Core planes was: [ebay: Antique] - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

20 Nov 1998

Fact is, I have seen facilities (by photograph though) in Japan where IBM
manufactured
core planes, by hand.  The pictures probably came from the early '60s but,
they clearly
show ladies sitting at circuit board mounting tables, large magnifying
glasses with
integral florescent lamps, and core plane frames mounted in circuit board
holders for
easy working.  I am sure that machines were constructed but, I am also sure
that some
of the earlier work was done by hand.

William R. Buckley

-----Original Message-----
From: Kip Crosby &lt;kip(a)nanospace.com&gt;
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
&lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt;
Date: Friday, November 20, 1998 8:24 AM
Subject: Core planes was: [ebay: Antique]

...
 At 09:35 11/20/98 -0500, Chuck wrote:
 One of the myth's they always told us was they
all had to be
made by hand - there wasn't a machine that could thread the
row/column and sense wires for mass production. Is there any
rumor to this truth? 
yeahright.  In _IBM's Early Computers_ by Bashe et al., you will find
elaborate description of machinery developed to automate the production of
core planes, complete [IIRC] with pictures.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby                 engine(a)chac.org
      http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California