Univac

So, if you're under 40.  No, under 50, you probably don't even know what Univac means. 

Back in the day,  sometime at the end of the last century, there was a science fiction machine that was used to feed data into computers.  That machine was made by Univac.  Other machines that did the same thing were invented and we used some of them but the most popular one was the Univac.  One would use the machine as a typewriter (Something else you don't know about if you're under 40), meaning that you would press keys related to the alphabet in order to enter information into the computer.  The information was loaded onto stiff paper cards that were punched with holes.  Those cards were conviently called punched cards.  The holes made up a code called EBCDIC, which was understandable by the computer.  After the cards were punched they were then read into a card reader and that's how data and instructions entered into the computer.

Very advanced.  For the day.

The Univac machine was much of my job at sea.  Jay Yurth (Amazon.com) recently authored a post on this blog that talked a little about the Univac 1700.  The thought of that machine brought back many memories for me.

Before I was promoted to computer operator, while I was an E-1 through E-3 that was my job.  All day long every day.  There were no weekends at sea.  Nothing really to do.  Just work.  Sitting at a keypunch machine was a heck of a lot better than fixing food for five thousand and it was a lot better than pushing jets around or loading them with fuel or weapons.  Sitting at a keypunch in air conditioned comfort while smoking hash and listening to music and typing keys that punched holes was a very fine way to serve our country. 

We were issued stacks and stacks and boxes and loads and piles of green sheets of paper.  These green sheets of paper were coded with information about the supply needs of the U.S.S. Saratoga CV 60.  We took the green sheets of paper and typed them into the Univac machines so that the machines could punch computer readable information into the cards.  Then at the proper time, the cards were read into the computer.  After the cards were read into the computer they were stored in a space (room) near our work area.  When that room started getting full we would discard the cards.

How do you discard cards at sea?

You put them into the sea.

I'm not suggesting that our fine U.S. of A. would - in this day and age - EVEN DARE to ruin the ocean with garbage.  I don't know what they do today.  But back in the last century.  Back when I was young and dumb.  That's what we did.

We set aside a day for this.
Everyone showed up for work at the same time.  Day shift workers and night shift workers all came at the same time.  We would form a line.  What the heck did they call it.  We did it a lot in the navy.  Anyway, we would form a line.  One or two guys would stand inside the space that contained all the punched cards to be discarded.  The guys would pick up a box of cards and hand them to the next guy in line.  That next guy in line would take the box of punched cards that needed to be discarded and he would hand the box to the next guy in line.  Then that guy would take the box and hand it to the next guy and so forth.  This is a quick and efficient way to move things when you have enough people. 
We would pass the cards from one sailor to the next back up the line until we reached a weather deck.  A weather deck is one that is open to the outside.  Then when we got the box of punched cards up to the weather deck we would toss it over the side.  For an hour or so we would all stand in our line and pass boxes of punched cards - cards that took us many hours and many skills to create - over the side into the ocean.  The sharks and dolphins had a ball chasing input data down into the Davey Jones storage bin.

It was OK to throw those cards away at that time because we had already read the information into the computer.  So then, if we needed to give the info to anyone else, we would write it out on a magnetic tape and give them the tape.

Those keypunching skills served me well when I got out of the navy.  I got a job working part time at Standard Oil in Tulsa.  I sat with 23 girls and a homosexual boy and we all punched keys and had a very good time.  I went to school and lived off the GI bill and my part time earnings and dated girls from the keypunch room.  What a life.  Shoulda stayed there but instead, I went and got old.

Now I have to deal with it.