Antedating of "Spreadsheet" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

_Nation's Business_ 11/1930 p 126 col 1 [ABI/Inform] [adv for
Comptometer Adding and Calculating Machine]

"Two things essential to high speed distribution at low cost, are:
1.  Rapid, accurate addition.
2.  Elimination of the many postings of items as in the spread sheet
method."

_National Association of Cost Accountants. NACA Bulletin_ Jan 15, 1933
p. 763. [ABI/Inform]

"We maintain, in our general ledger, a so-called Spread Sheet which is a
long sheet with the name of each individual plant in a particular
column."



> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Shapiro, Fred
> Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2012 9:52 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Antedating of "Spreadsheet"
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Antedating of "Spreadsheet"
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
> -
>
> spreadsheet (OED 1982)
>
> 1981 _ABA Banking Journal_ Oct. (Nexis)  Whatever the size of your
bank' pe=
> rsonal computers belong on its planning agenda for next year. Personal
comp=
> uters--also known as home computers and microcomputers--are those
small, in=
> expensive, and yet amazingly powerful and flexible machines that are
being =
> used for everything from video games to spread-sheet analysis.
>
> ***
>
> The above citation alludes to VisiCalc, the enormously important
invention =
> of my old partner on the MIT tiddlywinks team, Dan Bricklin.  The OED
fails=
> to recognize that the VisiCalc spreadsheet was preceded by a
noncomputeriz= ed
> financial tool called a "spread-sheet."  Here is an early citation:
>
> 1945 _Journal of the American Statistical Association_ 40: 511 (JSTOR)
Att=
> ention is directed to the Summary of Financial Data (Spread Sheet)
shown in=
> Exhibit III.  It will be noted that basic statistical data is
"spread-out"=
> on one sheet so as to be read easily and correlated to significant
factors=
> recorded in the lower part of the exhibit which are essential to
proper in=
> terpretation of the data.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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