Gallery: Photos From the Early Days of New York's Tech Scene
Courtesy of Alcatel-Lucent / Bell Labs.011.6.3c TelstarandScientists-Alcatel
Bell Labs engineers working on the Telstar 1 in 1961. In a collaboration with US, UK and French broadcasting agencies, the satellite launched on July 10, 1962. Its first live broadcast was 13 days later, hosted by Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and Richard Dimbleby.
Peter Menzel024.1.2f Menzel-MathewsBatons-USA-SCI-EMUS-06-xs
Max Mathews with his radio batons. Mathews is considered to be the father of computer music. Arthur C. Clarke saw him performing on an IBM 704 computer while visiting him at Bell Labs in 1961, and it inspired the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) where HAL 9000 sings “Daisy Bell.”
Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives.031.4.1 O IBM-SelectiveSequenceElectronicCalculator-HR
A photo of the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC) operator console, 1948. The SSEC was the first computer to store data, and calculated the position of the moon and planets. It boasted 12,500 vacuum tubes and over 21,000 relays, operating at IBM’s New York headquarters from 1948 to 1952. Developed by astronomer Wallace Eckert at Columbia University, it was the last electromagnetic calculator ever built.
Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives.04IBM Egg Pavilion
IBM created a theater known as “the egg” for its Eero Saarinen-designed pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. People accessed the theater through a “people wall” that carried 500 visitors into the theater every 15 minutes. There, they learned about the information machine through a short film called “THINK” by designers Charles and Ray Eames.
Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives05IBM Red Selectric Typewriter Ad
IBM’s focus on branding, design, marketing, and sales made products like its iconic 1961 Selectric typewriter irresistible to the public. It is emblematic of the company’s design under Eliot Noyes.
Courtesy of Alcatel-Lucent/Bell Labs061.6.5c O+I ALU-LadyBirdJohnson on screen of Picturephone1-HR+P
Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington talks with Bell Labs scientist Elizabeth A. Wood on a picturephone in New York, June 24 1964. The call took place during the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens. Bell Labs had experimented with videophones since the 1920s. The picture phone was cost-prohibitive, with a three-minute call costing $200 in today’s dollars. The service faded away in the 1970s.
Mel Koner/Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives07123-05AR.PSD
Thomas Watson Jr. poses with an IBM 360, 1964. IBM’s System/360 was the first in a series of all-purpose machines that could perform almost any task by simply changing the software. It transformed computing and set the pattern for today’s world of multipurpose machines.
Courtesy of the Brookhaven National Laboratory085037136202
*Tennis for Two*, 1958. The simple, electronic bouncing ball game was developed by William Higinbotham at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island for a visitor’s day. One of several early examples, *Tennis for Two* paved the way for modern video games.
Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives091.7.3 O IBM-IBM5150-HR
IBM 5150 personal computer, 1981. Miniaturization allowed for printing transistors on microchips inside personal computers. By the late ‘80s, more than two million components could fit on a fingernail-sized chip. The IBM Personal Computer appeared in offices across America.
Courtesy of the US Army101.4.1c ENIACandWomenProgrammers- HR+P
Marilyn Wescoff and Ruth Lichterman wire the right side of an Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), developed by a Jean Bartik, Frances Bilas and other women for the Army during World War II. Women dominated computer programming in the 1940s. They were called “computers,” just as people who operate typewriters were once called “typewriters.”
Paul Rand/Courtesy of IBM Corporation Archives110.3.1b IBM-PaulRandWorldFairBookletHi-res
Paul Rand’s World’s Fair IBM Booklet, 1964. Using the World’s Fair as a “coming out party” for the information age, IBM commissioned Madison Avenue designers like Paul Rand to create its brand identity.
Matthew Brady/Courtesy private collection121.2.a LoC-ProfessorThomasEdisonandPhonographHS+P
All early computers have Thomas Edison to thank. While tweaking the light bulb, Edison discovered thermionic emission. Almost 30 years later, physicist John Fleming used it to create the vacuum tube. Vacuum tubes were the voltage regulators and current amplifiers at the heart of radios and other electronic devices, including computers.
Estate of Stan VanDerBeek13Stan VanDerBeek-Poemfield-2-PRHQ.mp4.Still001
Filmmaker Stan VanDerBeek collaborated with Kenneth Knowlton at Bell Laboratories in the 1960s to create eight abstract films made up of cathode-ray mosaics. Pictured here is a 16mm video still from "Poemfield # 2,” created between 1966 and 1971. The soundtrack was by Paul Motion.
