50 Years Ago

Bradenham Manor, the property of the National Trust, has been leased to the British Tabulating Machine Co., Ltd., for use as a Hollerith Computer Training Centre ... [T]he Centre was opened by Lord Halsbury ... who said that the old idea that a trainee learnt his job by copying what his predecessor could be seen to be doing has no room in the field of computer training. Training on modern, almost academic, lines is what is required ... Some 3,000 people per annum undergo training in the use and applications of mechanized accounting equipment at the five educational and training establishments maintained by the British Tabulating Machine Company's resources.

From Nature 30 August 1958.

100 Years Ago

A discussion will take place in Section D of the British Association on the abuses resulting from the strict application of the rule of priority in zoological nomenclature and on the means of protecting well-established names. Much inconvenience is caused by the extreme application of the rule ... the worst feature of which is ... the transfer of names from one to another, as we have seen in the case of Astacus, Torpedo, Holothuria, Simia, Cynocephalus ... Many zoologists think it is time to protest against the evil resulting from the indiscriminate application of what would be an excellent rule if tempered by a little consideration for tradition.

Also:

According to a Times correspondent, Dr. Lee De Forest expects that within two years Paris and New York will be in direct wireless telephonic communication. An apparatus which may ultimately transmit and receive messages to and from the Eiffel Tower is to be installed upon the 700-feet tower of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York.

From Nature 27 August 1908.