I believe it's an IBM 604 Electronic Calculating Punch. This box was programmed with a plugboard and did BCD addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It was built from 1100 vacuum tubes.
It wasn't a computer in the modern sense. It read data from a card (the box in front is the card reader), ran through up to 60 steps of calculation, and then punched the result onto the same card, at the rate of 100 cards per minute.
This system was introduced in 1948 and rented for $645 a month (about $5500 in current dollars).
I believe it's an IBM 604 Electronic Calculating Punch. This box was programmed with a plugboard and did BCD addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It was built from 1100 vacuum tubes.
It wasn't a computer in the modern sense. It read data from a card (the box in front is the card reader), ran through up to 60 steps of calculation, and then punched the result onto the same card, at the rate of 100 cards per minute.
This system was introduced in 1948 and rented for $645 a month (about $5500 in current dollars).
More info: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/604.html