In 1966, the BBC's Tomorrow's World visited a party in New York organised by the electronic dating service Tact, or Technical Automated Compatibility Testing. Around 2,000 singles were invited to Manhattan to try out this modern method of matchmaking.

In 1788, a man going by the name of "AB" placed New York's first known personal ad in the Impartial Gazetteer, according to historian Francesa Beauman. He was seeking a woman "under 40, not deformed, and in possession of at least one thousand pounds". Describing himself as "a young gentleman of family and fortune, who is lately come to town", the ad was the Tinder bio of its day. Whether AB had any replies to his ad is unknown. But nearly 200 years later, New York was the home of another novel approach to dating – computer matchmaking.

Invented by Bob Ross (a computer programmer at IBM, not the painter), and accountant Lewis Altfest, Tact – or Technical Automated Compatibility Testing – launched in New York 60 years ago, in 1965. First confined to the Upper East Side, it soon expanded to the entire city and had thousands signing up to be matched by computer. Each hopeful had to pay $5 (£2) and fill in a questionnaire, which would then be used to match people "on three levels", according to Ross: socio-cultural factors, opinions and values, and psychological factors. The answers were fed into the computer, which would then spit out supposed matches of the opposite gender. Same-sex dating was not an option. "Tact is not a lonely-hearts club," Ross told the BBC's Tomorrow's World. "It's not a marriage brokerage service. It's a new fun way of meeting new people." He pointed out that it was open to "all fun-loving people between 18 and 45", and added: "People go into Tact for a number of reasons. Some of the people go into it just to meet new people, to get a lot of dates… some people want to get more serious, they are interested in forming a more lasting relationship, and then there are people who just want to get married."

The matchmaking questions were approved by psychologist Dr Salvatore V Didato, who felt there was "a great social need" for services such as Tact. He complained of other services, "They say that they match people on many, many variables, but it winds up that they match them only on age, sex, religion, and height, or something like that." The Tact questionnaire went further by including a series of statements with which respondents had to either agree or disagree. The BBC report features responses from a typical customer: "I worry over my relationships with people – yes. I enjoy people who express affection freely – yes. Most of the time I act as an independent – no. I enjoy going to parties – yes."

While Tact was at the crest of a new technological wave, it was not quite the first computer-aided dating service. The two inventors had been inspired by Operation Match, which had been started earlier that year by Harvard students – decades before some students at the same university would create another computer-powered way for people to connect: Facebook.

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