The Flickr Internationalbusinessmachines Image Generatr

the former international business machines office building on main street east.

a foto from the hamilton public library archives, from march of 1946 showing the international business machines office on main street east.

Searching through some old boxes of photos I came upon these relics. My dad was a physicist at IBM in the early 60’s. IBM scientists created Fortran which was the first computer programming language. After working on the first computers with IBM he then went to Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where he worked on the first avionics computers. His contract was with Scandinavian Airlines in Copenhagen. He hated the travel and wanted us to move there. Collins Radio eventually became Rockwell International which still is an industry leader in avionics and automation. My father passed away when I was very young but his advice to me was: “Find a career that challenges your brain, not your back”.

He frequently tried to teach me to use a slide rule which he always kept in his pocket. After several failed attempts he told me to stick with manipulating words rather than numbers. I followed his advice.

In these photos my brother Mark was at IBM holding some Fortran cards in front of an early IBM compter. In the IBM group photo he is in the front row, second from the right. And yes, he had to dress like that every day. He had a master’s degree in physics from Ohio State.

Searching through some old boxes of photos I came upon these relics. My dad was a physicist at IBM in the early 60’s. IBM scientists created Fortran which was the first computer programming language. After working on the first computers with IBM he then went to Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where he worked on the first avionics computers. His contract was with Scandinavian Airlines in Copenhagen. He hated the travel and wanted us to move there. Collins Radio eventually became Rockwell International which still is an industry leader in avionics and automation. My father passed away when I was very young but his advice to me was: “Find a career that challenges your brain, not your back”.

He frequently tried to teach me to use a slide rule which he always kept in his pocket. After several failed attempts he told me to stick with manipulating words rather than numbers. I followed his advice.

In these photos my brother Mark was at IBM holding some Fortran cards in front of an early IBM compter. In the IBM group photo he is in the front row, second from the right. And yes, he had to dress like that every day. He had a master’s degree in physics from Ohio State.

A scale drawing of the wide layout of the west and east faces of the four-sided time display that sat at the top of the original IBM Building at 590 Madison Avenue in New York City from the 1950's into the late 1960's (the narrow side, as on the north and south faces, has been simulated over here). As with the narrow side, the wide side measurements' depiction is somewhat speculative, as there are not that many surviving photos of this clock from any angle, and any on the web are related to a clip seen in various configurations and files on YouTube and an August 1966 article about Artkraft Strauss in Signs of the Times that the legendary sign-making firm put up on its website. It is not known, for example, if the number of bulbs used to flash a number 4 and those to flash a number 7 are as depicted, or if there were more as in their Chicago time display, or somewhere in-between.

A scale rendition of the narrow side of the time display atop the roof of the original IBM Building at 590 Madison Avenue in the East 50's in New York City. Right below the four-sided jump clock (the other two sides - facing west and east - were a bit wider, and thus the colon separating hour and minute could be shown as double-lined rater than single-lined as here) was the IBM logo, and as of 1965, several feet below that was their slogan dating back to when Thomas J. Watson was running the company, "World Peace Through World Trade." This whole setup was first installed some time in the 1950's by Artkraft Strauss; this, plus a rooftop clock with the same numeral shapes as atop their Chicago branch at 618 South Michigan Avenue (q.v.), suggests the time controls were from IBM itself in what they called a "Direct Read" mode, as the company for years had a Time Equipment Division (which mostly specialized in time recorders, time stamps, wall clocks and electronic scoreboards) until it was sold in 1958 to Simplex. The only other known jump clock to bear these numbers, from 1950 until about 1960-61, was atop the MONY Building on Broadway and 55th Street (q.v.). The layout of the lamp banks are admittedly pure speculation, but the spacing and positioning of the numerals are not.

Only two known images exist of this clock, especially the narrow side (in particular the one facing north): a photo published in the August 1966 Signs of the Times as part of an article about Artkraft Strauss, and a few film clips on YouTube (from the same film) about the sights of midtown Manhattan as it stood as of 1965. (By contrast, photos of the top of the Chicago offices are somewhat more plentiful, if mostly from a very far away distance.) This clock would remain until the building itself was demolished starting in the late 1960's.

