Air defense 50+ years ago



Aside from the old iron and electronics, I was intrigued by this late-'50s era IBM promotional video because of the geography - most of the shots are from the Hudson Valley and upstate New York.

The main IBM plant still  exists, though it's changed a lot over the years. The plant's (and company's for that matter) main products were mainframes for commercial use, though as the video shows military applications were an important product line. IBM's growth fueled the development of the Hudson Valley; in some ways it was the Silicon Valley of its day.

Like many businesses at the time, IBM had started as a very family-oriented company and kept those values as it grew; employees had a full range of benefits and even a country club where they could go to. (They also had a dress code that called for suits and ties, as you can see in the video.)

The company was truly international - it was a standing joke in the '60s and '70s that IBM stood for "I've been moved" - but most of the important development and production occurred in the U.S., and the U.S. (and its citizens) benefited.

Nowadays, a lot of the work takes place elsewhere; and that's where the benefits accrue.

[Design World is an engineering website where I first saw the video.]