I fancied that my breast felt peculiarly light and easy for some time afterwards.”

Priestley published his findings in 1775 in a paper titled “An Account of Further Discoveries in Air” which was included in the second volume of his book titled Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air.  Because he published his findings first, Priestley is usually given priority in the discovery.

Scheele

Swedish pharmacist Carl Wilhelm Scheele produced oxygen gas by heating mercuric oxide and various nitrates by about 1772.  Scheele called the gas “fire air” because it was the only known supporter of combustion, and wrote an account of this discovery in a manuscript he titled Treatise on Air and Fire, which he sent to his publisher in 1775.  However, that document was not published until 1777.

Antoine Lavoisier conducted the first adequate quantitative experiments on oxidation and gave the first correct explanation of how combustion works. He used these and similar experiments, all started in 1774, to discredit the phlogiston theory and to prove that the substance discovered by Priestley and Scheele was a chemical element.

Lavoisier

In one experiment, Lavoisier observed that there was no overall increase in weight when tin and air were heated in a closed container. He noted that air rushed in when he opened the container, which indicated that part of the trapped air had been consumed.  He also noted that the tin had increased in weight and that increase was the same as the weight of the air that rushed back in.  This and other experiments on combustion were documented in his book Sur la combustion en général, which was published in 1777.  In that work, he proved that air is a mixture of two gases; ‘vital air’, which is essential to combustion and respiration, and azote (Gk. ἄζωτον “lifeless”), which did not support either.  Azote later became nitrogen in English, although it has kept the name in French and several other European languages.

Lavoisier renamed ‘vital air’ to oxygène in 1777 from the Greek roots ὀξύς (oxys) (acid, literally “sharp”, from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter), because he mistakenly believed that oxygen was a constituent of all acids.  Chemists (notably Sir Humphry Davy in 1812) eventually determined that Lavoisier was wrong in this regard (it is in fact hydrogen that forms the basis for acid chemistry), but by that time it was too late; the name had taken.

Oxygen entered the English language despite opposition by English scientists and the fact that the Englishman Priestley had first isolated the gas and written about it. This is partly due to a poem praising the gas titled “Oxygen” in the popular book The Botanic Garden (1791) by Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin.

Long Distance Information

July 29, 1914:  First Transcontinental Phone Call

Call New York to California, or anywhere in-between, no problem.  But how did that work in the 1900’s?

The first test call is made on the newly completed transcontinental telephone line, taking place between New York and San Francisco. The last pole was erected and the line completed two days earlier on July 27th, but commercial service did not start until January 25th of the next year. The sixth month delay was due to AT&T’s wish to publicize, with much fanfare, the service in conjunction with San Francisco’s 1915 Worlds Fair.

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AT&T began building the nation’s original long distance network in 1885. Starting from New York, the network reached Chicago in 1892. But, because an electrical signal weakens as it travels down a wire, that distance was close to the limit for a line built of thick copper. With the 1899 introduction of loading coils, which slow the rate at which a signal weakens, construction proceeded west. By 1911, the network stretched as far as Denver, but had reached the distance limit for loading coils.

Theodore Vail

John Carty

In 1908, AT&T President Theodore Vail had made a transcontinental telephone line a major goal even though he knew the technology to build one did not exist. The next year, Chief Engineer John J. Carty raised the stakes when he announced in San Francisco that AT&T would open a transcontinental line in time for the city’s 1915 exposition to mark the completion of the Panama Canal.

But, without a scientific breakthrough, AT&T couldn’t make good on that bet. To improve the company’s odds, Carty not only hired physicist Dr. Harold Arnold to study the amplification of electrical signals, he also spread the word in the scientific and electrical-engineering community that AT&T would pay handsomely for an electrical amplifying device.

On Oct. 30, 1912, independent inventor Dr. Lee de Forest brought the audion, a three-element vacuum tube, to AT&T’s engineering department. De Forest’s invention provided a small amount of amplification, and then broke down into a bright blue haze.

However, Arnold recognized almost immediately that the blue haze was caused by ionization of residual gasses in the tube. If he increased the vacuum, thereby removing most of the residual gasses, the audion would become a practical amplifier. So on Arnold’s recommendation, AT&T bought the patent rights from de Forest.

