2 Turku Joins the Computer Era


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2.1 Start of the Computer Era in Turku, cont

The founding meeting of the society was held September 14th chaired by V. Valavaara (Huhtamäki). The founding letter was signed by Turun Yliopisto, Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi, Pargas Kalkkbergs AB, Vakuutusyhtiö Sampo, Huhtamäki-yhtymä, Neste Oy, Kaupunkien Keskinäinen Vakuutysyhtiö, Livförsäkringsaktiebolaget Verdandi, and IBM, in all nine members or really ten as Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi represented both Åbo Akademi and Handelshögskolan vid Åbo Akademi. Further it was announced that Turun Kaupunki will join. As board was elected engineer M. Tanner (Neste Oy) (chairman), T.-E. Lassenius (vice chairman), and Laurikainen (secretary).

Laurikainen was elected as chairman for a working group for further planning. Members of this group was A. Rantanen (Huhtamäki), N. Numminen (Town of Turku), P. Kaarnisto (Sampo), B. Nikander (Pargas Kalkbergs AB), and FM R Räisänen (secretary). The budget for the rest of the year, amounting to 300,000 mk was for meeting expenses including fees for the board members. The expenses were balanced by member charges 35,000 mk each for the Town of Turku and 7 firms and 10,000 each for the two universities Åbo Akademi and University of Turku. At the end of september Raision Tehtaat joined. Later Turun Kauppakorkeakoulu announced that it would join from the beginning of 1960.

Investigations by the working group revealed that a solution based on an IBM 650 would be too expensive. A list of "medium sized information processing machines" was compiled. It contained the following machines: Datatron 205 from Burroughs, ER 56 from S E Lorenz AG, and the IBM machines Ramarc 305, IBM 650, IBM 1401. On the agenda for the board meeting September 22 the last point was: "IBM or not? Question about a preliminary order."

Shortly after this meeting, information that a machine Wegematic 1000 could be borrowed from and later donated by The Foundation Wenner-Gren Center for Scientific Research in Stockholm was obtained. The initiative was taken by Axel Wenner-Gren's trusted, Birger Strid, who had got information about the Mathematics Machine Society of Turku. Similar donations had been made to universities in Sweden (Uppsala and Göteborg(Chalmers)) and were planned for Stockholm (KTH), Oslo, and Helsinki.

At the board meeting November 3rd the question about establishing a Computing Center based on Wegematic 1000 was discussed. It was concluded based on a report compiled by DI Antero Rantanen (Huhtamäki) after negotiations with K.V. Laurikainen and PhD Kalevi Loimaranta, that the capacity of Wegematic 1000 "rather well corresponds to that of IBM 650".

The value of the machine (central processing unit and type writer) was estimated to 15 Mmk. The investments necessary were estimated to 25.3 Mmk was mainly to be covered by loan. The yearly expenses were estimated to about 16 Mmk consisting mainly of wages for eight persons 8.4 Mmk and interests and amortizes 5.6 Mmk. These were balanced by fees for users' guarantee hours. Based on charging 7,000 mk/h, which was comparable to fees in Sweden, gave a break even of 2,110 h/year, i.e., one shift the year around.