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XX-69251-4A

May 1972

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Document:	Memos Regarding Start of DEC Musuem 1972-1975
Order Number:	XX-69251-4A
Revision:	0
Pages:	157
Original Filename:	Memos%20Regarding%20Start%20of%20DEC%20Musuem%201972-1975.pdf

OCR Text

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I N T ·E F~ 0 F.FIC.E·" ·MEMORA.NDU f\/1
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DATE:

DEC Mu s eum :·

May 15, 1 97 2 :--

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DEPARTMENT:

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INTEROFFICE
TO:

SUB]:

Roy Gould

MEMO
DATE:

May 18, 1972

FROM:

Peggy Dunn

MATERIAL FOR THE MUSEUM

f('o.~~
I have several boxes of things that we might want
to keep in the museum when we get it. There are
"Some old modules, circuits and other doo-dads that
milght be of historical interest. I have them packed
in boxes and they are stored on 11-3 in the Personnel
Storeroom.
I a Iso have qu i te a few plaques and pic tures that we
might want to use.t
This is just for your information and for the record so
that when we get a place for the museum we wi II
remember to send them to you.

DEC 5- 654 -1055-R571

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MEMORANDUM

INTE ROFF I C 'E

' DEPT:

COMPUTER MUSEUM

SUBJ:

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On May 17, 1972, Rod Mooney called asking for some help in plannin~
for the Computer Museum '. ', I am not exactly sure what youhavei~mind
but ' l provided himwit'h the ,following suggestions 'f or 'consideration. I
also gave him the power requirements for ' each~ and the physical size '
of each.
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DISPLAY ONLY-NOT WORI\ING

PDP~1/30J .. , :

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PDP-8/IV /
PDP-8/L V
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. any of today's machines. Your corrmientS would' beappr'ec iated . ':--~ ,

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., Searle Medi.3t~, Inc.

/ 1 4 @J Fourth Avenue. Waltham. Massachusetts 02154

A SUBSI II> IARY O F G.Ii) .

ISEAR
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TELEX - MEDIDATA

Tel . (617)890-694D

September 21, 1972
Mr. Robert Lane
Traditional Products Dept.
, Digital Equipment Corp.
Main St.
Maynard, Mass.
Dear Bob :
As y
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u n a.y -h-a¥
eard, we have been considering the question of
what to do It. our CASINO ' 1nputer. The machine is nearing the end of
its us eful life.
a e ecently purchased a General Radio 1792 to supply
the board testing function no w being carried out on CASINO. I anticipate
that within six to nine months we will have no further use for CASINO.
I would like to know wh ether Digital Equipm ent has any interest in
the p a rts and components contained within the machine or whe~her you know
of any other organization which might be interest ed. w.e are prepared to
entertain any reasonable offer for disposition of the parts or of the machine
as a whole.
The machine contains primarily 1000, 4000 and 6000 series systems
units . 1',IT:?ny of ~!;.~ 5 020 ::::. ~ ~cs Gl1itb 11,,-ve ;,9cn modiHed or had sel ected
transistors placed in them. In gen e ral, the modifications are minor. The
units are, of course, largely in working order although unused portions of
the uJ:1its may have failed during the life of the machine without our noticing
the failures. Most of the equipment racks are of the taper pin variety.
However, in addition, there ar e perhaps t wenty racks of the banana plug type.
The relay racks are not standard DEC hard ware; they were purchased from
EMCOR.
In addition to the systems units and racks, the machine contains a
couple of major components of DEC manufacture. One of these is a type 30
scope which may h ave been modifie d but probably not drastically. A second
item is th e basic 4K memory . This memory cons ists of two PDP-1 memories
placed on tope of one another to provide 38 -bit w ord s . The stacks and
driv e r s could conc eivabl y be quite useful to yo u. Th e entire stacked up
memory array was manufactured by Digital Equipm·ent in 1960. The bulk of
the mem ory in th e machine is a 16 K Fabri-tek memory of 40-bit word length.
I am pr e suming that thi s m emory will be of no inter es t to DEC.
In addition to these it e ms, the r e are several other peripherals which
mayor may not be of interest. Th e s e include thre e Potter tap e transports,
one of which has Pott er e l ectronic s . Th e other t w o of these units contain
SMI constructed r ead a nd write el ectronics . We have a couple of used but
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A SUBSU)IARY OF G.o./ SEARLE I& CO.

