At 07:14 28-09-98 +0000, Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net> wrote:
>I contacted a friend of mine that that is a salesman for IBM and asked him
>if he knew where any IBM 1130s might be found. Here's his reply:
>
>>
>>Joe,
>>Sorry it took so long to reply....I was in Vegas and didn't get back until
>>yesterday. It was the annual World Gaming Congress meeting...the largest
>>gaming convention in the industry.
>>
>>Well...I got to admint....I've never even heard of an 1130!! I had to do
>>some research to find out what it was! from what I can decuce..this thing
>>dates back to the mid 60's.!! Sorry but the only place I can think he might
>>find one is a museum!
>
> Joe
>
Joe and I had passed a private msg or two regarding the IBM 1130, hence his
checking with an IBM friend as to 1130 locations. This latest msg Joe
posted through the list which is a good thing he did.
It brings up a point I probably have spoken about previously here. It is to
try to find and preserve history of any obsolete, and in this case possibly
extinct, computers or related objects. The fellow Joe contacted is probably
not an "old timer" IBM salesman and probably would not know about machines
that could have even predated his graduation from high school! Joe could
maybe confirm this. There are retired or still-working old timers out there
who can be a wellspring of important historical information. This connects
to the point of this message.
The point is that if we know of, work with, have in the family, run into on
the street, share a jail cell with or any other way discover an old time
computer industry person who could have some 'lost' history to offer, make
an attempt to let them know you are interested in the history of computing
and would like them to help you preserve what he/she knows or otherwise
owns about the long obsolete hardware/software that that person had a hand
in. If you are shy about approaching that person maybe another fellow
collector could help you break the ice. Or, simply screw up the gumption
and introduce yourself and hope for the best. Quite often when a person
sees you are sincere about learning what he/she has once had been working
with and hears your request to learn what he/she has to offer as far as
preserving the history of something they once had a hand in they will be
open to you.
Try not to leave out the machines that are only 10 years old or even
younger in spite of concentrating on real 'antiques' (35 years old like the
IBM 1130 for example). And there should be no regard to whether they are
just good ol' home-use machines like the Ataris, Commodores, Sinclairs or
big iron antiques like S/360's or S/370's, etc. You see, now is the time to
learn and archive as much detail as possible. In 10, 20, 50 years, the
folks who designed, built, serviced or sold these machines will be gone.
Ourselves, if we're still alive, and future collectors will have a rich
collection of information to draw from whenever we find an Atari 400 or
something in a garage sale in 2038.
In the antique radio collecting hobby for example, as it is with other such
interests, a lot of needed technical information or simply interesting
anecdotal information and artifacts have been lost forever because they
were never kept or recorded. Computer collecting is a rather recent
technical collecting hobby and we have a chance to 'do it right' by
capturing all information and artifacts possible before they are
permanently lost.
There were recent discussions in the list regarding source code to some
games and/or applications that were discarded because the author did not
think anybody would be interested. Last week there was a discussion
regarding one of the list members being able to rescue a prototype computer
from the estate of one of the mid-70's personal computer pioneers. What
else was lost lately?
Sam's VCF has been performing a really beneficial function in historical
preservation by having pioneer speakers and displays on old computer
technology at the Festival. Good start, Sam. Maybe next year I could come
to it.
<Soapbox Mode Off now> Sorry for the somewhat rambling statements, but
this has been something that has been in my interest for years now as some
of you know. Maybe it will be a timely reminder for us to continue to go
out and find and preserve the history of our hobby(ies) for others to share
now and in the distant future.
--Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL:
http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
Received on Mon Sep 28 1998 - 09:36:46 BST