Clipper, Vol. 11, No. 19, October 13, 1955

              Read From California To Calcutta, From Alaska To Australasia
Vol. 11 NO. 19	PUBLISHED BY THE EMPLOYEES OF PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS	October 13, 1955
WHEN YOUR NUMBER'S UP YOU'LL GO
Some lucky San Francisco employee who makes his contribution to the “Good Neighbor” Fund by payroll deduction will be standing in this spot, looking at Lake Atitlan and San Pedro volcano, now inactive. The drawing to determine the winner will be held next week after the drive ends.
AMAZING IS THE WORD FOR IT
IBM's Electronic Brain Gets Its First Airline Job With PAA Installation Scheduled Next Spring
An electronic brain that can make 8,400 additions a second is the latest “first” to he acquired by Pan American.
It is the IBM large-scale electronic data-processing system designated as Type 705. The 15-unit hrain will he installed in the Long Island City offices next spring. It will be the first such machine used in the air transport business and only the fifth in all of industry.
“The airline business has grown so much in recent years that we have reached the saturation point with our present accounting machinery,” said John S. Woodridge, Comptroller of Pan American.
“To obtain an idea of the problem faced by companies like Pan American,” he continued, “one has to try to visualize l/> billion cards. This is the number we machine annually. These cards are 7 and 3/8 inches long. If laid end to end, they would stretch six times around the world! A jet transport flying 550 miles an hour would have to fly continuously for 13 days just to pass over *this PAA paper work.” One of the most important fea-
tures of the new machine is that it will enable the company to “mine” its records for information that previously was not economically obtainable.
Valuable sales information can be obtained quickly when the IBM 705 answers such questions as these: What is the pharmaceutical trade between Uruguay and all the rest of the world? Where are the best markets for textiles?
The machine can also he used in solving crew scheduling problems, in speeding billing and in providing a precise control of inventory.
The information to he processed by the machine is fed into it from reels of magnetic tape. In one accounting operation alone, some 366 file trays containing 1,250,000 standard tabulating cards will be replaced by 10 reels of tape.
The brain does its work to the accompaniment of flashing lights and the clacking of printers.
Fourteen men are now planning the final stages of the switchover to the new machine, which rents for $30,000 a month.
"GOOD NEIGHBOR" PRIZE DRAWING
Clark Tours Offers 50 Per Cent Discount On Two Eight-Day Tours To Winner of Guatemala Tickets
The frosting is on the cake!
The “important extra” to be added to the “Good Neighbor” campaign prize drawing has been obtained.
The winner of that drawing will now receive not only two round-trip SUBLO tickets between San Francisco and Guatemala, but will also receive a 50 per cent reduction on an 8-day tour of Guatemala from Clark Tours.
Total cost of the tour with the discount will be $55 per person, or $110 for the winner and whoever accompanies him.
For this amount the winner and his guest will get all their meals, hotel rooms and ground transportation. If he doesn’t want to buy any souvenirs or have any martinis, the trip will not cost him another nickel—or we should say, another quetzal.
Here’s a day-by-day running account of what the winners will see:
FIRST DAY: Morning free for shopping. The Pan American Hotel, your headquarters, is within a block of the Plaza de Armas and close to all the main shops and
the Central Market where you can purchase hand woven goods, leather goods and silver jewelry.
After lunch you will leave by car for Antigua via the new Roosevelt Highway, arriving in the early afternoon in time to visit highlights of the old colonial capital. You will overnight at either Hotel Antigua or Rancho Nimajay.
SECOND DAY: A free day in which to leisurely explore the “Pompeii of America.” The large native market in the ruins of the old Jesuit Monastery will fascinate you.
THIRD DAY: You leave Antigua after lunch for Chichicasten-ango, where you arrive at the Mayan Inn for dinner.
FOURTH DAY: Market day at Chichicastenango at the largest open air Indian market in the country. In the afternoon you may visit the late Father Rossbach collection of jade and Maya relics, or hike to Indian idol on a nearby hill top.
FIFTH DAY: Leave Chichicastenango for Solola and Lake Atit-(Continued on Page 8)
GIVES LOTS OF THOUGHTS PER PENNY
PAA’s Comptroller, John S. Woodbridge, left, is getting a briefing from Thomas J. Watson, Jr., President of International Business Machines, on the operation of IBM’s electronic brain. The Pan American Comptroller is shown at the console, or “observation post,” of one of the 15-unit machines, an advanced model of which has been ordered by PAA for its accounting offices in Long Island City.