Early Remington Rand Computers
Remington Rand Model 3 Computer (1947) and Model 409 Computer (1951)
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Assembling the Remington Rand Model 3 Computer (above) at 333 Wilson Ave., Rand’s South Norwalk Technical Center, prior to its relocation to Rowayton. Left to right: Charles Nichols, Gordan Chamberlin, and Al Greenfield. Draftsman unknown. Note Model 2 brought from Brooklyn in right rear. September 8, 1947. This site served as the original home of Norwalk Community College. The Model 3 was the immediate predecessor of the Model 409. (See Article on History of Model 3 and Model 409) |
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The photo above shows one of the original five Model 409-2 being built for the IRS in South Norwalk after relocation from Rowayton. Left to right: Bob Brink and Bill Wenning. Late 1951/early 1952. Its rough dimensions were about 8 feet long, 2 feet thick and 5 1/2 feet tall. It delivered 8,000 watts. Huge copper cables supplied the current. "The 409 was aimed at doing repetitive jobs such as tax compilation and payroll computation. The Model 409, and its successor, the UNIVAC 60/120, received data through punch cards, which were typed up by operators using keypunches and then fed into the machine. The machine would then calculate the problem and print out an answer. Everything was processed through vacuum tubes, which were constantly failing. Wenning said the tube problem was "one of the greatest hurdles in the 409 days," and credited Randmer helping solve it by developing a new one. In 1951, the Model 409 prototype was unveiled to a gathering of military and government officials in the barn, which today houses the Rowayton Public Library and Community Center. In 1952, the company shipped its first business computer to the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS loved it and ordered two more. During the development of the 409, Remington Rand bought UNIVAC (The "Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company"), a Pennsylvania-based computer maker that had already made a name for itself. In 1953 Remington Rand modified the Model 409 and sold it as the UNIVAC 60/120, which was very successful until the late 1950s. When the company began losing market share to IBM around that time, it decided to create a new computer: the UNIVAC 1004. Code named "bumblebee" because many senior managers doubted it would fly, the 1004 turned out to be a huge hit. |
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Remington Rand UNIVAC 1004 (1962). This photo shows a rear view of circuit card rack on left. |
Photos and information courtesy of Rowayton Library, Rowayton, Connecticut.
See their web site online at: http://www.rowayton.org/rhs/welcome.html
History of Computing
An Encyclopedia of the People and Machines that Made Computer History
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