Ltr. :

Lane/Rawson

9/21/72

Page 2

still useful Friden Flexowriters, some paper tape equipment which I am sure
is not of interest to DEC, and a Cal-Comp plotter. I would like to retain the
latter except that I cannot for the life of me see how we will manage to use
the thing without a big software program which I cannot afford.
If all of this sounds at all interesting to you, perhaps the best way to
consider it would be to come and take a personal look at the hardware - seeing
it as parts instead of as a machine. I would certainly be interested in your
reactions to this suggestion.

Best regards,

~,
Edward B. Rawson
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EBR/ceg
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November 28, 1 972

Mr. Edward B. Rawson
SEARLE MEDIDATA, INC.
140 Fo urth Avenue
Waltham, Massachusetts

02 154

De ar Mr . Rawson :
Yo u r letter to Mr . Robert Lane has been re fe rred to me for
re p l y . Digital Equipmen t Corporation is p la n ning to bu i ld
a museum based on the histor y of t he minicomp uter a t our
new Parker Street facilit y in t he ve r y near future.
At t h e p resent time, we have not finalized our plans as to
what will be displayed i n t h is museum and how.
Bob has
mentioned to me p erh a ps some of t he equipment that y ou
mention in y our letter to him may be of interest to u s for
use i n this museum, however, being that we are in such earl y
p lan n i ng stages, I cannot make th a t decision y et. The refore,
when our plans do become more finalized, I would like to
communicate with y ou again regarding the feasibilit y of
us i ng some of the equip ment y ou mentioned.
Thank y ou for y our kind o f fer and I will be in touch with
y ou again s oon r ega rding this .
Sincere l y ,

Roy G. Gould
Exhibits Manager
RGG/ja c

D I (~ IT AL

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(617)897 -5 111

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TUR.EENS,J.~:OLD MONEY, WHISKY.":;

BOOM.lN ·:COM'PANY MUSE·UMS
More and more corporations
are finding that
look backward can payoff-in prestige,
in public attention, and even
in sales and profits.

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American companies in growing num. bers are dipping into their treasuries
to help underwrite some specialized
glimpses of the past.
. They· are doing this by setting up
corporate museums, or by sponsoring
traveling exhibits linked to their principal line of business. For example• The Campbell Museum in Camden,
N.J., financed chiefly by the Campbell
Soup Company, attracts some 1,500 visitors a month to its permanent collection of soup tureens assembled from all
over the world. The collection of porcelain, silver and pewter tureens-many
valued in the thousands of dollars each
-is the only one of its kind in existence.
• Scheduled for a formal opening in
May at Niagara Falls, N. Y., is the
world's first museum devoted entirely to
·ceramics. Sponsored by the CarbOlundum Company, it will depict the his-:tory, technology and al:t of ceramics,
ranging from priceless Chinese Ming pottery and ancient Greek vases to linings
for the nozzles of today's rocket engines.
• The Village of South Ots~lic, N. Y.,
was caught up in a one-day celebration
last September when the Gladding Corporation, manufacturer of sporting goods,
opened an International Sport Fishing
Museum there. The village has been a
center of the fishing-line industry since
·1816, when pioneers from Rhode Island
found . the adjacent hills excellent for
growing fla:\:. The Gladding collection occupies a restored house that is itself a
museum piece-a 142-year old eightsided mansion.
• The Schwinn Bicycle Company in
Chicago has been assembling hundreds
of bicycles for eventual display in a
private museum, says Frank V. Schwinn,
president. The bicycle industry has been
enjoying such a boom, Mr. Schwinn adds,
that "we haven't had the time or the
space to get st@rted on a permanent
.
home for our collection."
Money to colfe~...aots. Other wellknown corporate naIneS show up on the
list of firms with their own museums or
. collections which are open to. the public.

