Hello:
Let me chime in on the number of Mark-8 computers, etc. Several years ago I
went through some old records that showed the royalties paid to me by both
Radio-Electronics magazine and Techniques. R-E paid a small royalty for
each of the instruction booklets they sold. You may recall the original
magazine article could not hold all the information and construction
details. Techniques paid a royalty on the sets of printed-circuit boards
(PCBs) they sold. Based on the information I still have, I figure R-E sold
about 7500 copies of the booklet, and Techniques sold about 400 sets of
PCBs.
Unfortunately, the original R-E article and the booklet failed to publish a
key piece of information: the wiring diagram for the board-to-board
connections. So, I heard from many people who needed this information, but
these communications took place before email and low-cost fax, so I have no
record nor recollection of how many people I spoke with.
As you can probably guess, I also have no idea how many people actually
built a Mark-8, nor do I know how many of those built systems still exist.
My original Mark-8 is in the Smithsonian, and it was in working condition
when it left here, so that counts as one system. The prototype memory board
for the original point-to-point wired Mark-8 prototype went to the American
Computer Museum in Bozeman, MT in October. The ACM also got mimeographed
copies of the original "Mark-8 Newsletter" and its successor, the "Micro-8
Newsletter."
If anyone has questions about the Mark-8, refer to the Web site:
http://www.his.com/~jlewczyk/adavie/mark8b.html
which contains information I wrote back in 1999. (I need to go back and
clean it up a bit.)
Please note, the email addresses in that posting are incorrect. People can
reach me at the permanent email addresses:
KZ1G_at_ARRL.NET
or
jontitus_at_hendrielane.com
For a while longer, the jontitus_at_attbi.com email still works. We expect a
shift to comcast.net sometime soon, though.
Cheers,
Jon
Jon Titus
36 Sunset Drive
Milford, MA 01757-1362 USA
Phone: +1-508-478-8040
E-mail: jontitus_at_attbi.com
Member, National Association of Science Writers
Received on Sun Apr 13 2003 - 11:43:52 BST