'Think-A-Tron' electronic question and answer computer

Made:
circa 1962 in Central Falls

Hasbro 'Think-A-Tron' electronic question and answer computer, by Hassenfeld Brothers, Inc. Central Falls, Rhode Island, USA, ca. 1962.

This model is a Hasbro Think-A-Tron toy computer, an electro-mechanical question-and-answer game. The battery-operated machine 'reads' the question card then raises the correct mask in the answer panel above, to light up A, B, C, T or F. It was advertised quite innocently as 'the machine that thinks like a man - It Thinks! It Answers! It Remembers!'. The Think-A-Tron toy computer embodies the cultural maleness of computer science, in an era when data processing machines were little more than electrical sensing devices reading patterns of punched holes in cards or magnetic patterns on discs or drums.

Details

Category:
Domestic Appliances
Object Number:
1999-305
Materials:
plastic
Measurements:
overall: 13.5827 x 18.1102 x 26.378 in.; 345 x 460 x 670 mm
type:
computer, educational toy and model
credit:
Jackie Britton