I have at long last sold one of my two ICT 1301 computers, built in
1962.
I will soon want to supply the purchaser with original manuals,
technical drawings, software listings, tapes, punched cards etc, some
of which are now unique.
Before doing this I would like to put these into modern machine
readable form so they can be published on the web.
I am interested in how I can go about this for each of the different
types of information, which varies from hand written coding sheets
(which include the comments which were never punched onto the cards)
through 80 column cards in BCD code extended in a non IBM way (not
EBDIC), to drawings about A1 size (US 'D' size or 22" by 34" approx)
which are too big to scan and stitch together and too frail for a drum
scanner.
The punched cards include columns representing all the number 0 to 15
plus 1/4, 1/2, 3/4. I even have some 160 column cards, same as 80
column cards but with two round hole positions in each normal
rectangular hole position. I can read the 80 column cards but not the
160 column ones.
Though I have been aware of, and used Bitsavers for some time, I
thought their aim was mainly archiving the microprocessor era until I
deleted the tail of URL of a page and looked at the home page with a
description of the project. It seems that the information I have is
part of exactly what they are seeking to archive.
I estimate I have 300-400 drawings, 90,000 punched cards, 50 manuals,
3000 coding sheets and 1000 sheets specifying source, destination and
route of every signal in the computer. There are also 300 off 1/2 inch
magnetic tapes but these are 10 track (Ampex TM4) tapes and I think
only my 1301 will be able to read them.
I am in the south eastern corner of England if that makes a difference.
Your thoughts on how to do this in an efficient manner, what formats
to use, sources of help and equipment to do the job and anything else
you would like to throw in.