By summer 1913, AT&T had tested high-vacuum tubes on the long distance network. And that fall, the company began constructing the line west from Denver and upgrading the line to the east. On June 27, 1914, the last pole was erected at Wendover, Utah, on the Nevada/Utah state line, and was topped with the American flag. Commercial service was started on Jan. 25, 1915.

Johnny Rivers “Memphis Tennessee”

The Cape

July 24, 1950:  First Launch from Cape Canaveral

The first successful rocket launch occurs at Cape Canaveral. The rocket, Bumper 8, was a captured German V-2 modified with a US Army Corporal second stage.

Cape Canaveral’s location in the southeast is an ideal site for rocket launches.  The Cape was chosen to take advantage of the Earth’s rotation.  The linear velocity of the Earth’s surface is greatest towards the equator; the relatively southerly location of the cape allows rockets to take advantage of this by launching eastward, in the same direction as the Earth’s rotation.  It is also highly desirable to have the downrange area sparsely populated, in case of accidents; an ocean is ideal for this. The east coast of Florida has logistical advantages over potential competing sites. The Spaceport Florida Launch Complex 46 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is at the tip of the cape.

 

It was named by Spanish explorers in the first half of the 16th century as Cabo Cañareal. The name “Canaveral” (Cañaveral in Spanish, meaning “reed bed” or “sugarcane plantation”) is the third oldest surviving European place name in the US.

From 1963 to 1973 the area had a different name as US President Lyndon Johnson by executive order renamed the area “Cape Kennedy.” President John F. Kennedy set the goal of landing on the moon. After his assassination in 1963, his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, suggested to President Lyndon Johnson that renaming the Cape Canaveral facility would be an appropriate memorial. Johnson recommended the renaming of the entire cape, announced in a televised address six days after the assassination. Accordingly, Cape Canaveral was officially renamed Cape Kennedy.

United Launch Alliance images of the Atlas V rocket being transported to the pad.

Although the name change was approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names of the Interior Department in December 1963, it was not popular in Florida, especially in the neighboring city of Cape Canaveral. In 1973, the Florida Legislature passed a law restoring the former 400-year-old name, and the Board went along. The name restoration to Cape Canaveral became official on October 9, 1973. The Kennedy family issued a letter stating they “understood the decision”. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center retains the “Kennedy” name.

The final Space Shuttle launch

A new chapter in space flight began in July 1950 with the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida: the Bumper 8. Shown above.
Bumper 8 was an ambitious two-stage rocket program that topped a V-2 missile base with a WAC Corporal rocket. The upper stage was able to reach then-record altitudes of almost 400 kilometers, higher than even modern Space Shuttles fly today. Launched under the direction of the General Electric Company, the Bumper Project was used primarily for testing rocket systems and for research on the upper atmosphere. Bumper rockets carried small payloads that allowed them to measure attributes including air temperature and cosmic ray impacts.

August 1991 Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center are shown is this near-vertical photograph. Numerous launch pads line the Atlantic Ocean coast near the center of the photograph. To the north of the multiple launch pads, the Space Shuttle landing runway, the Shuttle Assembly Area, and Shuttle Launch Pads A and B are visible. To the south of the multiple launch pads are Port Canaveral and the city of Cocoa Beach, Florida.

1965 Newsreel of a Titan Launch

Also on this day at 12:51 EDT, Kennedy’s goal is accomplished.  Apollo 11, the U.S. spacecraft that had taken the first astronauts to the surface of the moon, safely returns to Earth on this day in 1969.

Close-ups From Space

July 15, 1965:  Mariner IV Sends First Pictures of Mars

Mariner 4 was the first spacecraft to fly by Mars, and the first to return close-up images of the Red Planet.

Its blurry views of craters and bare ground led some scientists to think that Mars is similar to the moon.  It squashed some views that Mars was a haven for life.

Later missions showed that Mars is actually quite different from the moon, with an active weather system and a much wetter past.

