Cobol - Re: IBM 1401

Author

Re: IBM 1401

Joe Zitzelberger

2004-06-15, 8:55 am

There is an emulator that claims the 1401. The SIMH runs on Intel and
windows:

http://simh.trailing-edge.com/

So the theory of a fast 1401 can be tested...

motorbyte@aol.com

2004-06-16, 3:55 pm

Hi:

Some comments for the old-timers who worked on the 1401 and
those never lucky enough to do so.

If you don't count wiring control panels for EAM machines,
the 1401 was the first machine I programmed and I loved it.

Someone else mentioned the programs to play music. There were
several programs which played music on the printer. The 1403
printer was quite loud and the music would sound different
depending on the type of paper (1-part, 3-part or the special
pink printer-chain cleaning paper). You could also remove the
huge ribbon and run the programs with no paper although I
recall that the IBM CEs frowned on that. There were also programs
which played music which could be heard via a transistor radio
held next to the machine.

The original SPS assembler was a two-pass version which created
an intermediate deck so card-usage was quite spectacular. I
wrote a single-pass assembler when I was working for Independent
News Company, a large magazine distributor in New York which we used
exclusively in place of the IBM assembler.

I also wrote a program to dynamically trace SPS programs and
one to calculate execution times.

When FARGO (Fourteen-Oh-One Automatic Report Generating Operation?)
was introduced, I tried it but didn't like it for whatever reason.
Did it run directly from the source or was there a 'compile' step -
anyone remember? I don't remember if there was RPG for the 1401
or did that come out with the 360?

Although as mathematical as a moose, I also wrote a program to
calculate statistical t-tests which had to calculate square roots
by repetitive division or something. That one gave me lots of
headaches. I still have the listing of that one and samples of
its printed output.

I also wrote a program which allowed the 1401 to play solitaire
by itself. You shuffled the deck and the program read it and
went through the exercise all by itself and printed the final
results. Unfortunately, I don't have the listing for that one
nor samples of its output.

Finally, when the H-200 was introduced I wrote a program to
convert SPS to Easycoder which so impressed Honeywell that
they invited me to Massachusetts to see if I was good enough
to work for them. They didn't hire me so I guess I wasn't.

I still have my original working 1401 and H-200 manuals which
are covered in doodles and notes.

There are some pics of the 1401 at foodman123.com/history

Thanks

Tony Dilworth

Albert Richheimer

2004-06-16, 3:55 pm

Motorbyte@aol.com wrote on 16.06.2004, 14:49

M > Someone else mentioned the programs to play music. There were
M > several programs which played music on the printer. The 1403
M > printer was quite loud and the music would sound different
M > depending on the type of paper (1-part, 3-part or the special
M > pink printer-chain cleaning paper). You could also remove the
M > huge ribbon and run the programs with no paper although I
M > recall that the IBM CEs frowned on that. There were also programs
M > which played music which could be heard via a transistor radio
M > held next to the machine.

Here are some songs played on the IBM 1403 printer:
http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/highlights/

regards,
Albert (who has used the 1403 back in the early seventies)

Chuck Stevens

2004-06-16, 3:55 pm

My recollection was that *not all* IBM 1403 printers could be coaxed into
being musical instruments. My recollection is that the (manual-hood, with a
print *chain*) 1403 models 1, 2 and 3 (have I got that right?) could, but
the 1403N1 (automatic-hood, with a print *train*) could not. I believe all
could be

"Albert Richheimer" <richheimer@bluewin.ch> wrote in message
news:5C59CBBF2B5894A3.richheimer@bluewin.ch...
> Motorbyte@aol.com wrote on 16.06.2004, 14:49
>
> M > Someone else mentioned the programs to play music. There were
> M > several programs which played music on the printer. The 1403
> M > printer was quite loud and the music would sound different
> M > depending on the type of paper (1-part, 3-part or the special
> M > pink printer-chain cleaning paper). You could also remove the
> M > huge ribbon and run the programs with no paper although I
> M > recall that the IBM CEs frowned on that. There were also programs
> M > which played music which could be heard via a transistor radio
> M > held next to the machine.
>
> Here are some songs played on the IBM 1403 printer:
> http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/highlights/
>
> regards,
> Albert (who has used the 1403 back in the early seventies)
>

Chuck Stevens

2004-06-16, 3:55 pm

Let's try that again.

