Lecture 11. Computing in Part 1: in the beginning

Informal and unedited notes, not for distribution. (c) Z. Stachniak, 2011-2012. Note: in cases I were unable to find the primary source of an image or determine whether or not an image is copyrighted, I have specified the source as ”unknown”. I will provide full information about images and/or obtain reproduction rights when such information is available to me.

Introduction There has been a considerable effort in many countries to set up cultural and research institutions to preserve for posterity artifacts that document the cultural history of the information age. The mission of these institutions is to showcase the outstanding contributions of these nations to the development of computer and information technologies.

The list of such institutions is long and includes: the Charles Babbage Institute (USA), the Computer History Museum (USA), the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum (Germany), German Museum of Tech- nology (Germany), Computer Museum, Achen (Germany), The National Museum of Computing (UK), The Centre for Computer History (UK), the Computer Museum at Bletchley Park (UK), ACONIT computer museum (France), Computer Museum and Archive, Paris (France), Computer Mu- seum of the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands), the Finish Data Processing Museum Association (Finland), the Computer Museum of the Japanese Information Processing Society, Monash Museum of Computing (Australia), the Canada Science and Technology Museum (Canada), York University Computer Museum (Canada).

1 Fig. 1. Two world’s largest computer museums: Computer History Museum in Santa Clara, CA (top, source: unknown), and Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum, Paderborn, Ger- many (bottom, source: Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum).

2 In some countries, the museums of computing are set up and operated by universities. These academic museums focus on building and maintaining research collections with an aim to provide significant infrastructure for aca- demic research and teaching as well as to provide historical resources to writers, artists, educators, and the media. These academic museums are models for integrating scientific and technological heritage into the life of the campus and local community.

Fig. 1. School visits the York University Computer Museum. Source: York University Computer Museum.

The list of such University-based museums of computing is also long and includes: the Charles Babbage Institute of the University of Minnesota (US), Columbia University Computing History (US), MIT Museum (US), Computer Science Museum at UC Davis (US), Computer History Exhibits at Stanford (US),

3 Eniac Museum at the University of Pennsylvania (US), The university of Virginia Computer Museum (US), The University of Saskatchewan Com- puter Museum (Canada), Computer Museum of the University of Amster- dam (The Netherlands), Gronigen University Computer Center Collection (The Netherlands) The National Archive for the History of Computing at the (UK), Museum of Computing at the Univer- sity of Bath (UK), Computer Conservation Society (UK), Monash University Museum of Computing History, Monash (Australia), Computer Museum at University of Stuttgart (Germany), Data Processing Museum exhibits at the Jyvskyl University, Agora, and JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Lu- takko (Finland), York Univerity Computer Museum (Canada).

How much is known about the Canadian contributions to computing? How much information about the achievements of the Canadian computer and information industries is part of our culture?

4 First in Canada: the tail of UTEC Since the late 19th century some American calculator companies had been distributing their products in Canada. Apart from this information, not much is really known about the early calculator industry in Canada or pat- terns of calculator use in this country before World War II (to the best of this author’s knowledge, there has been no solid research done on this subject).

Fig. 2. A 1912 Comptometer ad indicating that this calculator was also sold in Canada.

However, what we know is that, unlike Americans and British, Canadians were not involved in computer research during WWII. We also know that soon after the end of WWII, Canadian military and academia were involved in bringing computer technology to Canada, as was military and academia in the US and UK.

The first Canadian attempt at designing a general-purpose computer took place at the (UofT). In 1946, a group of UofT re- searchers visited a number of American facilities to gather information about advancements in computing. After their return, in spite (or perhaps because) of the fact that there was no computing expertise in Canada, the group ad- vised the university to establish a national computing center at UofT to support Canadian scientific research that would benefit from computing.

5 In 1948, with funds secured from the National Research Council and the National Defence Board, UofT established its Computation Center–the first such center in Canada.

Fig. 1. UTEC prototype. Source: University of Toronto Archives.

UofT Computation Center’s first project was the design and construction of a computer. To that end, a team of graduate students was hired in 1948 to design and build a prototype before the full-fledged version would be at- tempted. The prototype was ready in October 1951. The high cost and long time that took to deign and build UTEC’s prototype was the main reason why the construction of its full-scale version was abandoned.

