Det stod "husloppis" på en skylt i ett villaområde i Spånga, och jodå, allt i den stora villan var till salu. Arvingarna hade hållit på i flera veckor och nu var det sista helgen innan de körde resten till tippen.

Sju volymer i blåa klotband visade sig vara servicehandböcker för IBMs hålkortsmaskiner. I källaren hittade jag verktygsväskan med en lätt oljig innehållsförteckning: kugghjulshållare för 016, bladmått, körnare, oljekannor, pinnurdragare ...

Från handböckerna har jag saxat några korta inledningar, som förklarar vilken funktion de olika maskinerna hade i databehandlingen. Via produktlistan som jag länkar till här nedan framgår att de maskiner som böckerna beskriver alla är från 1920– och 1930-talen. Lite märkligt eftersom manualerna är tryckta under 1940-talet och att det då fanns betydligt modernare maskiner.

Dock, här följer en engelsk läsövning:

011 Electric Punch
The IBM Electric Punch provides the means of transcribing information from original documents to IBM cards. It establishes the records to be handled by all other IBM Accounting Machines; thefore, the part that it plays is of utmost importance in the IBM Accounting method.

016 Motor Drive Duplicating Punch
031 Alphabetical Duplicating Punch

The Type 031 Alphabetical Duplicating Punch was designed to handle the types of accounting data which include not only quantitative data expressed in numbers, but also identification data expressed alphabetically.
To record an alphabetic character, two holes must be punched in each column—a zone punch, 0, 11, or 12, and a numerical punch, 1 to 9. Of the 27 possible combinations of these 3 zone positions and 9 numerical positions, all except the 0-1 combination are used for the 26 letters of the alphabet. A is a combination of 12 and 1, B of 12 and 2, C of 12 and 3, etc. The following table gives the complete list of combinations for alphabetic punching.

Digits Zones

12      11 0
1 A J Unused
2 B K S
3 C L T
4 D M U
5 E N V
6 F O W
7 G P X
8 H Q Y
9 I R Z


Punch 031

In addition to punching manually, it is possible to duplicate information which has been punched in a master card: This is particularly useful in punching repetitive information, that is, information which is common to several cards.

080 Sorting Machine
The three machines, which are referred to as the ABC of the punched card method of accounting, are the punch, sorter, and tabulator, for these three represent the basis of the system. The punch establishes the records, the sorter arranges or classifies the records, and the tabulator or accounting machine produces the results.

It has frequently been stated that the sorting machine is the heart of many accounting installations, and that without it there would be no widespread commercial application of the punched card system of accounting. It affords a speedy and accurate method of arranging cards into any desired sequence. By the use of these machines the drudgery of manual sorting operations is entirely removed, the work being performed by fully automatic machine operations except for the feeding and removing of cards. The speed of the machine is 400 cards per minute.
Sorting consists of running the cards through the machine once -for each column in the field being classified. This is comparable to scanning a series of printed figures with the human eye, except here an electric brush becomes the eye, which is properly positioned by the operator.

077 Collator
The IBM Collator enters the IBM Accounting procedure as a part of the second step, that is, arranging cards for report preparation. Before the Collator can perform its arranging functions, however, the punched cards must first be sorted into proper sequence by the IBM Sorter. Thus, the collating operation is always preceded by at least two other operations: recording the data in the form of punched holes, and sorting the cards into numerical sequence.

285 Electric Accounting Machine
405 Alphabetical Accounting Machine
921 Automatic Carriage

THE IBM Accounting Machines, Type 285 and Type 405, are provided with a standard carriage which is mechanically operated by a system of cams and levers from a power source which is part of the machine. The standard carriage advances the paper or form on which the report is to be printed by single, double, or triple spacing. If continuous forms are to be used, the accounting machine may be set to stop as the report on each form is completed, but the first printing line of the succeeding form must be positioned manually before the Accounting Machine is restarted.
The Automatic Carriage, Type 921, is designed to replace the standard carriage and is mounted in the same position. Its purpose is to control the feeding of continuous forms by automatically advancing them through the machine, either form to form, or section to section within one form. The Automatic Carriage will perform the same operations as a standard carriage, advancing the paper by single, double, or triple line spacing.

601 Electric Multiplier
The type 601 Multiplying Punch makes all extending and crossfooting operations performed in standard accounting procedures entirely automatic. With the addition of special features, the machine is capable of performing many special accounting operations or solving mathematical problems.
The machine automatically reads the factors from the IBM card, performs the desired mathematical computations, and punches the answer in the same card. Concurrently with the multiplication of each card, a progressive total of the results of the computations may be accumulated.

The Multiplier is so designed that all operations are performed with a minimum expenditure of time. As the card feeds into the machine, the factors are read from the card and set up in the proper counters. While the multiplication is being performed, the card is fed into punching position. The product of the multiplication is transmitted to the punching mechanism and simultaneously is registered in the summary counter. While the card is being punched and ejected, the next card is fed past the reading station. Thus by overlapping machine operations, undesirable delay is eliminated.
The machine performs the following general classes of operations: individual multiplication, group multiplication, crossfooting.

Fakta

Stansen förvandlade inmatad data till hål i kortet, sorteraren plockade ut kort för körningar och tabulatorn räknade fram ett resultat (av bokföring t ex) eller soterade fram personer ur ett register för fakturor eller inkallelseorder. Multiplikatorn kunde utföra mer avancerade beräkningar.