[cctalk] Ramac : The real first disk drive? (Was: Floppy disk (fwd)

Didn't show up on the list, so re-sending it: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:14:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Cisin <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> Subject: [cctalk] Ramac : The real first disk drive? (Was: Floppy disk The first known and recognized disk drive of ANY type (hard disk preceded floppy) was the Ramac, 70 years ago, 1956 https://www.computerhistory.org/storageengine/first-commercial-hard-disk-dr… First one shipped was to Crown-Zellerbach Paper Company CHM says June; EDN and Google AI (Gemini) say September 13, 1956 https://www.edn.com/ibm-intros-1st-computer-disk-storage-unit-september-13-… But, Gemini seems to also hallucinate RAMAC as being a company! "At the 1958 Worlds Fair, RAMAC showcased its revolutionary random-access capabilities by answering world history questions in 10 different languages." (There was no Ramac Company exhibiting at the 1958 Worlds Fair) Ramac had fifty 2 foot diameter double sided platters, and could hold a total of about 5MB. Modern drives can have even higher density! I have a crashed Ramac platter, that I have made into a patio table, with the platter under glass. In 1959, Nikita Khrushchev visited USA for 12 days, to try to calm the cold war a bit. On September 19, 1959, he tried to visit Disneyland, State Department and Disneyland consulted with each other, and they would not let him go to disneyland! Khrushchev was angry about that: "What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken over the place that can destroy me?" Frank Sinatra hosted a massive celebrity lunch for him at 20th Century Fox Studios, attended by Marilyn Monroe, Shirley MacLaine, Gary Cooper, etc. When Nina Khrushchev expressed her disappointment about Disneyland, Sinatra said to David Niven, "Hmm, tell the old broad that WE will sneak them in". Apparently that visit didn't happen, or was very sneaky. I remember a New Yorker cartoon that showed a soviet sub surfacing off-shore to sneak him in. Y'know, if they hadn't banned them from Disneyland, the entire Cuban missile crisis would have been a lot less hostile! To make up for not letting him go to Disneyland, the State Department, on September 21, 1959, took him to San Jose, to tour IBM's facility, and see Ramac. S'posedly, Khrushchev was more impressed by the operation and efficiency of the company self service cafeteria, than by Ramac. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com