By 1951, UofT and the two funding agencies came to the conclusion that it would be more economical to abandon the UTEC project and use the funds to purchase a ”commercial” computer from a British firm which started to manufacture the Manchester Mark I computer under the name Ferranti Mark I.

6 In the end, a Ferranti Mark I ”was purchased by the National Research Coun- cil and Defence Research of Canada who made it available, along with an annual grant, to the University of Toronto Computation Centre.” [12]

The computer arrived in April 1952 and was baptized FERUT (”Ferranti at the University of Toronto”). It was the first fully functional computer in Canada.

Fig. 6. Brian Jeffrey operating FERUT at National Research Council c. 1958. Source: Brian Jeffrey, www.ve3uu.com

7 FERUT was used in a number of ways: research, external computing ser- vices, training of computer professionals.

The significance of the UTEC project and the FERUT installation of UofT:

• UTEC pioneered the era of computing in Canada; it got a number of agencies, organizations, and corporations interested in computing (the result of which was the purchase of FERUT);

• FERUT had started the computing ”fever” in Canada, many FERUT users purchased their own computers in late 1950s;

• FERUT provided a training ground for the first generation of Canadian programmers (much in need when Canadian firms and organizations started to purchase their first computers);

• FERUT supported Canada’s first computer consulting and services companies.

8 Canadian military and early computing We have already stressed the Defence Research Board’s involvement in the UofT’s Computation Center and the funding of UTEC. But there was more.

After WWII, the Canadian military decided that it would be in Canada’s best interest to maintain sizable peace-time and well equipped defence forces. ”Crucial to this plan were advanced scientific and technological knowledge and expertise, combined with effective partnerships between academic, indus- trial, and military research branches. The DRB [Defence Research Board] was created in 1947 to organize and oversee these efforts.” [1, p. 17]

It was the in particular that show strong leadership in turning to digital electronics in an effort to acquire state-of-the-art informa- tion processing systems. What the navy was looking for in the first place was a fast, reliable, comprehensive naval communications and information system that would convey real-time tactical information about the relative positions and movements of allied and enemy ships, aircraft, and submarines. In 1948, the Defence Research Board (DRB) proposed such a system and called it DATAR (”Digital Automated Tracking and Resolving”). DRB’s inability to design and implement such a system in-house launched an indigenous com- puter industry (unfortunately, short lived).

9 Fig. 2. This ”double plot” device could display tracking information from DATAR com- puter. The mounted at the front of the control console was used to select targets. Source: [3] and Ferranti-Packard Transformers Ltd.

DATAR system was tested and successfully demonstrated on Lake Ontario over the summer and fall of 1953. Ferranti Canada built the DATAR com- puter and, during its operations, targets could be displayed on sophisti- cated displays (for that era) and selected using a trackball invented by Fred Longstaff and Tom Craston around 1953 and developed in collaboration with Kenyon Taylor.

10 Fig. 3. DATAR’s trackball (left, source: Canada Science and Technology Museum) and a modern trackball mouse (right, source unknown).

DATAR was a promise to equip the Royal Canadian Navy with the world’s most advanced information and communications system. However, in spite of the successful demonstration of DATAR technology in 1953, neither British nor American navy was ready to adopt the Canadian solution and that con- tributed to DATAR’s demise.

Another problem was the underlying vacuum tube technology – not exactly well-suited for harsh environments such as a ship battling a rough sea (high failure rate of vacuum tube-based computer equipment was a well known and troubling problem for the American and British military as well).

11 The first Canadian computer hardware companies: Fer- ranti Canada In the late 1940s, several contracts were awarded by the Canadian Navy to a number of companies, the first of which, Ferranti Canada–a subsidiary of the British firm Ferranti Ltd–has already been mentioned in the context of DATAR. After DATAR, Ferranti Canada (renamed as Ferranti-Packard after the 1958 merger with Packard Electric Ltd.) designed a number of novel products from computerized mail-sorting system to an advanced computer:

1956: world’s first computerized mail-sorting system for Canada Post (tran- sistor technology); it could sort 37,000 letters per hour; the full imple- mentation of the system was blocked by the newly elected conservative Canadian government;

1958: computerized cheque-sorting system, installed in 1958 at New York’s Federal Reserve Bank;

1961: world’s first computerized airline reservation system ResrVec (designed for TransCanada Air Lines); a central computer connected to 350 trans- action terminals (or ”transactors”); the system could handle more than 60,000 transactions per day;

1962: the FP-6000 computer – the first commercially sold Canadian-designed general-purpose computer.

