4 Apr
2007
4 Apr
'07
3:59 p.m.
I have in my possession a PDP-6 module purchased by
myself at the BCM museum store in 1989. It may have
come from spares rather than being stripped from a
machine in the collection, but it was a very large
double-height, double-width system module of the type
that I believe was only used on the PDP-6, and it was
described as a PDP-6 board when I bought it.
I do not dispute TCM selling modules and things. What I dispute is
where they came from.
I have worked with enough technical museums to know that there is a
constant stream of parts and things coming thru the front door.
Engineers, radiomen, soldiers, sailors, whomever (or more likely these
days, the widows or children of these) will find a bunch of things
during a cleanup of the basement or closet, and send them to the
museums as-is. After the museums pick out the good things and add them
to the collections, the piles are generally sold or traded off, often
in garage sale or gift store settings.
It seems very likely to me that TCM often received boxes of boards and
things from DEC engineers, or DEC scrap as has been mentioned, and
these were the items that were sold.
--
Will