Trinity
History DefinedA photo of an engineer wiring an early IBM computer, 1958 by Berenice Abbott.
Lez Watson@historydefined Anyone noticed the engineer was a woman?
Nafnlaus 🇮🇸 🇺🇦@watsonlv @historydefined The programmers of the earliest computers were all women! For decades it was seen that building a computer was the "real" work and programming / maintaining it just an afterthought, so they assigned the latter to women - who designed some of the most fundamental programming concepts today. But at formal events they were still expected to serve drinks and be eye candy for the men, and called "refrigerator ladies" (aka appliance models).
Read their histories, it's neat!
@nafnlaus @historydefined Indeed. And most credit for good tech claimed by men.
Jürgen Voskuhl 
@nafnlaus That reminds me of the excellent movie #HiddenFigures.
Worth watching!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846340/
Worth watching!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846340/
Dude Germo@watsonlv @historydefined In the early days women engineers where common; all the men were fighting the war. It took some time before men where able to push them out. Thank god the tide is turning
Paul Forssander 💚🙏@watsonlv @historydefined first thing I noticed and I thought wow, that didn't make it into the history books.
Miss MegaphonThat's me vs the christmas lights.
kyrl@historydefined the photos of Berenice Abbott well worth checking out, she had a marvelous eye.
Baron Woke of Carlsberg@historydefined looks like the back of my TV.
n1k0@historydefined I feel better with my code seeing this
CgX 
@historydefined It looks like an old tree 😍
Jamie Parmenter@historydefined and I get annoyed at the 5 or 6 wires I have at the back of my computer! 😅
Wickund@historydefined The good ol’ days.
dewkie@historydefined AND a female engineer at that!
@dewkie @historydefined In the early days women engineers where common; all the men were fighting the war. It took some time before men where able to push them out. Thank god the tide is turning
@historydefined great to see girls in tech! We've always been there but too frequently not seen!
Paul Gilsdorf@historydefined in Ohio, we still have teachers in classrooms today with the certification to teach Data Processing on the old IBM System 40. And at least one who just retired a few months ago.
gizmo@historydefined This could easily be 2022.
dukeitch@historydefined that is a modular synthesizer
Academy Plaza Hotel@historydefined This marks our first toot! Here to say that this looks rather like a recent picture of our comms room. 🤦
Idris 💙@historydefined
Please consider adding alt text for the many blind users of Mastodon. It makes their experience much richer and I'm sure they would be interested!
Please consider adding alt text for the many blind users of Mastodon. It makes their experience much richer and I'm sure they would be interested!
Eva McCullough
TGOchuck@historydefined And the biggest thing on her mind right then was "What in God's name am I going to make for dinner tonight? Women really do have superpowers.
Sador_Numspaq 🚴♀️@historydefined … das Leben könnte mit einem Strickliesel so einfach sein… 😂
🤘🦊🐧 Stefan Rower
Jens Greifenhagen@StefanRower @historydefined
😳Dafür dass das ein Computer werden soll erinnert es doch etwas an die "Schaltschränke des Grauens" die wir wohl alle mal gesehen haben... 🙃
Respekt für die Arbeit! Sieht ähnlich aus wie Kabelbäume installieren in einem Hubschrauber oder Flugzeug.
😳Dafür dass das ein Computer werden soll erinnert es doch etwas an die "Schaltschränke des Grauens" die wir wohl alle mal gesehen haben... 🙃
Respekt für die Arbeit! Sieht ähnlich aus wie Kabelbäume installieren in einem Hubschrauber oder Flugzeug.
MeKobi
ReMy2Cents ✅ 🙈🙉🙊
Zach Flanders@historydefined
I found this awesome colorized version on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Colorization/comments/v6gk14/1958_an_engineer_wiring_an_ibm_computer/ Fittingly, it was colorized by AI.
I found this awesome colorized version on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Colorization/comments/v6gk14/1958_an_engineer_wiring_an_ibm_computer/ Fittingly, it was colorized by AI.
MarvinPA@historydefined Not many years later -
mesanford@deltaw60 @historydefined These were great to read about. Thanks!
Jo.c@historydefined that is just mind blowing
Mudhooks 🇨🇦@historydefined That’s what it looked like when my Dad was sorting out the Christmas tree lights back in the day (1960s).
Not included is Dad saying “Here. Plug this in…” and me getting a shock.
Deh Haagh@historydefined This is a bit how I environment the poeple like @Gargron and @stux struggling to keep their servers running while all those birds are landing on their servers.
stux⚡️
yup
ПакМен@historydefined This is amazing photo 🤩 Thank you 🙂
@historydefined @Gargron @stux Ow 😱 #autocorrupt did a number on my comment, luckily @stux reads autocorrupt real well 😂
Marlijn@historydefined Beautiful photo, reminds me of #ClaireLEvans' book #BroadBand 💚 https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545427/broad-band-by-claire-l-evans/
G.F. Ahrunson@historydefined For some reason I thought it was some H.P. Lovecraft stuff...
iXô 
@historydefined it’s amazing how all the wires looks like tree branches
More Or Les@historydefined have you seen a modern IT/com room? Not much has changed as far as wire routing
@historydefined This reminds me of Sister Mary Kenneth Keller. This nun was the first woman to earn a PhD in computer science and co-authored a little language called BASIC.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/53178/first-woman-earn-phd-computer-science-was-nun
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/53178/first-woman-earn-phd-computer-science-was-nun
@historydefined this is what a PC build would be like if YouTube existed in 1958
Mr. Fred 🔥@historydefined elegantly wired up like the back of my home office desk
Brandon Gregory@historydefined Looks like the back of my TV right now.
wmat 🇨🇦@historydefined good old Bernice Abbot wiring the IBM405.
Daniel Latorre@historydefined is this is what “1000 RPC calls” looks like? 😁
Russell Cameron Thomas@historydefined Well, actually... it is not a computer.
It is "Alphabetic Accounting" machine, from about 1934, when IBM produced tabulating machines, long before they produced computers.
https://www.righto.com/2017/11/identifying-early-ibm-computer-in.html
JanB@historydefined absolutely mesmerizing posts.
Ashamar@historydefined If she made sense of this, I need her to help with the cabling in my PC. I realize she would be like 100 years old, still a better option than me.
Cyber Yuki@historydefined As I read this I realize how far we've come regarding the industry of... cabling.
All those clunky cables precede the floppy and HDD flat cables we see in PCs today; the color coded power cables in standardized power supplies. New standards like USB, HDMI...
so it's not just giant corporations like IBM; it's decades of engineering and consensus building to produce things that are easy to assemble and repair.
TomatoGrilledCheese 
@historydefined This is what my co-workers think I do when I tell them I build my own PCs.
Thomas Frissen@historydefined @moneschleper maybe ask your students also to draw an 'engineer'...would this come up?
moneschleper@tfrissen @historydefined, we are getting there with some great and diverse drawings of scientists yesterday. Still a lot of beards in lab coats though …
RetroVideoGames@historydefined certainly a renewed appreciation for USB-C.