12 Fig. 4. Computerized cheque-sorting system at New York’s Federal Reserve Bank. Source: Archives of Ontario.

13 The FP-6000 was the first commercially sold Canadian-designed computer. (cf. [3, 4]). It was sold to the Toronto Stock Exchange, Federal Reserve Bank (New York), Saskatchewan Power Corporation, and the Defence Re- search Establishment Atlantic (Nova Scotia)

Fig. 5. This Ferranti-Packard FP-6000 computer was purchased by the Saskatchewan Power Corporation in 1965(?) and operated for 20 years. Source: Archives of Ontario.

Just four of these computers were manufactured and sold when Ferranti UK–parent company of Ferranti-Packard–sold all its non-military expertise to another British company ICT in 1963 – the rights to FP-6000 being the jewel in the deal’s crown.

The refusal of ICT to continue the computer R&D in Canada and the transfer of all FP-6000 related expertise to the UK resulted in massive resignations at Ferranti-Packard.

Some historians and computer industry observers commented that ”the sales of the rights to Canada’s FP-6000 to ICT ”annihilated Canada’s capacity to build major computers.”” (cf. [3,5]).

14 The first Canadian computer hardware companies: Com- puting Devices The second company with ties to Canadian military was an Ottawa-based firm Computing Devices of Canada, or ComDev, founded in 1948 by George Glinski, Joseph Spychalski, and Peter Mahoney. ComDev could be best classified as a defence electronics company and was arguably the first signifi- cant electronic high-technology company. The first two contracts awarded to ComDev were an electronic and computerized sea battle simulator and some display equipment for the DATAR system.

As with DATAR, by the time the battle simulator was finished (1956) its vacuum tube technology was obsolete and the expensive simulator was never used. However, by that time, ComDev had already developed other suc- cessful electronic products (including computer-like equipment for nuclear reactors) and had become the distributor for several American and British computer companies.

The successes and failures of Ferranti Canada and ComDev seeded the Cana- dian high-technology sector with scores of electronics, computer, telecommu- nications, software, and service start-ups founded by former employees. Some of these companies, such as I.P. Sharp & Associates, grew into successful, in- ternationally renowned firms (I.P. Sharp & Associates will be discussed in one of the future lectures).

15 Early Canadian computer users It is difficult to estimate the number of computers and smart communication devices of all kinds currently in use in Canada, 40 million, 80 million, more than 100 million? Whatever the number is – it is very large.

But 60 years ago, there was just one computer – the University of Toronto’s FERUT. Since 1955, the number of computers in Canada had started to grow (see Table 1).

52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 1 1 1 3 7 13 24 40 64 145 296 477 538 889 1036 1383 1613 2037

Figure 1: Number of computers in Canada, 1952-1969. Source [1].

Out of the 2,037 computers installed in Canada in 1969, the majority were working in Ontario (1,045) and Quebec (485) and only one in Prince Edward Island. By the time the first Canadian PC–the MCM/70–started to ship in 1974, the total number of computers in Canada had risen to 3,897 (1,894 in Ontario and 879 in Quebec)

Who were the users of these first computers? What were they using their computers for?

Let us begin with FERUT. The UofT Computation Centre’s policy was to make FERUT available to governmental and privately owned organizations as well as corporations. The ”demographics” of FERUT users was indeed diverse. Apart from UofT and other universities, other institutions and com- panies had either purchased time or had their computational tasks run for them by the Computation Centre.

16 The list of significant FERUT users included:

(0.) National Research Council and Defence Research Board;

(1.) Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario: calculations for the pro- posed St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project (navigation project, cf. [13]),

(2.) Dominion Observatory (astronomy calculations, see [15]),

(3.) Manufacturer’s Life Assurance Company and other insurance compa- nies,

(4.) Eastman Kodak, A. V. Roe Company of Canada, Raytheon (see [12]),

(5.) Imperial Oil (inventory control system), the Texaco Corporation (see [11,12]),

(6.) Avro Aircraft Ltd (computation work supporting the design of the AVRO Arrow plane see [9,10]),

(7.) City of Toronto (preliminary simulations of what would become the first computer-controlled traffic lights control system, see below).

