29 Mar
2007
29 Mar
'07
6:03 p.m.
I hope you don't mind me asking as this is not a tech quiestion per
se, but if anyone in the world will know the answer it will be this
group.
I'm looking for a book that I rented from a library in 1973 or 1974
on computers. In the back of the book it has plans for building a
computer out of basic components, including a telephone dial for
input. The output is shown on lights and I remember there being more
than a few bulbs. The "computer" probably does nothing more than add
numbers. I use the book to research and write my 8th grade science
paper and then I tried to build the computer for my 8th grade project
but could not complete it at the time. Now that I'm older and wiser I
figured I'd try again.... (mid life crisis?)
I don't remember any ICs. It was pretty simple electrical components.
Anyone know the title or author of this book?
Thanks.
Paul
30 Mar
30 Mar
4:41 a.m.
It's certainly on topic here!
Hmmm... I do (vaguely) remember seeing a construction project that used a
telephone dial for input. It's been soo many years that the details escape
me but, I'm sure it the same project that you're referring to.
I hope you can find the docs. I'd like to see one built.... Hehehe... It's
so funny to think the mechanical telephone dial might be the most difficult
component to find. I haven't seen one in years.
See ya, SteveRob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Heller" <paul0926 at comcast.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 8:03 PM
Subject: On topic? Looking for old computer book
I hope you don't mind me asking as this is not a
tech quiestion per
se, but if anyone in the world will know the answer it will be this
group.
I'm looking for a book that I rented from a library in 1973 or 1974
on computers. In the back of the book it has plans for building a
computer out of basic components, including a telephone dial for
input. The output is shown on lights and I remember there being more
than a few bulbs. The "computer" probably does nothing more than add
numbers. I use the book to research and write my 8th grade science
paper and then I tried to build the computer for my 8th grade project
but could not complete it at the time. Now that I'm older and wiser I
figured I'd try again.... (mid life crisis?)
I don't remember any ICs. It was pretty simple electrical components.
Anyone know the title or author of this book?
Thanks.
Paul
10:28 a.m.
On 30 Mar 2007 at 6:41, Steve Robertson wrote:
I hope you can find the docs. I'd like to see one
built.... Hehehe... It's
so funny to think the mechanical telephone dial might be the most difficult
component to find. I haven't seen one in years.
Now, you're rubbing it in! The phones in my shop and the garage are
Western Electric dial models. The shop phone is a traditional wall
model and the garage one's a trimline. Colors are 70's burnt orage
and dark red. Both are modular units--and the CO out here still
understands pulse dialing. Never had a lick of trouble with either
of them.
Cheers,
Chuck
11:01 a.m.
On 30 Mar 2007 at 6:41, Steve Robertson wrote:
I hope you can find the docs. I'd like to see one built.... Hehehe... It's
so funny to think the mechanical telephone dial might be the most difficult
component to find. I haven't seen one in years.
How about $5.50 a piece, NIB? :-)
http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/m1511.html
Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us
Old Technology http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/
2:11 p.m.
On 30 Mar 2007 at 15:06, der Mouse wrote:
How about the digital phone setups? Qwest and Comcast keeps flogging
them, but it's not clear what sort of interface they have on the
subscriber end.
Cheers,
Chuck
--and the CO
out here still understands pulse dialing.
Are there COs that don't? I thought *everyone* understood pulse. 
2:50 p.m.
On Friday 30 March 2007 17:11, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 30 Mar 2007 at 15:06, der Mouse wrote:
How about the digital phone setups? Qwest and Comcast keeps flogging
them, but it's not clear what sort of interface they have on the
subscriber end.
It's a normal POTS interface. It's possible that it won't do
pulse-dialing, though.
Pat
--
Purdue University Research Computing --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
--and the
CO out here still understands pulse dialing.
Are there COs that don't? I thought *everyone* understood pulse. 
4:35 p.m.
it's -kind- of a normal POTS interface, it is part of a cable-modem (at least
the one we got when we got digital voice) and in a power outage... you're stewed
after a couple hours , we had the cable modem with the telephone jack on it
plugged in to a UPS that gave it a couple hours runtime beyond what it's
internal battery gave during the big windstorms that hit washington a few months
ago, and we had telephone up until the local cable POP battery backups went flat.
and no, they don't do pulse dialing.