48
t __

Chase Manhattan Bank in New York now by the Coming Glass Works Fotmhas a noted display of monies of the dation, an autonomous, .!1onpront educa-_
past and present. So does the National tional institution.
Bank of Detroit;
Firms provide funds. A few other
Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco well-known museums, now independentexhibits relics of its banking history go- ly operated, have a similar relationship
ing back to-gold rush days. In Balti- to the companies that established them.
more, the B&O Railroad maintliins an For instance, Eastman. Kodak COII!pany
elaborate museum of railroading.
contributed shares of its stock to a trust
The Winchester-Western division of fund to help provide support for the InOlin Corporation has a. gun museum in ternational M1:lseum of Photography at
New Haven. Taylor Wine Company George Eastm~n House. The museum,
shows early wine-making implements set up in co-operation with the Uniand glasses at its headquarters at Hammonds.port, N. Y.
Proctor &
Gamble,
through its subsidiary, the
Folger Coffee Company,
has an expensive collection
of antique English coffee
pots spanning the eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries.
Many nationally known
companies, such as International Harvester, Maytag,
General Motors, IBM,
Commonwealth
Edison
and United Air Lines,
maintain permanent exhibits which are centered
on their principal products
or services at the Chicago
Museum of Science and
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Industry.
Primitive money, too bulky to carry, is featured at
Through the ages. Perthe Chase Manhattan Bank's museum in New York.
haps the most widely
known of all museums devoted to a single type of
product "is the Coming ·Museum of Glass versity of ·Rochester, is a reposit()ry for
in Coming, N. Y. There, a full-tim~ staff materials related to the history of photogof 18 watches over a comprehensive col- raphy and to motion pictures. The Kodak
lection devoted to every aspect of glass Company has donated samples of cameras, projectors and related equipment,
from 1500B. C. to the p~esent.
Severe floods that accompanied Hur- and movie films of archival value.
ricane Agnes last June ruined some valuThe Hagley Museum in Wilmington,
able items and severely damaged many Del., devoted to the history of industry
others. "About 400. glass 'objects out of on the Brandywine River, was· set up
13,000 in our collection were broken," through an endowment by the Du Pont
says Dr. Robert Brill, the museum di- Company. It is I?art of the Eleutherian
rector. "We have a team of conselvators· Mills-Hagley Foundation which occupies
at work now, and we hope we can re- 185 acres along the Brandywine. The mustore all but perhaps 50 of the damaged seum occupies an 1814 textile mill. Nearpieces." Half of the museum's library of by are powuer mills operated l>Y Du
7,000 volumes was waterlogged. The Pont in the early 1800s. There is also a
soaked volumes were put in freezers to library of 80,000 volumes concentrating
forestall mildew. Gradually they are be- on American economic, industrial, busiing thawed out and dried.
ness and technological history.
While Coming Glass Works originalThe John Deere Foundation maintains
ly financed the museum, it is operated
(continued o~ page 50)
U. S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, March 5, 1973