17 Enter IBM and Remington Rand Since mid 1950s, more and more American-made computers were finding their way to Canada. Possibly the most popular early computer was the IBM 650. It was relatively inexpensive and assembled at IBM’ Don Mills plant in Toronto (out of parts manufactured in the US). Univacs from Rem- ington Rand were also penetrating the Canadian market.

Positive experiences with FERUT helped companies to purchase their own computers. For instance, Manufacturer’s Life Assurance Company which was using services of FERUT, purchased its own first computer in 1956. It was the IBM 650. Other companies followed the suit: Confederation Life purchased a large IBM 705 in 1958 while Sun Life chose another large and expensive computer – the Univac II.

Another early client of FERUT–Imperial Oil–bought an IBM 650 in late 1950s.

Other early adopters of computer technologies were Canadian National Rail- ways which purchased an IBM 650 in 1956 to computerize its payroll opera- tions. In 1957, Canadian Pacific Railways installed an IBM 705 to support operations related to freight, payroll and material.

Computer-controlled traffic lights for Toronto Some of the most interesting early applications of computer technology de- veloped in Canada were already mentioned: Ferranti Canada’s computerized mail-sorting system for Canada Post, computerized cheque-sorting system for Federal Reserve Bank, and computerized airline reservation ResrVec for TransCanada Air Lines.

To discuss another ”world’s first” Canadian achievement in computing we have to go back to Toronto of the late 1950s. Even then Toronto experienced traffic congestion. To deal with the problem, a team of consultants proposed a computerized solution: computer-controlled traffic lights. Nothing like it had ever been implemented anywhere in the world. In 1957, a Toronto-based computer consulting firm KCS Data Control (more on KCS below) was con- tracted by the Metro Toronto Chief Traffic Engineer to do a feasibility study

18 regarding the proposed system.

Fig. 10. Toronto’s computer controlled traffic lights system in operation. Source: [15], Sperry Rand Canada.

Simulations of computer controlled traffic lights were done on FERUT. The success of the pilot project conducted by KCS on an IBM 650 led to the full implementation of the system in 1963. The central traffic light computer was reading information from intersections several times a second, determined the best traffic light pattern, and returned information to intersections. By 1977 there were 1,180 intersections controlled by lights in Toronto, of which 1,100 were under computer control (cf. [15]).

There was some controversy concerning the choice of the computer for the traffic lights system. In spite of the Ontario government’s ”extensive adver- tising campaigns urging people ”To Buy Canadian” ..., Ontario’s Treasury

19 department went shopping for a computer ... [and] overlooked the Ferranti Canada bid and bought American.” [3] Instead of the capable FP-6000 from Ferranti, Ontario’s Treasury settled on the Univac 1107 computer.

20 Computer consulting and services We have begun our discussion of the early patterns of computer use in Canada with the activities that took place at UofT’s Computing Center and how they contributed to the introduction of the first mainframe computers into com- mercial activities of large Canadian corporations and institutions.

The picture of the early computer use in Canada would not be complete without the mention of the raise of computer services and consulting. Firms that were interested in the applications of computer technologies but were ”unable or unwilling to rent or buy their own [computers had]... two options: purchase machine time at an existing computer center or hire a computer con- sultant to handle all operations off-site.” [1]

The UofT’s Computation Center was Canada’s first modern computer ser- vice. Even before the arrival of FERUT, UofT offered computational services using its IBM 602A calculators.

The arrival of first American mainframes in Canada in mid 1950s created a demand for experienced programmers and consultants who could not only advise on and assist with computers’ use but also could advise on software. The first two Canadian consulting companies were created by the former em- ployees of the UofT’s Computation Center.

The first of these companies, KCS Data Control, was founded in 1955 by J. Kates, L. Casciato and J. Shapiro. Kates was one of the two principal engineers working on the UTEC computer. KCS Data Control was doing its business purchasing computer time on FERUT before the company could afford to rent an IBM 650.

One of the KCS’ projects was the above mentioned computer-controlled traf- fic lights system for Toronto.

The second of the companies, H.S. Gellman and Company, was formed by H.S. Gellman also in 1955. Between 1948 and 1955, Gellman was working at the UofT’s Computation Center. His new company specialized in engineering and scientific computing and, initially, was doing its business renting time on FERUT.