My recollection was that *not all* IBM 1403 printers could be coaxed into
being musical instruments. My recollection is that the (manual-hood, with a
print *chain*) 1403 models 1, 2 and 3 (have I got that right?) could, but
the 1403N1 (automatic-hood, with a print *train*) could not. I believe all
(including the "Nancy-One" popular on S/360's) could be hooked to 1401's.

-Chuck Stevens

Warren Simmons

2004-06-17, 3:55 am

In a string on music on computers, the 1401 has been featured.

I've never heard a 1401 play anything until I tested the files
referenced.

However, with an early number of the Univac I, the maintenance people
brought along tapes made by the Army (I don't know the branch), and
the mounted tapes included many tunes depending upon the sound of
tape read/write on the high speed bus. It's something we could do on
midnights when everything else was caught up. That sound is probably
not available to compare now days, but if we could it would make the
1401 sound roll over dead. Remember these songs were written by out
tax dollars, and served an early sample of what computers are becoming.
Multi-media hounds.

Warren Simmons

Chuck Stevens wrote:
> Let's try that again.
>
> My recollection was that *not all* IBM 1403 printers could be coaxed into
> being musical instruments. My recollection is that the (manual-hood, with a
> print *chain*) 1403 models 1, 2 and 3 (have I got that right?) could, but
> the 1403N1 (automatic-hood, with a print *train*) could not. I believe all
> (including the "Nancy-One" popular on S/360's) could be hooked to 1401's.
>
> -Chuck Stevens
>
>

Russell Styles

2004-06-17, 8:55 pm

"Warren Simmons" <wsimmons5@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:40D0ED8C.1070409@optonline.net...
> In a string on music on computers, the 1401 has been featured.
>
> I've never heard a 1401 play anything until I tested the files
> referenced.
>
> However, with an early number of the Univac I, the maintenance people
> brought along tapes made by the Army (I don't know the branch), and
> the mounted tapes included many tunes depending upon the sound of
> tape read/write on the high speed bus. It's something we could do on
> midnights when everything else was caught up. That sound is probably
> not available to compare now days, but if we could it would make the
> 1401 sound roll over dead. Remember these songs were written by out
> tax dollars, and served an early sample of what computers are becoming.
> Multi-media hounds.
>
> Warren Simmons
>

In the 1972 - 1976 period, The university of Georgia (Athens)
had two old computers. One was a 1401, which was used almost
entirely as another printer at that point. If they had any musical
print jobs, I never heard about it.

But they also had another (much) older IBM, I forget the model number
(Something 01?). It was a three digit number, and used tape drives
entirely. It had the ability to make music internally, the

ing system I
think.

As near as I could tell, all that it did was take up space, and play
music for tour groups. They scrapped it while I was there.

Robert Wagner

2004-06-18, 3:55 am

"Russell Styles" <rws0203@comcast.net> wrote:

> But they also had another (much) older IBM, I forget the model number
>(Something 01?). It was a three digit number, and used tape drives
>entirely. It had the ability to make music internally, the

ing system I
>think.

The 1401 didn't have a

ing system. Music came from Core Storage, made from
actual ferrite cores, playing through an FM radio.

The first program I ever wrote read a 'script' on punched cards containing notes
and durations. One could keypunch a musical script and hear it played by the
1401. I was working on harmonics when the project ended.

Hugh Candlin

2004-06-18, 3:55 am

Russell Styles <rws0203@comcast.net> wrote in message news:9LadnWHjfYVbn0_dRVn-jw@giganews.com...
>
> In the 1972 - 1976 period, The university of Georgia (Athens)
> had two old computers. One was a 1401, which was used almost
> entirely as another printer at that point. If they had any musical
> print jobs, I never heard about it.
>
> But they also had another (much) older IBM, I forget the model number
> (Something 01?). It was a three digit number, and used tape drives
> entirely. It had the ability to make music internally, the

ing system I
> think.