,
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CORPORA TE MUSEUMS

chartered by the State of New Jersey as
a nonprofit educational institution. It
[continued from page 48]
moved into its own permanent building
in Camden in 1970.
Campbell re tain ed John ~L Graham
buildings at the site of a blacksmith
II, retired vice presi dent of Col on ial
shop at Grand Detour, Ill., where John
Williamsburg, as consultant and to hel p
Deere built a self-scouring steel plow in
it acquire what ~·Ius eum President Wil1837. The National Park Service has
liam C. Parker describes as "symbols of
design ated the site as a national historic
elegant dining" from 24 countries. The
landmark.
acquisition process is still on.
The Henry Ford Museum and GreenIncluded among th e nearly 200 showfield Village, at Dearborn, Mich., were
pieces listed in the Campbell ~Ius eum's
originally set up with Ford-family funds,
latest catalogue are a si lver soup ladle
but are now independent of Ford Motor
made by Paul Revere, porcelain tureens
Company support.
from France, fa·ience items from HolVariety of exhibits. There's almost
land, England, Ireland and Scotland.
unlimited diversity in the fields covered
and a silver tureen made for Catherine
by company museums.
the Great of Russia.
Whisky has its day at the Barton
Mr. Parker notes that portions of the
Museum of Whisky History at BardsOld-time locomotives , cabooses enthrall permanent collection have been exhibittown, Ky.
A collection of antique locks is on dis- youngsters at B&O Railroad Museum. ed by some of the country's best-kno\\'n
museums and have been seen b more
play at the Schlage Lock Company in
than 1 million people. In recent weeks .
San Francisco. Eli Lilly & Company, Indianapolis, in addition to a large exhibit
Officials of some companies say, too,., part of the collection was shown at the
center, maintains a duplicate of its found- that they feel an obligation to provide Boston Museum of Fine Arts, an some
information about their industries' back- items are on loan now to the Tole 0 Muer's original laboratory.
seum of Art. Exhibitions from the CampInternatitJnal Business Machines Cor- ground and development to the public.
poration displays historic calculating
Museums of all kinds, privately and bell collection are scheduled for la er this
machines at its r..-Iadison Avenue offices publicly supported, have become an im- year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York City and at the Victo ia and
portant industry in themselves.
in New York City.
The American Association of NI useums Albert Museum in London.
Many companies have turned over
collections of historic products or rare in Washington, D. C., publishes an an Growing trend. Some co panies
individual items to public museums. nual directory of more than 1,000 pages long have been important collec ors of
paintings and sculpture which of en are
General Electric Company, as an ex- listing all types of museums in the U. S.
available for public exhibit. II luded
ample of this, presented some early and Canada.
Scores of companies make a business are South Central Bell Telephon Comtypes of electrical household appliances
to the Smithsoniari Institution in Wash- of supplying exhibit cases, lighting pany, PhiJip Morris, the J. C. enney
equipment, display materials and storage Compan y, Helena Rubenstein, Inc , Conington.
tainer Corporation, . Chase Meil hattan
Prestige value. Why the rising in- supplies for the museum trade.
Expensive venture. Assembling a Bank, Gulf Oil Corporation.
tlantic
terest in museums and collections tied
to specific companies and their products? privately owned collection worthy of Richfield Company and Distillers orporation-S eagrams.
An obvious reason, corporate execu- public display can be a painstaking and
But the latest swing is to war items
tives acknowledge, is the value of such expensive venture.
Consider the case of the Campbell identified closely with a com pan s parcollections in building a firm's prestige,
keeping its name before the public and' -Museum, which was set up by the ticulai: line of business. It's a tren d that
Campbell Soup Company in 1966 and shows steady and vigorous growth.
helping stimulate sales.

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Rare octagonal house in upstate New York is site of Gladding Corporation's Interna~ional Sport Fishing Museum .

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Blacksmith shop at Grand Detour,
is the piace where
John Deere developed first successful steel plow in 1837.

STATISTlCAl
MACHINES

Relics of the stagecoach era and California 's gold rush captivate visitors to the history room of Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco.

IBM display traces development of sophist icated
computers from ancient calculating machines.
A:aa

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Tureens, ladles, other symbols of elegant dining are on display at one of the
country's newest private museums, opened by the Campbell Soup Company at
Camden, N. J., in 1970. It has pieces dating from the sixth century B. C.

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Craftsman at Corning Glass Museum restores a delicate piece of sixteenth -century Venetian glass damaged by floods
, from Hurricane Agnes in June, 1972.

Powder mills once operated by the Du
Pont Company are part of Hagley Museum, a restoration of early developments
along Delaware's Brandywine River.

Model of nineteenth-century saltpeter refinery, a diorama in the Hagley Museum.

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mamaOmD, NT E R 0 F f.= ICE M E MORA N 0 U M
TO:

.Ray Gould /

DATE:

8/l!73
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cc: Ed Kramer
Gordon Bell

FROM: Dick Clayton,/(.

