Subject: Radio Shack/Science Fair bonus

From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Apr 22 14:04:00 2003

I recently won an auction described as a "Science Fair Junior
Electronic Lab 10 in 1"... the picture showed a couple of
blue grid boards which were, AFAIK, not part of a 10-in-1

It turns out that in addition to the 10-in-1, there was
an entire (and a partial) "Science Fair Junior Project
Board Kit" (cat no. 28-153) - one manual, two plug boards, 
one IC board (14-pin socket + 14 springs) plus a double
handful of mixed loose components.

The components are somewhat interesting from a historical
perspective - there are several flavors of transistor sockets,
several segmented LED displays (some on PCBs as from an LED
calculator, some in DIP form), mercury switches, reed switches,
and a bag of resistors with a "King Kits" card from Poly Paks.

I'm curious if there's a repository of ancient Radio Shack kit
manuals out there - I did not get a manual for the 10-in-1
(cat no. 28-225), but at least I got its box (covered in packing
tape, grrr.)

-ethan
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo
http://search.yahoo.com

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From: Gary and the Samoyeds <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Apr 23 23:57:00 2003

Would a scan be adequate?  I have a 28-225 and could (in time) send you images.  Of course, if you are collecting, that won't help.

-- 
Sic semper tyrannus  

Send eMail to ----> [email-masked].  For contact info, see:  
        http://home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/contact.htm

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From: The Design Fort DTP <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Apr 24 08:40:01 2003

I recently acquired the awesome book "How to build a working digital
computer" by Alcosser, Phillips and Wolk. Within the next year (as time
allows) I want to (re)construct this computer.

I know this book was discussed on here before. Maybe there are other people
out there now who are in the process of building it or built it before. I
would like to get in touch with anybody who has experience building it.

The only website I found on so far that shows a built "Paperclip computer"
is this one:
http://www.apparent-wind.com/mbr/emmerack.html

If anybody knows any other pictures of a built "Paperclip computer" on the
net, please let me know.

Greetings
Herbert
Computer Museum of Nova Scotia

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From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Apr 24 10:45:00 2003

--- Gary and the Samoyeds <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Would a scan be adequate?  I have a 28-225 and could (in time) send you
> images.  Of course, if you are collecting, that won't help.

That would be fine.  Don't send the scans to the list (they'll be
filtered out, anyway).  Put them up on a website and make an announcement.

Thanks,

-ethan

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From: Bryan Blackburn <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Apr 24 14:07:00 2003

I want to know where you are getting this stuff!! (So I can try to get 
there before you next time!)

-Bryan

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From: "pmulry" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Apr 24 21:21:01 2003

Is there a downloadable copy available of this book . Sounds interesting!
I'm sure i won't be the only person interested.

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From: Vintage Computer Festival <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Apr 24 22:02:00 2003

> allows) I want to (re)construct this computer.

I believe I have a copy as well.

> http://www.apparent-wind.com/mbr/emmerack.html

Simply incredible!  What a terrific site.  I wish there was more
information though.

> If anybody knows any other pictures of a built "Paperclip computer" on the

Go here:

http://www.blinkenlights.com/pc.shtml

...and scroll down to see a commercial version of the Paperclip Computer.

-- 

Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger                http://www.vintage.org

 * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

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From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Apr 24 23:55:01 2003

> ...and scroll down to see a commercial version of the Paperclip Computer.

I have an original brochure for one of those.  Any idea how much
the actual computer would go for these days?  Has anyone here _seen_
a real one?

-ethan

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From: Vintage Computer Festival <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Apr 25 02:49:00 2003

On Thu, 24 Apr 2003, Ethan Dicks wrote:

> the actual computer would go for these days?

On eBay or otherwise? ;)

>  Has anyone here _seen_ a real one?

No, but the one pictured is from the manual of an actual unit that Doug
Salot bought from a company that went out of business a few years ago and
was still selling them up to that point as educational tools for teaching
computer principles.

I assume Doug still has it.

--

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From: The Design Fort DTP <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon Apr 28 08:05:00 2003

Hi Bryan,

well, that's no secret, I found it on ebay... :) It was "buried" somewhere
in the "wrong" category.

Herbert

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From: The Design Fort DTP <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon Apr 28 14:27:01 2003

While surfing I came across this website:

http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/lorenz/rebuild.htm

Many of you might already know about this site, but it was new for me.
Those guys rebuilt the Colossus! Cool!

Herbert

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From: Hans B Pufal <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Apr 30 00:48:55 2003

> Those guys rebuilt the Colossus! Cool!

Well here are some more links in the same vien:

http://www.computer50.org/mark1/index.html  which links to pages about 
the rebuild of the Manchester Mark I

http://www.jharper.demon.co.uk/bombe1.htm  the page about the ongoing 
project to rebuild the bombes, code breaking machines at Bletchley Park
where the Colossus was built and rebuilt.

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ : the official Bletchley Park web site

   -- hbp