keywords: banking, accounting, bookeeping, data entry, first generation computers, g.e. 210 electronic computer
Synopsis: Shows launch of rocket carrying a satellite into orbit. Shows a clerk at a desk using a quill pen to record bank transactions. The first revolution of record keeping was the bookkeeping machines. Show an office with many workers that are required to maintain records using bookkeeping machines. The use of checks in financial transactions rather than cash created a need by the banking industry to find a faster, more efficient way of record keeping... (read more)
The second revolution was the electronic computer that can read, sort, print, process checks, record and store customer information and retrieve it in record time. Demonstration of how the machines operate and how cashiers get immediate access to customer accounts for credit approval.
Scenes of the General Electric 210 electronic computer with its control console, reader-sorter, magnetic tape recorder units, high speed printer and central processor that can read the same information on a check as a human. This is done by coding blank checks when ordered by a customer with a line of code printed with “magnetic ink”. Voice over explains the coding on a customer's check. Shows automatic typewriter printing a mat to be used to print a “line of code” on blank checks using magnetic ink that contains particles of iron oxide. Shows device to check the iron oxide particle in the ink used to print blank checks.
Shows and explains the function of each component of the General Electric 210 data processing system starting with the “reader-sorter”. Shows magnetic tape recorder units in operation. Shows high speed printer printing journals, reports, and customer statements. Shows operator at central processor console.
Voice over explains all of the necessary operations performed to process a customer's check by a bank using the General Electric 210 Data Processor System. Shows an hour glass and face of clock with rotating hands to illustrate the speed of electronic data processing. Shows the preparation and printing of a customer's bank statement. Three business men in suits looking at large sheets of a document.