16 Nov
1997
16 Nov
'97
11:57 a.m.
On Sun, 16 Nov 1997 08:40:43 -0800, Mr. Willing made the following
comments:
And so, the dilemma... do I open the disks and crank
this critter up?
Or just pack it all away as another classic 'artifact'? (or leave it
until I have a fair amount of time to spend with it)
Pack it away, sealed up, and find another 3B1 to work on.
I know a chap "down under" who has a LINC-8 in its original ply-
wood crate stashed in a storage locker. The thing has not seen the
light of day since it came off the line in 1968. It is one of 142
ever built.
What do we do with that example? Leave it packed away? Fire it
up for the edification of the locals (worldwide)? This is a knotty
question, and one that harks somewhat to the same question asked by
those who restore, and fly, antique aircraft. If we fly it, there's
always the possibility that we might have a failure and the example
(artifact) may be destroyed - if we don't, we're ignoring the essential
beauty and function of the design.
I, offhand, am tempted to say "park the craft" and find another one
that's a bit more beat up. Restore that one, and drive it to your
heart's content. But save the "factory original" one - like an old
Tucker.
______________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin) | West Boylston |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast | Massachusetts, USA |
| mailto:carl.friend@stoneweb.com | |
| http://www.ultranet.com/~engelbrt/carl/museum | ICBM: N42:22 W71:47 |
|________________________________________________|_____________________|
16 Nov
16 Nov
2:15 p.m.
At 05:57 PM 11/16/97 -0500, Carl R. Friend wrote:
I know a chap "down under" who has a
LINC-8 in its original ply-
wood crate stashed in a storage locker. The thing has not seen the
light of day since it came off the line in 1968. It is one of 142
ever built.
OK, that'll probably be Max Burnet who up until recently worked for
Digital. I've actually seen this particular system (in its crate). The
story as I remember it was that it was shipped to CSR? in New Zealand (the
government research organization) but never even unpacked. Max found out
about it several years ago and had it shipped back to Australia. He
installed a Plexiglass window and some lights into the crate for viewing.
What do we do with that example? Leave it packed
away? Fire it
up for the edification of the locals (worldwide)?
I think fire it up would be rather literal, ie it'd probably catch fire. To
get it to run would require a complete refurbishment. I'm fairly sure that
Max plans to keep it in the crate and restore a different system.
I've cc'd this to Max using the last e-mail address I had for him. Perhaps
we can get him to subscribe as he's probably the most informed old DEC
restorer/historian in Australia...
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
La Trobe University | "My Alfas keep me poor in a monetary
Melbourne Australia 3083 | sense, but rich in so many other ways"
4:47 p.m.
What do we do with that example? Leave it packed
away? Fire it
up for the edification of the locals (worldwide)? This is a knotty
question, and one that harks somewhat to the same question asked by
those who restore, and fly, antique aircraft. If we fly it, there's
always the possibility that we might have a failure and the example
(artifact) may be destroyed - if we don't, we're ignoring the essential
beauty and function of the design.
There has been a holy war about this in the warbird (antique military
aircraft) field since day one. Of course, for computers the threat of
disaster is much less, with the exception of disk drives.
In any case...
For those that take historic technology seriously, several rules stand out
amongst all others. One is that the care and condition of the
artifacts comes first in any decision. This means that artifacts should
never be placed in a position where they can be damaged. Storage is the
main concern for this point - in the case of the LINC-8 in question,
leaving it sealed in the crate leaves too many variables as unknowns.
Perhaps something is living in the crate, maybe moisture is leaking in,
or some plastic wrap is decaying the paint. Standard museum practice
for something of this size and importance would be to open the crate and
remove the computer. The crate, of course, would be saved (or at least
documented). Packaging is often not made for long term storage, and can
often hurt the contents within.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
9750
days inactive
9750
days old
2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
-
carl.friend＠stoneweb.com -
H.Davies＠latrobe.edu.au -
william＠ans.net