Life on Mars

It’s hard to pinpoint when the discussions of life on Mars began in earnest, but astronomers’ observations of the Red Planet in the late 1800s and early 1900s helped spur a wave of interest.

Percival Lowell, an American businessman and astronomer (the choice of the name Pluto and its symbol were partly influenced by his initials PL) spent years studying Mars from an observatory he financed at Flagstaff, Ariz.  He made sketches of the surface and published the results.  Telescope resolution wasn’t all that great at the time, but Lowell felt that he was seeing canals on the Red Planet that were possibly built by intelligent beings.

Percival Lowell with his telescoipe

As his observations became public, interest in Mars was soaring.  Dozens of books, movies and television programs portrayed different views of civilization, ranging from H.G. Wells’ “War of the Words” and Martian aliens in episodes of “The Twilight Zone” to Marvin the Martian on “Looney Tunes.”

Getting to Mars

These were the early days of space exploration with a high rate of failure as NASA and the Soviet Union each tested new technology.  As such, NASA elected to send two spacecraft to Mars around the same time – Mariner 3 and Mariner 4.  This success had worked previously with Mariner 1 and Mariner 2’s voyages to Venus; while Mariner 1 failed, Mariner 2 successfully sent back information.

Mariner 3 launched Nov. 5, 1964.  It made it into space successfully, but a fairing intended to protect the spacecraft during launch jammed instead of coming off as planned.  This doomed the spacecraft before the mission could get started.

This left only Mariner 4 to carry out the mission.  NASA and its contractors hastily redesigned the nose fairing in the three weeks before its launch, and cheered its success when the spacecraft successfully headed for Mars on Nov. 28.  The 574-pound (260 kilogram) spacecraft spent more than seven months cruising to the Red Planet.

Mariner’s 1st picture sent

Close Encounter

Mariner 4 spent just 25 minutes doing observations of Mars as it cruised by on July 14, 1965.  In that brief time, it took 21 full pictures that it beamed back to Earth the next day. The spacecraft’s views would be the first ones beamed back from another planet.

After the pictures came back, they showed no canals or any obvious signs of life at all. Although blurry by today’s standards, the images were clear enough to reveal a heavily cratered surface.  Scientists said it appeared Mars was more similar to the moon than to Earth.

Reaction to Mariner 4’s results

There was disappointment among some scientists, and the public alike.  “The New York Times” remarked that Mars is “probably a dead planet.”

NASA’s continued exploration of the Red Planet has revealed a much less barren surface than what Mariner 4 suggested.  The Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers have all found evidence of past water on the surface, with their “ground truth” observations supplemented by large-scale views of the planet from orbiting spacecraft.

— paraphrased from Elizabeth Howell, SPACE.com Contributor

Buggs and Marvin

Fixing a Broken Heart

July 9, 1893:  Dr. Daniel Hale Williams Performs First Successful Open Heart Susrgery . . . Without Anesthesia

Williams was the first to perform successful Open Heart surgery.  Earlier surgeries on the pericardium (which resulted in the death of the patient) was attempted by Francisco Romero in 1801, Dominique Jean Larrey prior to 1850, and by Henry Dalton in 1891.

In 1893, Williams made history when he operated on James Cornish, a man with a severe stab wound to his chest who was brought to Provident.  Without the benefits of penicillin, a blood transfusion or modern surgical procedures, Williams successfully sutured Cornish’s pericardium (the membranous sac enclosing the heart), becoming the first person to perform open-heart surgery.  About fifty-five days later, James Cornish had successfully recovered from the surgery.  Cornish lived for many years after the operation.

James Cornish

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Daniel Hale Williams (January 18, 1858– August 4, 1931) was an American surgeon.  He was the first African-American cardiologist, and performed one of the first successful pericardium surgeries in the United States.  He also founded Provident Hospital, the first non-segregated hospital in the United States.

Provident Hospital

At the time that he graduated from medical school, black doctors were not allowed to work in Chicago hospitals.  As a result, in 1891, Williams started the Provident Hospital (Chicago) and training school for nurses in Chicago, Illinois.  This was established mostly for African-American citizens.

