What does a BMW 1 Series Coupé have in common with the last of IBM’s major electromechanical accounting machines? If you immediately thought weight, that would be an astute guess. Both, after all, clock in at around the 1500kg mark.
Cost, indeed, would have been another good shot in the dark. The IBM 407, which made its debut in 1949, was effectively a large automated calculator and printer; you would load information in the form of 80-column punched IBM data cards, then the machine would prepare and print financial reports.
Every minute, it could consume 150 punch cards and output up to 18,000 printed characters, granting companies accurate and expedited record keeping. Such capabilities didn’t come cheap, though: just to rent one cost upwards of $800 per month, according to one 1957 price list. That was around half the cost of a new Ford of the time, or $9000 today.
