Litton Industries Monrobot XI computers available

From: David Betz <dbetz_at_xlisper.mv.com>
Date: Tue Feb 25 13:14:01 2003

I recently received email from FThomas470_at_aol.com informing me about
the availability of some Monrobot XI computers. I would love to acquire
one of these as the Monrobot XI was the first computer I ever
programmed (in junior high school). Unfortunately, I am not sure I am
going to be able to afford to ship one from Virginia to NH. In any
case, I certainly can't take all 5-6 of them. If you are interested,
please contact the email address above. I don't have any more
information than what I'm posting here. If anyone decides to rent a
truck to move them from Virginia toward New England I'd be interested
contributing to the cost of the rental in exchange for hauling one for
myself.

Here is the text of the messages I've received about these machines:

Litton Industries's Monrobot XI

We are in Charlottesville, Virginia and we have 5 or 6 of them in
storage. Until 7 or 8 years ago two of them were still being used and
worked just fine. In their time, they were really great machines and I
enjoyed programming and working with them.

We also have 2 Friden Computypers which are earlier than the Monrobots.
They had no electronics at all, but used rwo Friden late model
mechanical calculators with solenoids on all the keys and electrical
contacts on all the dials. They used a pile of stepping switches and a
big plug-board for programming. It was a far-out design but worked very
well.

We will be moving shortly and are pressed for space. Please let me have
your thoughts and/or suggestions. If you are interested, any reasonable
offer would be considered.

The Monrobot consists of the main computer unit which contains the
electronics and magnetic drum, a little control unit with switches and
control buttons and a place for the I/O typewriter. It's about the size
of an office desk and weighs about 400 lbs. A side section connects to
it and has a paper tape punch and a reader.
Received on Tue Feb 25 2003 - 13:14:01 GMT

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