Lesson Notes By Weeks and Term - Senior Secondary School 1

SUBJECT: ICT

CLASS:  SS 1

DATE:

TERM: 1st TERM

 
WEEK SIX

TOPIC: COMPUTING DEVICES 1(Pre- computer age to 19)

Reference book: Hiit @ School, Computer Studies for Senior Secondary Education.

CONTENT

HOLLERITH CENSUS MACHINE

This is also known as Hollerith desk, consisted of a card reader which sensed the holes in the cards, gear driven mechanism which could count and a large wall of dial indicators (a car speedometer is a dial indicator) to display the results of the count. The patterns of Jacquard’s cards were determined when a tapestry was designed and then were not changed. Today, we could call this a read- only form of information storage. Hollerith had the insight to convert what is today called a read/write technology.

Hollerith’s technique was successful and the 1890 census was completed in only 3 years rather than 7 years saving a 5 million dollars. Incidentally, the Hollerith census machine was the first machine to ever be featured on a magazine cover.

BURROUGH’S MACHINE

In 1885, William Seward Burroughs from the American Arithmometer Company invented this mechanical adding machine. The early Burroughs models were large machines characterized by having glass panels in the sides, so the mechanism could be seen. Due to constant development in mechanical calculators through to the 1960’s, Burroughs converted to electronic desk calculators and in mid to late 1970’s, their products dropped from the market.

Common components of the Burroughs machine are:

Keypads: this is used for inputting numbers into the machine.

Lever: when the lever is pulled and released on the side of the machine, it causes the machine to add entry to a running total and print the total.

Register: this is usually found behind the glass front of the machine, it is where an operator of the machine reads the running total of their calculation (s).

Printer: found at the rear of the machine with a carriage also on the rear, the operator will have to lift the carriage to see what is printed. Burroughs machines were “blind” printers.

They were used for scientific, engineering, and other calculations requiring multiplication and division of long numbers. There were limitations in the calculations especially in the areas where many large tables such as logarithm, trigonometric applications, etc. were involved. 

EVALUATION

1. Describe Burrough’s Machine. 2. Explain Hollerith Census Machine.

READING ASSIGNMENT: HiiT @ School, Computer Studies for Senior Secondary Education. Chapter Three, pages 8-9.

WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT

OBJECTIVES

1. Hermann Hollerith’s machine was used for US census in __ (a) 1890      (b) 1980      (c) 1989
2. Burrough’s machine was invented in ___. a) 1985 b) 1885 c) 1858
3. ____ machine was used for scientific and engineering calculations of long numbers. a) Slide  

   rule b) Burrough’s machine c) Herman Hollerith machine

4. What year did Burrough converted mechanical calculators to electronic desk calculators?
5. a)   1960   b) 1970 c) 1690
6. The following are common components of the Burroughs machine except a) Printer
7. b)  keyboard c) register

THEORY

Write a short note on the following: Hollerith census machine and Burrough’s machine.