[Leica] OT:Type 240

[Jim Nichols]

Hi Herb,

I may have mentioned this to you once before.  Three of those ERA 
computers, upnamed ERA 1102, were delivered to Arnold Engineering 
Development Center, where I spent most of my career.  Those were our 
data reduction computers when we brought the facilities on-line.

Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA

On 7/17/2015 4:27 PM, Herbert Kanner wrote:
> I always wonder where these numbers come from. Examples” some early mainframe computers: IBM’s first scientific computer: 701, IBM’s most successful business data computer: 1401, major Control Data computer: 3600. Well, I learned the story of one of these when doing essential reading after becoming a docent in the Computer History Museum.
>
> During WWII, the U.S. Navy had a group of engineering officers developing specialized hardware to aid in cryptography. When the war ended, the Navy wanted to keep these guys, so it persuaded them to form a corporation (Engineering Research Associates, or ERA for short, and bought them a building in Minneapolis that used to be a glider factory. The Navy gave these guys thirteen consecutive tasks, the thirteenth being to build a general-purpose computer.
>
> The computer was so successful that ERA asked the Navy for permission to sell this computer commercially after first removing a secret instruction code from the public version. It was granted. I actually saw this computer in operation around 1951 at George Washington University. It was sold as the ERA 1101.
>
> What I learned at the Museum was that 1101 was very appropriate; as a binary number, its value is thirteen.
>
>
> Herbert Kanner
> kanner at acm.org
> 650-326-8204
>
> Question authority and the authorities will question you.
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>