Does this look familiar?

http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/ex...701_141511.html

http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/ex...701_141512.html

Russell Styles

2004-06-18, 8:55 pm

"Hugh Candlin" <no@spam.com> wrote in message
news:eluAc.88047$Gx4.38783@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
>
> Russell Styles <rws0203@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:9LadnWHjfYVbn0_dRVn-jw@giganews.com...
number[color=darkred]
system I[color=darkred]
>
> Does this look familiar?
>
> http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/ex...701_141511.html
>
> http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/ex...701_141512.html
>
>
Could be. I don't imagine that there were TOO many IBM's that were tape
based.

It would be better if someone that had access to the machine room back then
replied.

Robert Wagner

2004-06-19, 3:55 pm

"Russell Styles" <rws0203@comcast.net> wrote:

>Could be. I don't imagine that there were TOO many IBM's that were tape
>based.

Most IBM mainframes of the '50s and early '60s were based on tape. Disks became
affordable in the middle '60s.

WardKenR

2004-07-12, 3:55 am

"Chuck Stevens" <charles.stevens@unisys.com> wrote in message news:<caq01u$2ado$1@si05.rsvl.unisys.com>...
> Let's try that again.
>
> My recollection was that *not all* IBM 1403 printers could be coaxed into
> being musical instruments. My recollection is that the (manual-hood, with a
> print *chain*) 1403 models 1, 2 and 3 (have I got that right?) could, but
> the 1403N1 (automatic-hood, with a print *train*) could not. I believe all
> (including the "Nancy-One" popular on S/360's) could be hooked to 1401's.
>
> -Chuck Stevens

not to age myself but Whilst back in the USMC circa 1972-75 at
Barstow, CA
we had an old 1401 that we used to put a radio on and tune it to the
low end and then run a deck of cards thru it and the radio would
'play' the Marine Corp Hymn.
The Brass always requested that we run the deck thru the 1401 for
'guests'!

Robert Wagner

2004-07-12, 8:55 am

kward001@maine.rr.com (WardKenR) wrote:

>not to age myself but Whilst back in the USMC circa 1972-75 at
>Barstow, CA
>we had an old 1401 that we used to put a radio on and tune it to the
>low end and then run a deck of cards thru it and the radio would
>'play' the Marine Corp Hymn.

I wrote such a program while working on a USMC 1401 on Okinawa in the early
'60s. Radio waves came from Core Storage performing repeated moves. The length
of the move determined the frequency of the note. V1.0 produced robotic
monotones. I was adding overtones when time ran out.

Our machine was in a '6 by' truck that pulled a 60KVA diesel generator. We
occasionally practiced field computing in swamps and mountains. In retrospect,
Wagner's Ride of the Valkyrie would have been appropriate music. :)

WardKenR

2004-07-14, 8:55 pm

robert.deletethis@wagner.net (Robert Wagner) wrote in message news:<40f24e40.45086202@news.optonline.net>...
> kward001@maine.rr.com (WardKenR) wrote:
>
>
> I wrote such a program while working on a USMC 1401 on Okinawa in the early
> '60s. Radio waves came from Core Storage performing repeated moves. The length
> of the move determined the frequency of the note. V1.0 produced robotic
> monotones. I was adding overtones when time ran out.
>
> Our machine was in a '6 by' truck that pulled a 60KVA diesel generator. We
> occasionally practiced field computing in swamps and mountains. In retrospect,
> Wagner's Ride of the Valkyrie would have been appropriate music. :)

So you were the one that did that deck-o-musical cards!
semper fi.

Clif Ivy

2004-07-15, 8:55 pm

One of my souvenirs from programming class on the 1401 is a copy of the
program that would cause the 1403 printer to play "music", which sounded
almost as good as if played on a kazoo. I also have the instructions
for transcribing music to data, and one or two "songs".

What earthly good all this is now, residing on 80-column cards, I
haven't the faintest idea -- but maybe some day on "Antiques Roadshow"...

WardKenR wrote:
> "Chuck Stevens" <charles.stevens@unisys.com> wrote in message news:<caq01u$2ado$1@si05.rsvl.unisys.com>...
>
>
>
>
>
> not to age myself but Whilst back in the USMC circa 1972-75 at
> Barstow, CA
> we had an old 1401 that we used to put a radio on and tune it to the
> low end and then run a deck of cards thru it and the radio would
> 'play' the Marine Corp Hymn.
> The Brass always requested that we run the deck thru the 1401 for
> 'guests'!

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