A scale rendition of the time display as placed atop the roof of the Chicago offices of the IBM (International Business Machines) Building from when they were located at 618 South Michigan Avenue. This particular jump clock - with the kind of blue that would come to be associated with the IBM name - was first put into service around spring 1955, as per an article in the May 1955 issue of Signs of the Times magazine, and was still in operation as late as the summer of 1968 at the time of the tumultuous Democratic National Convention; its service held up to the point the company moved its Chicago offices five years after that to a new office tower known for years thereafter as One IBM Plaza (and is now known as 330 North Wabash Avenue). The article cited the numeral height (12 bulbs across, 18 bulbs high) at 7 feet 6 inches - same as atop the MONY Building in New York - and the total number of bulbs (60 watt A21's) as 583, hence the number of bulbs per lamp bank for the ability to display the numbers 4 and 7, and the spacing and positioning thereof, are highly speculative in every which way. These same type numerals were also above the roof of the company's original Madison Avenue offices in New York up to the point the building was prepared for demolition in the late 1960's, but as yet no real closeup pics of that display have shown up to produce a scale replica thereof.

GD/Astronautics Details: TIAS Radome Development; Anechoic Chamber Date: 04/18/1969--Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---Note: This material may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.)--Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum

GD/Astronautics Details: TIAS Radome Development; Anechoic Chamber Date: 04/18/1969---Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum --Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---Note: This material may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.)--Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum

GD/Astronautics Details: A6 Radome Antenna Array Date: 03/26/1969--Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---Note: This material may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.)--Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum

GD/Astronautics Details: TIAS Radome in Anechoic Chamber Date: 04/10/1969--Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---Note: This material may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.)--Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum

GD/Astronautics Details: A6 Radome Configuration Date: 03/26/1969--Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---Note: This material may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.)--Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum

GD/Astronautics Details: TIAS Radome in Anchoic Chamber Date: 04/08/1969--Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---Note: This material may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.)--Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum

A IBM master clock now restored, i had been looking get one for a long time.
It came from the BP British Petroleum offices in Leeds were it was originally in the telephone switchboard room.

This clock has an amazing mechanism if you would like to see how it works watch this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkRO3OA2_hE
Thanks to J. Alan Bloore for this great video.

A IBM master clock now restored, i had been looking get one for a long time.
It came from the BP British Petroleum offices in Leeds were it was originally in the telephone switchboard room.

This clock has an amazing mechanism if you would like to see how it works watch this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkRO3OA2_hE
Thanks to J. Alan Bloore for this great video.

A IBM master clock now restored, i had been looking get one for a long time.
It came from the BP British Petroleum offices in Leeds were it was originally in the telephone switchboard room.

This clock has an amazing mechanism if you would like to see how it works watch this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkRO3OA2_hE
Thanks to J. Alan Bloore for this great video.

Harris & Ewing,, photographer.

IBM at [...] Park

[ca. 1938]

1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. or smaller

Notes:
Title from unverified caption data received with the Harris & Ewing Collection.
Date based on date of negatives in same range.
Gift; Harris & Ewing, Inc. 1955.

Format: Glass negatives.

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication. For more information, see Harris & Ewing Photographs - Rights and Restrictions Information www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/140_harr.html

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Part Of: Harris & Ewing photograph collection (DLC) 2009632509

General information about the Harris & Ewing Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.hec

Higher resolution image is available (Persistent URL): hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hec.25336

Call Number: LC-H22-D- 4892

A IBM master clock Waiting to be restored, i have been looking get one for a long time.
It came from the BP British Petroleum offices in Leeds were it was originally in the telephone switchboard room.

This clock has an amazing mechanism if you would like to see how it works watch this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkRO3OA2_hE
Thanks to J. Alan Bloore for this great video.

A IBM master clock
Waiting to be restored, i have been looking get one for a long time.
It came from the BP British Petroleum offices in Leeds were it was originally in the telephone switchboard room.

This clock has an amazing mechanism if you would like to see how it works watch this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkRO3OA2_hE
Thanks to J. Alan Bloore for this great video.

This was in the bottom of the case