29 Jul
2010
29 Jul
'10
2:39 p.m.
From: Dave McGuire
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 2:12 PM
On 7/29/10 4:59 PM, Al Kossow wrote:
>> Do they advise the collector on how
>> best to preserve/conserve their objects but not object if the
>> collector does things that they wouldn't do?
> I think you are the first person to ever ask us
this.
> The issue would only come up if the objects were offered for donation or
> loan. If an object has been repainted or bleached, we'd have to have a
> pretty strong case presented for adding it to our permanent collection.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yebbut...how does that differ, realistically, from
repairs made to the
system during its service life?
It's going to be a judgment call.
Let's just say for the sake of argument that a
PDP-11/24 is an
extremely rare and very old system. Let's say I have one, I'm the
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
original owner, it was in production use until last
month. Over its
years of service, various repairs had been made, including "bleaching"
(though it was not my impression that the retr0brite process is
"bleaching") the front panel which had yellowed, and perhaps repainting
its rack that got scratched up. Does this somehow make it uninteresting
for the museum?
That would be your "pretty strong case", right there.
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Server Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98104
mailto:RichA at vulcan.com
mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org
http://www.PDPplanet.org/
http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/