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Computer History Museum Gets the Attention It Deserves

Posted by Soulskill on from the back-when-bits-were-made-out-of-wood dept.

mcpublic writes "For years the Computer History Museum has been quietly collecting and displaying the computational relics of yesteryear. Now, finally the New York Times Arts Section shines the spotlight on this most nerdy of museums. Speak Steampunk? You can find a working replica of Babbage's Difference Engine in the lobby of the museum's Mountain View, California home. Of course, the vast majority of the collection is electronic, and though 'big iron' is king, that hasn't stopped dedicated volunteers from bringing back to life pioneering 'mini' computers like the 1960 PDP-1 and the first video game software ever: Spacewar!"

18 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Berlin's Computerspielemuseum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://www.computerspielemuseum.de/1210_Home.htm
    Visited this summer. They have quite a collection of computer games.

    1. Re:Berlin's Computerspielemuseum by dingen · · Score: 5, Informative

      You should definitely check out the Heinz Nixdorf museum in Padenborn, Germany. It's the largest collection of old computers on display anywhere in the world. Make sure you get the English audio tour from the reception though, as nearly all of the texts within the museum are written in German.

      It truly is an awesome place, with lots of wonderful machines, including (but by no means limited to) a piece of a Jacquard loom, a real German WW2 Enigma, lots of huge old IBM machines, a full Zuse Z11 (including a modified typewriter to function as printer!), some PDP's, a Xerox Alto, an Altair 8800, an Apple I. One could spend a week in there, it's simply amazing.

      --
      Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
    2. Re:Berlin's Computerspielemuseum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Make sure you get the English audio tour from the reception though, as nearly all of the texts within the museum are written in German.

      Ich spreche Deutsch, du unempfindlichen Klotz

  2. Re:Bits were never made out of wood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    And my Commodore PET never had fur. I was so disappointed :(

  3. You are not alone by jaromil · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Right on!
    FYI Another "Working Computer Museum" up since about 15 years in Palazzolo Acreide, Sicily, nearby Siracusa,
    privately run by volunteers and collectors: http://museum.dyne.org/
    (website in Italian and some english, remote access to computers offered via telnet and ssh)
    Definitely the way to go. Wait another 20 years and we'll all be establishment :^)

  4. Re:Bits were never made out of wood by msauve · · Score: 4, Funny

    You've never heard of a "wood bit?"

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  5. This is *vitally* important by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People have to understand the history of technology, otherwise they forget what it took to get here, or worse, they attribute every single invention to NASA or space. Nothing irks me more than people who are willing to forget entire generations of researchers, scientists and general tinkerers just so they can continue to believe in their space mythology.

    1. Re:This is *vitally* important by turkeyfeathers · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nonsense. Every single invention in computing came from Apple.

  6. Core Memory by djl4570 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's easy to forget that early computers used expensive labor intensive ferrite core memory. Core memory had to be assembled by skilled technicians who threaded each core on a matrix of wires. I once heard that four kilobytes of twelve bit memory cost over thirty thousand dollars back in the early sixties when silver was still the coin of the realm. These old relics were also power hungry. Sac State once had an RCA 301 that was stashed in the Non Destructive Testing lab (The building was adjacent to the river levy and immediately south of the Guy West footbridge and at the time used for storage.) We counted nearly a farad of capacitance in the power supply modules. I wonder what became of the core module from that machine. We used it as a display piece during a couple of open houses.

  7. Others call it "boxes of junk in your work room" by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Funny

    I call it, "Computer History Museum!"

    Every geek has one of these museums at home: cables with biomorph connectors, interfaces to nowhere, Ninja Star shaped floppy disks, 1K ICs, a smokey fan . . .

    You just can't part with this stuff . . . you WILL find a use for it someday . . .

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  8. I need a museum museum by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

    I went to The Computer Museum (Boston) before The Computer History Museum was ever opened. I hadn't realized The Computer Museum was closed until this article and I looked it up. Like the Boston Museum (the official owners of The Computer Museum after the merge), my local museum has some computer stuff on display, but an Atari 2600 and other garage sale level equipment on display in good condition isn't the same as a room-sized CPU, annotated and with lights.

    --
    Learn to love Alaska
  9. Re:Bits were never made out of wood by NixieBunny · · Score: 3, Informative

    True, but for 25 years they were made out of ferrite donuts.

    --
    The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
  10. Highlights of my visit by safetyinnumbers · · Score: 2

    Sitting on a Cray, and seeing the Utah teapot.

  11. Meanwhile In Europe by Ganty · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For those of us on the other side of the pond there is a reasonably good computer history museum at Bletchley Park. The computer section at the Science Museum in London is also well worth a visit providing you remember that the Pilot Ace is on the ground floor.

    Ganty

    1. Re:Meanwhile In Europe by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 2

      The Channels seems to be wider than the Atlantic...

      I remember once visiting my Grandparents' home near Dover and noticing they could see France out their kitchen window. I was stunned to learn that while they had visited us in Canada, they'd never been to France. Not once. When I asked why, their reply was simple: "Because it's full of French people, dear."

  12. Dumbed down musums by Animats · · Score: 2

    Classic science and engineering museums have been dumbed down. The Smithsonian used to be hard core, back when they were in the Arts and Industries building. The assumption was that visitors knew something about the subject and were there to see the historic original. The Henry Ford Museum used to be hard-core. ("Capacitor, Cornell-Dublier, 1932"), but they added more "explanatory" exhibits.

    The South Kensington Science Museum (now the "London Science Museum") has gone soft, too. I saw it in 1985 and 2002, and it felt dumber in 2002. They still have Maudsley's lathe (the first really good machine tool) on display. But the collection of James Bond cars from movies was getting the attention.

    1. Re:Dumbed down musums by Osgeld · · Score: 2

      " I saw it in 1985 and 2002, and it felt dumber in 2002. "

      chances are, you were dumber in 1985 and the "musums" have stayed the same.

  13. Good to see more attention by linebackn · · Score: 2

    It's great to see computer history getting some more attention. Many people like to turn up their nose at anything "old", but there is much that can be learned from computing history. There was much innovation and not all ideas were fully explored.

    And the mistakes of history are repeating themselves. Anyone who thinks touch screens are new should look up the 1983 HP 150 touch screen computer.