One That Got Away (was: Woohoo! Another DEC score!)

From: John Lawson <jpl15_at_panix.com>
Date: Thu Nov 27 09:40:37 2003

  You guys are wimps - ya don't know from Stupidity when it comes to
Classiccmp things.

(looks out window wistfully nostalgic - pained - sorry - sighs deeply)

 In the middle 70s, I was working part time at a surplus electronics place
- mainly to be around the Goodies while they were fresh. Most of the
time, even though I was getting paid - I was virtually "working for gear".

  A guy we knew was talking about this "big old computer" that he'd won on
a bid. He was telling how it had been working, but when he got it home and
plugged it in, it blew up. It was a 110 V machine with a typical 220V
Clothes-dryer type plug - the previous installation had been more thna 100
feet from the power source and the voltage drop in the long extension
cable equalled about 100V - go figure - anyway he got it home, wheeled it
into the garage and plugged it into the dryer outlet. And spent the next
several weeks replacing thousands of glass diodes on the passive logic
cards... but he got it working again. I expressed huge interest. He had
mentioned that he didn't know that Bendix made computers as well as brakes
and starters and aircraft parts.... ;{}

  At the time I had a Jaguar E-Type that I loved *almost* as much as I
loved the fantasy of Having One's Own Real Computer (this was 1975,
now...). A girlfriend had taken the car to the store one fine day and
driven it up over one of those concrete parking stops - pranging the right
front wishbones and bending the wire wheel on that side - I was Poor back
then and that grounded my beloved Jag on a semi-permanent basis.

  The conversation got around to what he might want for the Computer, and
I blurted out "I'll trade you my Jag for it!" and he said "Deal!" with
about a 150 nanosecond pause.

  So we got a Uhaul trailer, hauled the Jaguar over to his place, and
returned with my Bendix G-15 - complete with all Docs and much software on
5-level paper tape cartidges.

  At the time, I lived in an upstairs apartment - and 900 pounds of
machinery was not going up there, so I cached it in a coworker's garage,
who was also quite inteested in it. Both of us were analog engineering
types, neither of us had any experience with computers whatsoever other
than a few "Intro to Fortran" courses - code yer proggie - punch yer cards
- submit the deck - wait for the Listing.

  But, after a few frustrating weekends, we got the mchine booted up and
the IBM Executive console typewriter clacking away - it could play 'NIM'
and 'TicTacToe' - as well as ALGOL and FORTRAN IV. As long as you minded
the various power supply adjustment knobs and kep 'em in the Green Arcs of
the Voltage Margin Meter, that is.

  And there it sat for a few years - we'd crank it up and play NIM, show
it to amazed friends and bored wives. In the fullness of time we both
moved to different parts of SoCal, got different jobs, and I just lost
touch.

  Last I heard, it was in a display in the lobby of some unspecified
Burroughs plant. Maybe 1980 - 81 - ?


  And so went an extremely rare Classic Computer worth now about $30K that
I traded for a car that's now worth $60 - 100K restored (that I paid $1500
for in 1972) and here I sit, nearly 30 years on - still kicking myself.

   You may now turn the Flame Thrower up full... ;}



  Cheers and Happy Holidays everyone!!!!!


John

  PS I really am sorry... really I am!
Received on Thu Nov 27 2003 - 09:40:37 GMT