Technology in 1938

A local paper inserts a paragraph or two each day taken from issues of the same paper 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago. Here is today's news item from 75 years ago.

A new kind of electrical brain for use in department stores has been devised by a staff member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The inventor said a good-sized department store would require about 300 of the machines, which would be connected electrically and would be able to record each sale, give the customer a receipt and do most of the bookkeeping connected with the sale.