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Route Reference Computer
Ferranti Canada's Route Reference Computer was the first computerized mail sorter system, delivered to the Canadian Post Office in January 1957. Despite a promising start and a great deal of international attention, spiraling costs and a change in government led to the project being canceled later that year. Technical developments pioneered for the Route Reference Computer were put to good use by Ferranti in several projects that followed over the next decade. History Sorting problems In the immediate post-war era, Canada experienced explosive growth in urban population as veterans returning from World War II moved into the cities looking for work in the newly industrialized country. This created logjams at mail routing offices that handled the mail for what used to be much smaller cities. Whereas the formerly rural population spread out the sorting and delivery of mail, now sixty percent of all the mail was being sorted at only ten processing stations,Vardalas, pg. 108 leading t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferranti-Packard
Ferranti-Packard Ltd. was the Canadian division of Ferranti's global manufacturing empire, formed by the 1958 merger of Ferranti Electric and Packard Electric. For several years in the post-war era, the company underwent a dramatic expansion and had several brushes with success in the computer market, but eventually shed various divisions and returned to being an electrical grid supplier once again. The company was purchased in 1998 by the Austrian company, VA TECH. On July 23, 2005 Siemens PTD purchased VA Tech's Transmission and Distribution Division (T&D) group for transformers and switchgear. History Early years Packard Electric had first been set up in 1894 in order to supply transformers during the Niagara Falls hydroelectric developments. Ferranti Canada had first been set up in 1912, acting primarily as a sales and distribution arm for their British designed electrical products. World War II Prior to World War II, Canada's economy was primarily agricultural. While this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alcide Côté
Alcide Côté, (May 19, 1903 – August 7, 1955) was a Canadian politician and lawyer. Born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, he was a lawyer before being elected to the House of Commons of Canada for the riding of Saint-Jean—Iberville—Napierville in the 1945 federal election. A Liberal, he was re-elected in 1949 and 1953. From 1952 to 1955, he was the Postmaster General of Canada {{Short description, Former Canadian cabinet minister The Postmaster General of Canada was the Canadian cabinet minister responsible for the Post Office Department (Canada Post). In 1851, management of the post office was transferred from Britain .... He died while in office and had a state funeral. References 1903 births 1955 deaths People from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Liberal Party of Canada MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada French Quebecers {{Liberal-Quebec-MP-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Multiple Position Letter Sorting Machine
Multiple may refer to: Economics * Multiple finance, a method used to analyze stock prices *Multiples of the price-to-earnings ratio *Chain stores, are also referred to as 'Multiples' *Box office multiple, the ratio of a film's total gross to that of its opening weekend Sociology * Multiples (sociology), a theory in sociology of science by Robert K. Merton, see Science *Multiple (mathematics), multiples of numbers *List of multiple discoveries, instances of scientists, working independently of each other, reaching similar findings * Multiple birth, because having twins is sometimes called having "multiples" *Multiple sclerosis, an inflammatory disease *Parlance for people with multiple identities, sometimes called "multiples"; often theorized as having dissociative identity disorder Printing *Printmaking, where ''multiple'' is often used as a term for a print, especially in the US * Artist's multiple, series of identical prints, collages or objects by an artist, subverting the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burroughs Corporation
The Burroughs Corporation was a major American manufacturer of business equipment. The company was founded in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company. In 1986, it merged with Sperry UNIVAC to form Unisys. The company's history paralleled many of the major developments in computing. At its start, it produced mechanical adding machines, and later moved into programmable ledgers and then computers. It was one of the largest producers of mainframe computers in the world, also producing related equipment including typewriters and printers. Early history In 1886, the American Arithmometer Company was established in St. Louis, Missouri, to produce and sell an adding machine invented by William Seward Burroughs (grandfather of Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs). In 1904, six years after Burroughs' death, the company moved to Detroit and changed its name to the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. It was soon the biggest adding machine company in America. Evolving product ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universal Postal Union
The Universal Postal Union (UPU, french: link=no, Union postale universelle), established by the Treaty of Bern of 1874, is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration (CA), the Postal Operations Council (POC) and the International Bureau (IB). It also oversees the Telematics and Express Mail Service (EMS) cooperatives. Each member agrees to the same terms for conducting international postal duties. The UPU's headquarters are located in Bern, Switzerland. History Bilateral treaties Before the establishment of the UPU, every pair of countries that exchanged mail had to negotiate a postal treaty with each other. In the absence of a treaty providing for direct delivery of letters, mail had to be forwarded through an intermediate country. Postal arrangements were complex and overlapping. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William McLean Hamilton
