Boston Computer Museum

From: Bill/Carolyn Pechter <pechter_at_shell.monmouth.com>
Date: Thu Jun 4 08:18:13 1998

>
> > The BCM hsed to (pre PC) have a Honeywell, SAGE, PDP-1 and numerous
> > machines of former glory on display. Now they are somewhere parts
> > unknown or the back room. Next time I'm in town I should stop in and ask
> > if I can see the real machines.
>
> You won't find any of that stuff since it has all been moved (or is being
> moved) to California. The museum has set up a new warehouse in Moffett Field,
> on an Air Force base I believe. They intended to make it available to scholars
> and other interested people.
>
> When I visited they had just set up shop and the collection was incomplete
> (the PDP-1 was there, but it was disassembled to the module level and piled in
> a box... I wouldn't relish the job of reassembling it.) By now I'm sure most
> of it has been moved out of Boston.
>
> Although the museum has done some pretty boneheaded things in the past, I give
> them credit for the move, and I believe they've been much more careful since
> then about tending their collection.
>
> -- Derek
>

You should have seen the stuff when they were still in Marlboro, Ma at
the old DEC Large Computers Group (LCG) plant.

6 foot disk platters, big old drums, the PDP1, real good stuff to walk in.
No walkthrough PCs. I guess I'm going to have to go to California
to see what really belongs here on the East Coast...

Look where DEC, IBM, Univac started. Why couldn't the museum get located
somewhere down here. 8-(

I guess I'm going to have to fly out to Sunnyvale (which is a favorite place
of mine -- since I worked for a Mountain View company for a while).

Too bad they couldn't have turned the Mill into a DEC (er d|i|g|i|t|a|l)
museum.

Maybe Compaq will donate some of the historic machines... Castor and Pollux?

Bill

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bill/Carolyn Pechter | 17 Meredith Drive | Tinton Falls, New Jersey 07724 |
| 908-389-3592 | Save computing history, give an old geek old hardware. |
| pechter_at_shell.monmouth.com |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Received on Thu Jun 04 1998 - 08:18:13 BST