Raised floors

[Vernon Wright]

I see one response saying that they predated the electronic stored program computer by about 40 years. Perhaps, I wasn't around that early.

But I recall a GE installation at a university of the late 1950's that had the raised floor that became standard in the 1960's. As were a couple of IBM 7xxx systems.

OTOH, a 650 I knew in 1957 was on concrete, as was a 1401 as late as 1967.

Cabling was an issue, cooling the other. The 1401 was in a well-air conditioned room, and the cabling was OVERHEAD!! Damn cheaper than raised floor. Until the large systems of the middle 1960's required cabling be out of the way, it was as much a matter of convenience as anything else - you need to be able to truck trays of cards, paper, tapes in and out, and cables made that a problem.

I'd be interested in the turn of the 20th-century-raised floors. Must make a note to look that up.

Vern


--- On Tue, 12/9/08, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com>
> Subject: Raised floors
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 6:08 PM
> Here is an aspect of computer history not yet touched - when
> did the
> industry standardize on the 2 x 2 raised floor? Certainly
> they were
> common in the 1960s, but were they standard in the 1950s?
> 
> --
> Will