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DEPT: Medium Scale Computers
SUBJ:

Material for DEC Computer Museum

A friend at MIT, who currently has responsibility for
ARC-I, has indicated it is now obsolete and they want to
get rid of it. If we are interested we could have it for
free. ARC-I was the first hard-wired Average Response
Computer. It was built of parts used to test packaging
and some circuit concepts for TX~2.
ARC-I was the forerunner of such machines as CA,T
(Computer Average Transients) and several devices built
by the various nuclear instrumentation houses. It also
lead to the signal Averging and Histogram packages
originally developed by Bruce Delagi for the Lab-8 and
its brothers and sisters.
I believe it is an appropriate device for the Museum. I
. have a warm spot in my heart for this particular ~ne of
a kind beast (having made it run for a few years) and
would like to see us accept MIT's offer. Are you the
King of the Museum, if so, what do I do next, if not,
do you know who is?
i,
Thanks.
RJC/ph

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MEMORANDUM

. 1.N T:'i::: R O-FF I CE .

":~"~ rC C,~ Ed " Kramer /'
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',::-' Go rdon Bel l
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Medhun Scale Computers
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DEC computer Museum

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., A ' fri end at MIT , who curren~ tly has responsibility
. " ARC":'II' - has -indicated it is now · obsolete and th ey vlant to
.'~ g e t : rid of: it. If we are inter~sted we cou ld have - i t for
.::';;~ '.' '::.,. fre e.;.,'ARC- r'· was·. the ;· first hard'-wired Average ' Re spons e ·
. ~.,. :'; --:computer I.t ' was bul.l t · of par·ts used t o t~st packaging': .
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.. ARC~I was the forerunner of such machines as CA'I'
( Comput er Average Tra.nsients) and 'several devices buj,l t .,· "
by th e : various nuclea r ' instrumentati.on house s. It also ',".
lead t.o the signal., Avergin.g and Histogram ' packages ' " .
o riginally- d eveloped' ,by Bruce Delagi for the Lab-8 a n d :', 0
i ts . b r oth ers and sisters . -, :
e

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I . believe it is an, a ppropriate dev i ce for t he Museum ., l '
h ave a warm spot in my heart for th is particular one of
a kind bea s t (having made it run for a f eV! years ) and
. would like to see us accept MI'I'! s offer ~ Are you the
. Ki n g of the Museu m, if so, what do I d o next ~ if not, d o y o u k n ow who is?
Thanks.

. I

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EXT .-:

Trade Shows _.: 5-3
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th~ C~~le~~or"~ ~ems

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have' "your-:'friend .at-·MIT getit:ltouch with-me· and.wecanwork:.·Qut·the. ·.~~i.>~··<::'· .
. arrangements to transport· the machine to Maynard.' .,~ One point'o:f '. . . "o:>"';r::
. "interest r:C' however ,:"18. there.maybelegaf.:complications . such': as.the ..::·.(·;~}~1~>·
ones we· are having' 'with the TXOrnachine 'at MIT.'·~ MIT. being'-~'governmentS:::'::~:f8
'institution is ha'ving problems.··writing.ths·'·TXO 'o'if . on. ·theirbooksto>~:,~·:":>:::~\'t

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.. "." .

INTEROFFICE

-' TO:
:' CC:

Rod Mooney
Pete BucklW
Roy Gould.( ..
Bob Pike
Al Sidel

DATE:
FROM:
DEprr : Traffic/Office Services

EXT : 2343

~UBJ :

TRAILERS

.:.. ...
~.

- .. '" .

This memo confirms.. ., an, ea.rlier note to George Beebe : on'
the o three 40,' trailers in .the PK-,'3 lot; l o aded with
c omputer parts for the museum.

·:f~L; ,
-I'

'-.. .

-, .:.

,~. -

~ ,;'-:.,::

.. ..
~

I ' yiould like, to s hortly (60 days or less ) find a horne

... '.::.~ '

. .•" t ..:

. fo r t hese, possibly at , the new facili t~y i.n MarlborQ '
.

wher.e they can be neatly l ayedout prior to
the s e units,.,

reas~embling

An estimated 5,000 sq . f t . ' could be used,
'r

'a temporary ~asis as these l.1 ni t 's canno.t be stacked ,'

due to theii delica te nature

(vacuum tubes).

.'
One move

(hopefully) to the museum site is all I would

recommend due to double handling' problelns .

..
~: -

~:..

j ~ '.

mcw

,."