21 Kutt vs IBM Although the sudden cancellation of the computer developments at Ferranti Canada (the FP-6000 computer) meant, to some observers, the end of a dream about Canada’s own computer and data processing industry, such conclusions turned out to be premature. By the end of the 1960s, another Canadian company would enter the computer hardware market and, with its novel product, would dramatically changing the way people would interact with computers.

The company’s name was Consolidated Computer Inc. (CCI) co-founded by a Canadian inventor and entrepreneur Mers Kutt and his partner Donald Pamenter. The CCI’s product–the Key Edit–would be one of the main fac- tors that put the era of punch cards to an end.

Fig. 20. Mers Kutt (left) and Gordon Ramer (right) in 1973. Source: York University Computer Museum.

22 Note: the rest of the text in this section are mostly quotes from [16].

When in 1965 Kutt arrived at Queens University to become the university’s director of computing, the universitys computer resources comprised an IBM 1620 Data Processing System interfaced with a printer and a punch card input/output device. The 1620 was IBMs popular early computer for small businesses, academic research, and engineering applications.

The computer itself wasnt particularly slow. On the other hand, the pro- cess of data and program entry into the computer certainly was. Kutt recalls students and faculty lining up in the universitys computer center to have their computer programs executed. But executing a program on the 1620 computer wasnt a simple matter. First, a users program and data had to be converted into a deck of paper cards-punch cards-using the IBM 1622 Card Read Punch. The computer console’s typewriter was used to type data or program lines, with each key-press resulting in a mechanically punched hole in a specific place on a card. Different patterns of holes on each card repre- sented different pieces of data or program. Therefore the order of cards in the resulting deck was as important as the information punched into them. Finally, the deck of cards was fed to the computer for execution.

Fig. 5. Operating a punch card equipmenmt. Source: unknown.

23 When there were multiple users waiting for access to the computer, their jobs, already residing on punch cards, would not be executed on a first come, first served basis, but batched together by an operator. Only when there were enough jobs in a batch were they submitted for processing. If a sub- mitted program contained errors, the owner was informed about them only after the batch containing the erroneous program had been processed. To correct the errors, the owner had to punch a new deck of cards and, again, hand it over to an operator to batch it with scores of other jobs. The process continued until such time as the owner was happy with the program and the results of its execution.

Historically, punch cards were among the oldest and most prevalent com- puter input media. Supplying an extended line of hardware to punch, read and process cards was also a lucrative business for companies such as IBM.

Even before joining Queen’s, Kutt had a clear idea of how to make com- puter data entry easier without the need of punch cards. One could simply provide programmers or data entry personnel with a computer terminal con- sisting primarily of a keyboard and a display. The keyed information could be stored on an external memory medium such as a magnetic drum or mag- netic tape. The host computer would then pick up the stored information directly from that external memory, rather than wait for the deck of sorted cards to be punched and fed into it.

24 There were significant advantages to such an arrangement. Before process- ing, the data keyed in by an operator could be verified, updated, deleted, or even sorted and combined with other data already saved in the systems memory. There would be no need for expensive punch card equipment such as card readers, punchers, or sorters. In addition, multiple terminals could be connected to a single host computer.

While at Queens, Kutt teamed up with Donald Pamenter to form his first company, CCI, incorporated in 1969, to develop and manufacture a novel, fully computerized data entry system named the Key-Edit 100. Multiple data entry terminals of the Key-Edit (called key-stations) were connected to a shared PDP-8 minicomputer which controlled all the data entry and editing functions of the Key-Edit. Almost overnight, CCI became one of the most innovative and internationally recognized Canadian high tech companies of that period.

25 Fig. 20. Consolidated Computer Falcon Key-Edit Business Information System. Source:

26 Consolidated Computer Inc. promotional brochure, York University Computer Museum.

27 In a short period of time, CCI installed over 30,000 key-stations of its Key- Edit system in 28 countries. The era of punch cards was over, just like that. The Canadian press called CCI Computer Company and the sym- bol of Canadas challenge for a share of the worldwide computer market.

Following the introduction of the Key-Edit 100, many manufacturers around the world introduced their own key-edit systems. The era of punch cards was over, just like that.

Conclusions Since the late 1940s, Canada tried to develop its own computer industry. In the end these attempts mostly failed for a variety of reasons such as luck of expertise (UTEC), business and political priorities (FP-6000), or expansion of the American computer industry into the Canadian market. Nevertheless, some early Canadian high-tech companies, such as CCI managed to attract a considerable international attention and impacted future development of computing.

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