15 Dec
1998
15 Dec
'98
4:50 p.m.
On Tue, 15 Dec 1998, dave dameron wrote:
I was looked through some older magazines and found
another computer kit
from about 1959, 1960, a full page ad for the "geniac". It has 6 dials, each
with 16 sets of radial holes. It's cost was US$19.95 and made in Mass. My
guess is it was electro-mechanical, but could not tell any more from the ad.
The ad said it could play "Nim", but that doesn't seem to be that unusual.
Has anyone seen one or knows what it did?
Geez, Dave, you're stealing all of my thunder. Can't you wait until I
open up my museum of personal computing? :-)
The GENIAC was designed by Edmund Berkeley in 1955 and sold by his buddy
Oliver Garfield until the late 50's. Thomas Haddock calls the GENIAC the
first pc. He was close, but wrong.
A nice guy by the name of Tom Boyko has a GENIAC (please, dealers, don't
bug him about selling it):
Here are some pics of the manual:
http://www.Tom.Boyko.com/comp.htm
And here's an excellent Usenet account of how the GENIAC works:
http://www.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=213505518
-- Doug