28 May
2010
28 May
'10
2:59 a.m.
Waiting for people to volunteer will not get you the
right people at the
right time.
But how do you find them?
If you have a system that needs fixing then find
somebody who
has experience and will help. Don't waste their time with travel to BP or
anywhere else.
Can't do that with Germanium giants like mine, anyway the volunteer would need 700
square feet to install it and then wire wrap tens of thousands of connections to get back
to where it was when it left its home.
Get it in a vehicle and deliver it and collect it when
done.
And another three months to reassemble it.
The two major issues most restorers have are space and transport.
Agreed.
They would
save more systems if they had the right transport and space to work. So if
you want to be a working computer museum get yourself a big van and some
hefty volunteers. Then make friends with known restorers. Horse trade parts
they may need for their work on your systems. Don't be afraid to exchange
items in storage for something a collector ahs and you would add to your
display. The old 'the donor wouldn't like it' excuse is nonsense.
Well if I do eventually donate my mainframe it will be on the proviso that it remains my
property until I die so that they cannot do that even if the machine is in storage in the
hanger in Dorset. If I didn't mind it being messed with I could sell it for a lot of
money myself.
Spare parts I donate with the machine are a slightly different matter, provided they are
swapping for things to be used on my machine.
I am still amazed at the price of punched cards on eBay. I've got enough we make notes
on them and that horrifies some people, but I bought 110,000 of the for 11 pounds back in
the late '70s, though I did break the suspension on my father's Daimler
transporting them.
Roger Holmes
ICT 1301 5 ton / 13kVA mainframe from 1962