..; .... -. .
~

INTEROFFICE
"
f".~

TO : .

SUBJ :

ME MORANDUM

,..,. _____ '

" ~oy Gould r/~

DA1'E :

August 20 r 1973

FROM:

Ken Olsen

DEPT:

Ad ministration

EXT :

2300

MUSEUM
:C'
. , ... , '

If you are over aJ' the RCA building sometime, take a look at the addition to the
c afeteria which was never fini shed. It is the se ction added on nea re sl j he Tower
a nd it' has a grand staircase and big, beautifu l windows. If we sell the Tower r
we have to se ll that with it because it contains the utilities and is the ,qfeteria
for the Towero . However, if we keep the Tower, I donlt know what we would use
this area for but it would make a beautiful museum. Will YOLI get the floor plan
a nd thi nk abo ut how you would use thi s for a museu m. It' sure would beat a blank
room in the middle of an office bu ilding .
.~ ..
We had to collect all the \"/hirlwind equipment before ii' went to the dump and so
' Frank Kalwell picked out all the stuff I asked for , plus a lot of other things, and
is storing them in a trailer~ Wh en we hav€: a loca tion for the museum and a work
a rea we con start loying it out .. With a litt le encouragement, I might also diet-ate
some notes on the vario us pari's that I ho pe we salvaged.

~.".

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v

15 SCHOOL STR EET' BOSTON · MASSACHUSETTS 02108 · 617 /227 -B 6 3 4
TW X' 710 · 321·63BB· C AB LE ' U SED COMP

August 31, 1 973

Mr. Robe rt Reed
Digital Equipment Co r poration
PK-3, ML 25A
146 Main street
Maynard, Massachusetts
Dear Bob:
It was nice hearing from you and I'm gl ad things are going
well.
Among the equipment I thi.nk you s hould perhaps try to accumulate w o uld ltJ;e in the IBM area - IBM 60 4, 650, 701, 702 , 705 and
704 -- the re may be a~ in one of the moving comp a nies in
Boston that's been sitting there for a while.
Also, I .think that you ought to acquire a Philco 2000 as it is a
beautiful representative of an old machine.

.---

With r espect to Univac, a Univac 1, 2 or 3. With respect to
Burroughs a Datatron 205 . There is som e other equipment you .should buy such as. Monorobot 11 and many small semi-computers.
W e have in our wareho use an ~A 3 01 CPll w hi c h is very inte'. . . esti ng
b ecause of the mam moth size of it and you may h ave it free provided
that you pay tra nsportation .
........
Also we have a strip ped Honeywell ~ which is quite a n enormous
piece of equipme nt and you m a y also h ave it free. L ooking forwa rd
to h earing from you .
Wi.th b est r egards,

S~Vv-V-~

Adolf 1=. M~ndsson
Pt. . . esident
AFM:P S
WE B UY. SE LL. T RADE AhJD APPRA I SE ALL COM P UTER EQ UI PMENT

\ /
r

INTEROFFICE'
TO:

SUBJ:

Ken Olsen

MEMORANDUM

DATE: .

September 5, 1973

FROM:

Roy Gould

DEPT:

Trade Sho ws

EXT :

2302

6B-2

TXO Machine

am still in touch with Professor Zimmerman and he is waiting for

the Government to release the TXO.
we will pick it up.

jac

As soon as he gives me the word,

102-6

INTEROFFICE
TO:

Roy Gould, 0.1rator of the DEC
Huseum

cc:

Bob Lap.c
Ken Olsen,
Stan Olsen
,Bob Reed

StiBJ:

M E r\1l 0 RAN 0 U 1\/1·

DATE:

September 17,~

FROM: .'GOrdOn Bell jf)12-1
DEPT:

Engineering

EXT :

2236

DEC HUSEW~
I would also like to keep in touch with our plans for a Huseum/Display
and be n part of it. Since I spent 6 years in a scholarly environraent at
CHU 8.nd worked on looki:1g at the early machines~ I think I can be useft:l.
In many of the university and other laboratories I kIlO ...l people or am kno ...111.
It seems to me that Ken' s acquisition of Hhirhlind ....'as a st:::okc of genius,
because it is one of the very early stored program computers (I give it
#3 or -1) in tir:1e for being opera tional--'"e have an item for trading. As
we all travel about, I \.;ould like us to begin getting parts from some of
the more important machines and other peripheral parts.