William McLean Hamilton, (February 23, 1919 – June 7, 1989) was a Canadian politician. Biography He was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His father, Ernest Hamilton, was a lacrosse player who won a gold medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics. He was a student at the Montreal High School and he took a B.Sc. from Sir George Williams University in business administration. He sat on Montreal City Council and the Montreal Executive Committee. He was elected to parliament in the 1953 election as a Progressive Conservative for the riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. In his maiden speech to Parliament in November he accused the Liberal government led by Louis St. Laurent of being socialists. His criticisms were based on the government being corporatistic and taking an interest in private business activities. Following the 1957 election, he was appointed Postmaster General of Canada by John Diefenbaker. In that office Hamilton annoyed many of his colleagues by not permitting the po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Progressive Conservative Party Of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC; french: Parti progressiste-conservateur du Canada) was a centre-right federal political party in Canada that existed from 1942 to 2003. From Canadian Confederation in 1867 until 1942, the original Conservative Party of Canada participated in numerous governments and had multiple names. In 1942, its name was changed to the Progressive Conservative Party under the request of Manitoba Progressive Premier John Bracken. In the 1957 federal election, John Diefenbaker carried the Tories to their first victory in 27 years. The year after, he carried the PCs to the largest federal electoral landslide in history (in terms of proportion of seats). During his tenure, human rights initiatives were achieved, most notably the Bill of Rights. In the 1963 federal election, the PCs lost power. The PCs would not gain power again until 1979, when Joe Clark led the party to a minority government victory. However, the party lost power only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transistor
upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electrical power, power. The transistor is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminals for connection to an electronic circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Some transistors are packaged individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits. Austro-Hungarian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld proposed the concept of a field-effect transistor in 1926, but it was not possible to actually constru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Automatic Language Translator
IBM's Automatic Language Translator was a machine translation system that converted Russian documents into English. It used an optical disc that stored 170,000 word-for-word and statement-for-statement translations and a custom computer to look them up at high speed. Built for the US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...'s Foreign Technology Division, the AN/GSQ-16 (or XW-2), as it was known to the Air Force, was primarily used to convert Soviet technical documents for distribution to western scientists. The translator was installed in 1959, dramatically upgraded in 1964, and was eventually replaced by a Mainframe computer, mainframe running SYSTRAN in 1970. History Photoscopic store The translator began in a June 1953 contract from the US Navy to the Internat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Ridenour
Louis N. Ridenour (June 27, 1911 – May 21, 1959) was a physicist instrumental in U.S. development of radar, Vice President of Lockheed, and an advisor to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Biography and positions held During World War II, Ridenour worked at the MIT Radiation Laboratory. He was co-leader with Ivan A. Getting of the group that developed the SCR-584 radar. He directed a committee in 1949 that recommended the establishment of a separate Research and Development Command and a new Air Staff Deputy Chief of Staff for Research and Development. In 1950, Ridenour was named the first Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force. He served on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Ballistic Research Laboratories at Aberdeen Proving Ground. In 1941 he became the assistant director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory and helped transform primitive radar into a reliable defensive and offensive military tool. In 1946 Ridenour returned to the Univers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trackball
A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down ball mouse with an exposed protruding ball. Users roll the ball to position the on-screen pointer, using their thumb, fingers, or the palm of the hand, while using the fingertips to press the buttons. With most trackballs, operators have to lift their finger, thumb or hand and reposition in on the ball to continue rolling, whereas a mouse would have to be lifted itself and re-positioned. Some trackballs have notably low friction, as well as being made of a dense material such as phenolic resin, so they can be spun to make them coast. The trackball's buttons may be in similar positions to those of a mouse, or configured to suit the user. Large trackballs are common on CAD workstations for easy precision. Before the advent of the touchpad, small trackballs were common on portable computers (such as the BlackBerry Tour) wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drum Memory
Drum memory was a magnetic data storage device invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria. Drums were widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s as computer memory. For many early computers, drum memory formed the main working memory of the computer. It was so common that these computers were often referred to as ''drum machines''. Some drums were also used as secondary storage as for example various IBM drum storage drives. Drums were displaced as primary computer memory by magnetic core memory, which offered a better balance of size, speed, cost, reliability and potential for further improvements. Drums in turn were replaced by hard disk drives for secondary storage, which were both less expensive and offered denser storage. The manufacturing of drums ceased in the 1970s. Technical design A drum memory or drum storage unit contained a large metal cylinder, coated on the outside surface with a ferromagnetic recording material. It could be considered the precu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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