3M Company Merchandise Data Recorder
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Object Details
- 3M
- Description
- Automatic scanning and processing of informationabout merchandise Is now commonly done with bar code readers. In the 1950s, Howard Davis of the Jordan Marsh department stores began talking with Richad G. Zens about such processing. Engineers Henry Shunk and Joseph Welty of Massachusetts designed such a system, applied for a patent in 1959, and received it in 1963. They assigned the patent to Automatic Records, Inc. of Natick, Massachusetts. The machine used thermo-Fax paper produced by 3M Corporation, and 3M agreed to handle the recording part of the system, Scanners were produced by Automatic Records, a division of Printed Electronics Corporation of Natick. This object is the resulting "3M Merchancise Data Recorder." It has a beige metal case; metal reels and front platform; a plastic front window and on/off switch; a rubber cord, plug and wheel; and a paper tape. A mark on the object reads: 3M (/) MERCHANDISE DATA RECORDER. Another mark reads: MODEL 25AA (/) SERIAL NO. 4011034.
- For related documentation, and the historical information presented here, see 1984.0932.02.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of P. W. Clark
- ID Number
- 1984.0932.01
- accession number
- 1984.0932
- catalog number
- 1984.0932.01
- Object Name
- Data Recorder
- Physical Description
- metal (case, reels, platform, circuitry material)
- plastic (window, switch material)
- paper (tape material)
- rubber (cord material)
- Measurements
- overall: 19 cm x 40 cm x 43 cm; 7 15/32 in x 15 3/4 in x 16 15/16 in
- place made
- United States: Massachusetts, Natick
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Computers & Business Machines
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Record ID
- nmah_1214083
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b4-0f36-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
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