Due to the discrimination of the day, African-American citizens were still barred from being admitted to hospitals and black doctors were refused staff positions. Firmly believing this needed to change, in May 1891, Williams opened Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses, the nation’s first hospital with a nursing and intern program that had a racially integrated staff. The facility, where Williams worked as a surgeon, was publicly championed by famed abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass.

Daniel Williams

Dr. Williams

He lived with his father who was a “free negro” barber, his mother, his one brother and five sisters and was the fifth child of the family.  His family eventually moved to Annapolis, Maryland. Shortly after when Daniel was nine, his father died.  Williams graduated from Chicago Medical College in 1883.

Williams was married in 1898 to Alice Johnson, daughter of sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel and a maid of mixed ancestry.  Williams died of a stroke in Idlewild, Michigan on August 4, 1931.  His wife, Alice Johnson, died in 1924.

Moses Jacob Ezekiel Sculpture 1904 Cast can’t hide from fate

Hearing the Voice

The Hot Tech Setup…1950’s style

July 2, 1953:  First Mass-Produced Computer

On July 2, IBM announced its 650 series of computers, the first mass-produced computer, and the dominant computer of the decade.  It featured a magnetic drum to store data as well as accept punched cards for input. The punched card idea for calculation dates back to Herman Hollerith’s tabulating machine used in the 1890 census.  That company eventually became IBM.

Herman Hollerith and the tabulating machine used in the 1890 census

The IBM 650 stored information on a rotating magnetic drum and received it on programmed punch cards. Its memory stored numbers with up to 10 decimal digits.

Magnetic Drum

Vacuum-tube

The 650 is a vacuum-tube logic, drum-memory, decimal — not binary — computer.  Data is stored in words containing ten decimal digits and a sign, and instructions operate on numbers stored in this format.  IBM called the 650 an automatic calculator, not a computer:

One of the most exciting achievements of our generation is the development of the electronic automatic digital calculator. Although any schoolboy can perform any operation done by the calculator, the speed and economy with which the calculator does them are so great that automatic calculation is revolutionizing large areas of science, engineering, business, industry, and defense. A single giant calculator can do more arithmetic than the entire population of the United States could do with pencil and paper.

Until the mid-to-late 1950s, the word “computer” referred to people who performed computations, not to machines.  But before the decade was out, “digital computer” applied to the 650 and other “giant brains” and a “calculator” was the clunky thing on your desk.

IBM 650 computer at Texas A&M University likely in 1950s

IBM 650 opened to show storage drum and rear of front panel.

Originally a cards-only machine, the 650 was compatible with IBM’s popular line of unit record equipment (sorters, collators, punches, accounting machines, etc), but advances first seen in the 700 series were retrofitted to it over the years: magnetic tape drives, line printers; IBM 407 interconnect, RAMAC disk drive, core memory.

Here is the “Gamers” HOT setup: Left to right: four Type 727 Magnetic Tape Units, a Type 652 Control Unit, Type 407 Accounting Machine (foreground), Type 653 Auxilliary Unit (high-speed storage, back), Type 650 Console Unit (foreground), Type 655 Power Unit (back), and a Type 533 Read-Punch Unit.

IBM expected to deploy only about 50 of these systems, but the demand surprised them. The 650 was relatively cheap, carried a hefty academic discount, was compatible with existing card equipment, it would fit in one room, and it was “user friendly” — decimal arithmetic, small instruction set, handy console.

IBM 650 front panel, showing bi-quinary indicators

It was one of the first computers that could be used “hands on” by programmers.   In all, 2000 were installed in the nine years of manufacture (1953-62), surpassing the entire combined sales of all the 700 series.  Support for the 650 was withdrawn by IBM in 1969.

While the IBM 650 was not a super-hot machine, it did have one feature that made it sell: lots of blinking lights…

With that anyone could tell something was going on.  Some authors attribute the success of IBM to these blinking lights and the fact the computer used the same cards as the other unit record equipment of IBM.  Actually the output of your 650 program was punched on cards and you could take the deck over to a 402 Accounting Machine to get a print out.

The IBM 650 in Action:

For those of you interested here is a link to the Owners Manual pdf:http://bit.ly/14o5sPd