Quoting Patrick Finnegan <pat at computer-refuge.org>:
On Friday 30 March 2007 17:11, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 30 Mar 2007 at 15:06, der Mouse wrote:
How about the digital phone setups? Qwest and Comcast keeps flogging
them, but it's not clear what sort of interface they have on the
subscriber end.
It's a normal POTS interface. It's possible that it won't do
pulse-dialing, though.
Pat
--
Purdue University Research Computing --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
--and the
CO out here still understands pulse dialing.
Are there COs that don't? I thought *everyone* understood pulse. 
31 Mar
31 Mar
3:36 p.m.
--and the CO out here still understands pulse dialing.
Are there COs that don't? I thought *everyone* understood pulse. 
1 Apr
1 Apr
8 a.m.
And thusly were the wise words spake by Chuck Guzis
On 30 Mar 2007 at 15:06, der Mouse wrote:
How about the digital phone setups? Qwest and Comcast keeps flogging
them, but it's not clear what sort of interface they have on the
subscriber end.
I use Vonage and pulse dialing works with it, but the touch tones
generated by a Commodore model 1670 1200 baud modem do not.
Cheers,
Bryan
--and the
CO out here still understands pulse dialing.
Are there COs that don't? I thought *everyone* understood pulse. 
30 Mar
30 Mar
7:17 p.m.
--and the CO
out here still understands pulse dialing.
Are there COs that don't? I thought
*everyone* understood pulse.
6:21 a.m.
On Thu, 29 Mar 2007, Paul Heller wrote:
I'm looking for a book that I rented from a
library in 1973 or 1974 on
computers. In the back of the book it has plans for building a computer out
of basic components, including a telephone dial for input. The output is
shown on lights and I remember there being more than a few bulbs. The
"computer" probably does nothing more than add numbers. I use the book to
research and write my 8th grade science paper and then I tried to build the
computer for my 8th grade project but could not complete it at the time. Now
that I'm older and wiser I figured I'd try again.... (mid life crisis?)
Take a look at item #270101277189 on Ebay, in the completed section.
Is that it?
Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us
Old Technology http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/
7:24 a.m.
New subject: Looking for old computer book
Paul wrote....
> In the back of the book it has plans for building
a computer out of basic
> components, including a telephone dial for input.
To which Mike replied...
Take a look at item #270101277189 on Ebay, in the
completed section. Is
that it?
It may well be the one that Paul saw and was asking about. But just as
another datapoint, I too remember as a kid seeing a design for a computer
that used a telephone dial for input and it was not the same one as pictured
in the ebay article that Mike pointed out.
The one I saw was more "horizontal" in appearance with the dial on top,
whereas the one on the ebay auction is more "vertical" and has the dial on
the front. I also remember that the one I had seen definitely had a lot more
components.
An off-topic side-note:
I can not recall what media I saw this in. It could have been a
radio-electronics magazine, an old book from the local library (as a kid I
spent several hours every day in the library soaking up books on various
interests), or it may have been in the worldbook (I think that was the name)
encyclopedias. I had a set of regular encyclopedias that also had science
projects for many major subjects. These werent usually trivial experients,
they were things that would be suitable for presenting in a school science
fair for judging. I distinctly remember two of the projects. One was on the
working of the heart. It was a board that tilted front to back on a
triangular wedge. Routed into the board was a logical diagram of the human
heart. The valves were one way metal flaps that opened by rotating on a thin
metal shaft or wire. The blood was a set of marbles. When you tilted the
board to the back, the marbles rolled through the valves in one direction,
then when you tilted it back the other way the flaps only let the marbles go
into the correct chambers. There was also a project showing air pressure...
it was basically two sealed mason jars, each half full of water. There was a
common pipe between them, then each one had a separate pipe just going out
the top not connected to anything. One of the open pipes you put a balloon
on. When you moved one jar higher than the other the balloon would inflate.
Anyways, I wonder if the telephone dial computer project I saw was in the
same encyclopedia set.
Jay
8:17 a.m.
