The "3000-pound spreadsheet machine"

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today (Wayback Machine link)

Companies traditionally used the 402 for accounting, since the machine could take a long list of numbers, add them up, and print a detailed written report. In a sense, you could consider it a 3000-pound spreadsheet machine. That’s exactly how Sparkler Filters uses its IBM 402, which could very well be the last fully operational 402 on the planet. As it has for over half a century, the firm still runs all of its accounting work (payroll, sales, and inventory) through the IBM 402. The machine prints out reports on wide, tractor-fed paper.

This is pretty amazing. I’ve seen older systems in use recently, like Windows 95, but this is just extraordinary.

Damaged punch cards.

(Revised and republished April 21st, 2025)