Powers-Samas
Encyclopedia
Powers-Samas was a British company which sold unit record equipment
. The company was in competition with the British Tabulating Machine Company
(BTM), with which it eventually merged in 1959 to form International Computers and Tabulators
(ICT). Powers-Samas was also known as "Acc and Tab" (Accounting and Tabulating).
s were converted into electrical signals as they passed under a row of wire brushes, Powers-Samas equipment was entirely mechanical. Pins that could drop through round holes in cards were connected to linkages and their displacement when a hole was present actuated other parts of the mechanism to produce desired results.
Programming involved building a suitable network of linkages. According to one user, this "was achieved by locating above the reading block, in contact with the tops of the matrix pins, a removable Y-shaped 'connection box' (equivalent to the Hollerith plug board
) which was hard-wired spcifically to the job. The box had at the base as many rods as were needed to read the positions within the used data fields, so that, when forced down, appropriate features of the machine - printheads, counters or control links were physically set as a reaction to the moving tops of the connecting box rods. Thus while many connection wires were straight-through, some sensed holes needed to allow multiple actuation, while some multiple code-punching needed to be combined to achieve a single purpose. Designing the system including 'programming' the tabulator was the sales engineers job, while soldering the 'conn-box' forest of cranked rods to meet the design requirement was down to the skill of the Powers Engineer who was thus the doyen of the machine room."
While Powers-Samas used a variety of card sizes and formats, a 40-column card measuring 4.35 by 2 inches was common.
Unit record equipment
Before the advent of electronic computers, data processing was performed using electromechanical devices called unit record equipment, electric accounting machines or tabulating machines. Unit record machines were as ubiquitous in industry and government in the first half of the twentieth century...
. The company was in competition with the British Tabulating Machine Company
British Tabulating Machine Company
The British Tabulating Machine Company was a firm which manufactured and sold Hollerith unit record equipment and other data-processing equipment...
(BTM), with which it eventually merged in 1959 to form International Computers and Tabulators
International Computers and Tabulators
International Computers and Tabulators or ICT was formed in 1959 by a merger of the British Tabulating Machine Company and Powers-Samas. In 1963 it also added the business computer divisions of Ferranti...
(ICT). Powers-Samas was also known as "Acc and Tab" (Accounting and Tabulating).
Description
Unlike IBM equipment where rectangular holes in punched cardPunched card
A punched card, punch card, IBM card, or Hollerith card is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions...
s were converted into electrical signals as they passed under a row of wire brushes, Powers-Samas equipment was entirely mechanical. Pins that could drop through round holes in cards were connected to linkages and their displacement when a hole was present actuated other parts of the mechanism to produce desired results.
Programming involved building a suitable network of linkages. According to one user, this "was achieved by locating above the reading block, in contact with the tops of the matrix pins, a removable Y-shaped 'connection box' (equivalent to the Hollerith plug board
Plugboard
A plugboard, or control panel , is an array of jacks, or hubs, into which patch cords can be inserted to complete an electrical circuit. Control panels were used to direct the operation of some unit record equipment...
) which was hard-wired spcifically to the job. The box had at the base as many rods as were needed to read the positions within the used data fields, so that, when forced down, appropriate features of the machine - printheads, counters or control links were physically set as a reaction to the moving tops of the connecting box rods. Thus while many connection wires were straight-through, some sensed holes needed to allow multiple actuation, while some multiple code-punching needed to be combined to achieve a single purpose. Designing the system including 'programming' the tabulator was the sales engineers job, while soldering the 'conn-box' forest of cranked rods to meet the design requirement was down to the skill of the Powers Engineer who was thus the doyen of the machine room."
While Powers-Samas used a variety of card sizes and formats, a 40-column card measuring 4.35 by 2 inches was common.