New subject: Looking for old computer book
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 8:24 AM
Subject: Re: Looking for old computer book
It may well be the one that Paul saw and was asking
about. But just as
another datapoint, I too remember as a kid seeing a design for a computer
that used a telephone dial for input and it was not the same one as
pictured in the ebay article that Mike pointed out.
The one I saw was more "horizontal" in appearance with the dial on top,
whereas the one on the ebay auction is more "vertical" and has the dial on
the front. I also remember that the one I had seen definitely had a lot
more components.
I think this is the one I remember seeing when I was in grade school in 1960
or 1961. It used a phone dial and relays. As I remember, the article was
in a magazine, but I cannot remember which magazine. It would have been one
of the electronic magazines of the era. Was Popular Electronics published
at this time?
Martin Marshall
9:38 a.m.
New subject: Looking for old computer book
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Marshall" <martinm at allwest.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 9:17 AM
Subject: Re: Looking for old computer book
I think this is the one I remember seeing when I was in grade school in
1960 or 1961. It used a phone dial and relays. As I remember, the
article was in a magazine, but I cannot remember which magazine. It would
have been one of the electronic magazines of the era. Was Popular
Electronics published at this time?
Martin Marshall
Bad form to reply to my own posting, but I found this link:
http://www.ece.rice.edu/~jdw/images/ei0160.html
The site has an article from January 1960 Radio Electronics on building a
computer that uses a phone dial, but this one uses transistors, so it is not
the one that I remember.
Martin Marshall
12:43 p.m.
New subject: Looking for old computer book
On Mar 30, 2007, at 8:24 AM, Jay West wrote:
It may well be the one that Paul saw and was asking
about. But just
as another datapoint, I too remember as a kid seeing a design for a
computer that used a telephone dial for input and it was not the
same one as pictured in the ebay article that Mike pointed out.
The one I saw was more "horizontal" in appearance with the dial on
top, whereas the one on the ebay auction is more "vertical" and has
the dial on the front. I also remember that the one I had seen
definitely had a lot more components
The magazine article is definitely not the one. It is too reliant on
the neon bulbs. It is amazing how much the bulbs have to be
conditioned for it to even work. The one I saw was in a book, not a
magazine, and it did not have neon lamps but regular lamps. I think
Jay is correct about it being more horizontal and having a lot of
components. I remember there what seemed a complex rotary switch,
probably something you cannot even get today but my local electronics
shop was able to order it at the time.
My biggest problem back then was I could not find a telephone dial.
The telephones were the property of the phone company and were only
rented so you could not take one apart. Now I can find a rotary phone
in a flea market for $1.00.
9:54 a.m.
On Mar 30, 2007, at 9:21 AM, Mike Loewen wrote:
Oh My. I must build that.
I don't suppose anyone has found a copy of that article?
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
I'm
looking for a book that I rented from a library in 1973 or
1974 on computers. In the back of the book it has plans for
building a computer out of basic components, including a telephone
dial for input. The output is shown on lights and I remember there
being more than a few bulbs. The "computer" probably does nothing
more than add numbers. I use the book to research and write my 8th
grade science paper and then I tried to build the computer for my
8th grade project but could not complete it at the time. Now that
I'm older and wiser I figured I'd try again.... (mid life crisis?)
Take a look at item #270101277189 on Ebay, in the completed
section. Is that it? 
1:05 p.m.
On Thu, 29 Mar 2007, Paul Heller wrote:
I'm looking for a book that I rented from a
library in 1973 or 1974
on computers. In the back of the book it has plans for building a
computer out of basic components, including a telephone dial for
input. The output is shown on lights and I remember there being more
than a few bulbs. The "computer" probably does nothing more than add
In about 1963, there was a kit with plastic and cardboard pieces that had
a dial
6474
days inactive
6476
days old
17 comments
13 participants
participants (13)
-
bpope＠wordstock.com -
cclist＠sydex.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dave06a＠dunfield.com -
geoffr＠zipcon.net -
jwest＠classiccmp.org -
martinm＠allwest.net -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us -
mouse＠Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA -
pat＠computer-refuge.org -
paul0926＠comcast.net -
steerex＠mindspring.com