COMPUTER MEMORIES, Chapter 53

NAMING COMPUTERS
While I first heard it 35 years ago, like so many stories people tell about old computers, I am not sure if this story reflects history, or was created to match history. Did you ever hear why UNIVAC named their computers 1101, 1103, 1107, and on and on? The way I heard it, UNIVAC had several groups of engineers designing computers, and when the group known as Project 13 designed the winner, there was no chance they would call it UNIVAC 13. How many people ever noticed that 1101 is 13 in binary? Then they went on with 1102, 1103, etc. and on and on.

Some of the people who designed what would have been called the 1103, left UNIVAC and started a company known as Control Data Corp. They set up business at 501 Park Ave, in Minneapolis, so it only seemed reasonable that 1103 plus 501 would equal 1604, the name of Control Data's first "hit." Later, someone in advertising went to the blackboard and wrote 1604, complaining those numbers did not create a good "shape," then said, “Look at these numbers, see how they flow, they would look better on a console, and in advertisements,” as he wrote 6600. And history was made.

THE OVERCOAT
I discovered that in the winter time, the only thing dumber than getting on an airplane in Los Angeles with an overcoat, was getting off an airplane in Minneapolis without one. In 1948 I had been in Cleveland in the middle of winter, and boy was it cold. I went to Richmond Brothers and spent about half of my net worth, $22.50, to buy an overcoat.

Several years later, after we had moved from Chicago to Texas, with a warmer climate, my father (a minister, who lived in Indiana) borrowed the coat for a couple of years, then my brother (a school principal who lived in Pennsylvania) borrowed it for a couple more years. Years later, in the winter time the overcoat was kept in the various offices where I worked in the Los Angeles area. More times than I could count, in wintertime someone wore the overcoat somewhere. And that overcoat, purchased in 1948, all those years ago, is still worn each winter, now by an employee of Disney.

TOO MUCH RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DRIVER
One time while visiting Minneapolis in the winter time, somehow I was elected driver for a group of five men. As it seemed to be on most every wintertime trip, the streets and the freeway were covered by ice and snow. During the conversation someone asked about the families of the others in the car. Imagine my concern when it was determined that men in the car had a total of 27 wives, children, and grandchildren. That is more responsibility than I cared to have while driving a strange car, on strange roads, that were covered with ice and snow.

LET'S PLAY, "FIND THE RENTAL CAR."
While working for Control Data Corp., I visited Minneapolis about every month. Since they had started in business in the heart of downtown, there was a company rule that said a visiting employee could not rent a car. When they moved headquarters to a suburb, that rule was not changed. When I submitted my expense report, I would say to my boss, “There’s a car in there somewhere, bet you can’t find it.” And he never did.

IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU LIVE
One morning several of us were in the lobby of a hotel in downtown Minneapolis, waiting for a taxi — it was too icy to drive a rental car. Outside it was maybe 15 or 20 degrees below zero, with ice all over the place, and it was snowing and blowing. While we waited, the newspaper truck stopped, the man threw a bundle of papers at the feet of the doorman. The headline said, “Minus 40 Degrees in Bemidji,” (a small city in northern Minnesota.) The doorman said, “Gee, Bemidji, ain’t a fit place to live!”

WHEN IN MINNEAPOLIS, DO AS THE NATIVES DO
It was noticed that when we left the office to go to a restaurant for lunch, the men from California didn’t bother putting on heavy overcoats, just to walk from the office to the car, from the car to the restaurant, etc. Finally one of the Minnesota natives asked what we were going to do if by chance the car ran out of gasoline, there was an auto accident or whatever, and we had to get out of the car, far from shelter. We took the hint, and wore our overcoats from then on.