I am surprised this has not made list news yet.
Claude Kagan had a terrible fire yesterday morning that completely
destroyed his barn. The barn was fairly well known to many East coast
collectors, as it was the home of the RESISTORS, a group of 1970s
teenage hackers, as well as being the home of his collection of
interesting technological items, including quite a few computers.
Claude is unharmed and in decent spirits, and his house is unharmed,
except for lack of electricity.
The barn held many interesting machines over the years. Every so often
Claude would let one go - sometimes to individuals, other times to
museums. At the time of the fire, he still had some AT&T 3B2s, a
Teletype 37, a Symbolics 3670, a more or less complete small town
Central Office complex, and most importantly, the legendary Burroughs
B205.
Claude and I had just started to clean up the barn three weeks ago,
and while I pulled out a good pile of very good documentation, much
was lost. It is likely that there is little or nothing that can be
saved.
I made an emergency side trip today to help out, as I was down in New
Jersey anyway. The destruction is total. The Burroughs is sticking out
of the rubble, gutted and stripped of paint. The Burroughs is dead.
--
Will
Show replies by date
I am surprised this has not made list news yet.
Claude Kagan had a terrible fire yesterday morning
I sent a similar email about 30 seconds ago!
I sent a similar email about 30 seconds ago!
You got scooped.
--
Will
William Donzelli wrote:
I pulled out a good pile of very good documentation
Were you able to save anything from the 205? The American Computer Museum
has a decent set with the machine they have in Boseman.
Were you able to save anything from the 205? The
American Computer Museum
has a decent set with the machine they have in Boseman.
No. I know where they were - in the telephone switch room. I refrained
from taking any Burroughs material until we had cut a
deal.
--
Will
It is great that he is ok, but a terrible thing about the loss of the computers and other
equipment stored in there.
Is the source of the fire known at this point?
Regards,
Andrew B
aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk
--- On Sat, 5/12/09, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote:
From: William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com>
Subject: Kagan barn destroyed
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
Date: Saturday, 5 December, 2009, 3:28
I am surprised this has not made list news yet.
Claude Kagan had a terrible fire yesterday morning that completely
destroyed his barn. The barn was fairly well known to many East coast
collectors, as it was the home of the RESISTORS, a group of 1970s
teenage hackers, as well as being the home of his collection of
interesting technological items, including quite a few computers.
Claude is unharmed and in decent spirits, and his house is unharmed,
except for lack of electricity.
The barn held many interesting machines over the years. Every so often
Claude would let one go - sometimes to individuals, other times to
museums. At the time of the fire, he still had some AT&T 3B2s, a
Teletype 37, a Symbolics 3670, a more or less complete small town
Central Office complex, and most importantly, the legendary Burroughs
B205.
Claude and I had just started to clean up the barn three weeks ago,
and while I pulled out a good pile of very good documentation, much
was lost. It is likely that there is little or nothing that can be
saved.
I made an emergency side trip today to help out, as I was down in New
Jersey anyway. The destruction is total. The Burroughs is sticking out
of the rubble, gutted and stripped of paint. The Burroughs is dead.
--
Will
It is great that he is ok, but a terrible thing about
the loss of the computers and other equipment stored in there.
The documentation is probably the prime loss. I had just started to
scratch the surface.
Is the source of the fire known at this point?
No.
--
Will
Is the source
of the fire known at this point?
No.
Quote from another group: B-205.
------------
They think it was electrical. Claude once told me he had the only
home in N.J. that had 3 phase power going to it. :) During the middle
of winter, with the B-205 going, they would have to open windows to let
the heat out!
------------