Also, I i'iould either like to acquire some early computer parts on a personal
basis in parallel \-lit.h/DEC, or if DEC is not interested in particular items
I \'10\11d like to acquire some of the par'cs and loan them to the museum.
(501:1e
of the items r would like are rather large to store in a horne that is
reasonable ,ized.) There al:e a number of books which I have, or am considering ,,:hich also fall into this category.

I \-[ould like also to meet ~'lith Monosson if useful and . . iork en this probler,l,
if it "lon I t perturb things.
I think it is critical to decide "'hat \"e want and to go afb~r them quietly
and slowly, rather than big dealing it.
f.1y vie\'ls as to Khat' s important nre pretty well expressed in the book by
myself and Allen Ne\'!811, and numerous copies are arOl.!l:d the company and
the library; also there is an historical time chart, on pages 43-46 of
which gives the time relationship of various renchines.
The follO\"ing

itOI:\S are important, I belic;ve--'perl1aps inorc so for the
Smithso!li.all, but it, gives a starting point. The starred items (*) give
high priority.

Classical
Computers
(by place)
- -_
_ ..-...
__ _

\011114

_~.

U. of Illinois
ILr.I,;C" I, II, IXI and IV--80I.:C :r.epresGlltative p.'!rts. I-I is prob':1bly nost
famous. I-II hl3.ght sh.:)\.,. son'(~ cpc:ci21 indep(mdent 1ogic. I-IV is no,,'
bein<_~ o;)cTational, a n?al fi,2.!;COi t-L'l Pirth at NhSl, MIPS is t:", (UrG~t(,r
of U'JE' L'..!). 'I'here are il number of ILI.Il\C I desccnc.b:1tsi if we \-:'lit to
flnttGJ:' I1J.ill():~:;;, \\"3 mi9ht try to get parts •. I-I uGed \\'illLl:1\~, tubes.

•

.,, fi
i

To: Roy Gould
September 17, 1973
DEC Huseurn

Gordon Bell

-2-

BTL
.

Leprechan*--first transistorized calculato+. An early relay computer'
used at a distance to Dartmouth was first remote computing

I
!

Cambridge (Maurice V. Wilkes)
EDSAC 1*--first, stored program computer
EDSAC 11--claimed to be first microprogrammed computer
HI '1' (Whirlwind) *
tore memory (first); diode time pulse distributor--first microprogrammed
machine I believe, \"hich gave Wilkes the idea. First displays; light
gun; tape units Raytheon?)
Lincoln Labs
TX-O* (forerunner of DEC circuits and PDP-I)
L1NC* (DECtape forerunner)
I

Manchester (I know most of the people there--1 probably should visit them).
"

I--there was a little known experimental machine which was truly the
first machine. I doubt if they have parts of it. Also Williams
storage Tubes were first memories.
Mark I*--first index registers (B tubes)--wou1d like the tubes.
Atlas*--paging, extra codes (idea behind UUO's)--the fast extra code
store would be great to get--an early or first ROH.
Von Neuman--inf1uenced machines
The Institute for Advanced study machine (relatively late and unsuccessfu1)*.
RAND*--Johniac (Smithsonian may have it all)
National Physics Laboratory
ACE* ('17orked on by Tc\tring and ~'1i1kinson) --sentimental to me because I
worked on DEUCE (an ACE descendant). A drum with moving heads and delay
lines '17ou1d be nice to get.
National Bureau of Standards
SEAC, DYSEAC (dynamic logic--never quite made it)

•

.1
r-

. ~

---.",....,-.--..,.

To: Roy Gould
September 17, 1973
DEC Huseum

Gordon. Bell
-3-

U. of Penn. (Moore School)
ENIAC*--first electronic computer
EDVAC*--the Eckhert/Mauchley stored program computer
Harvard*
Hopefully ",e could get parts of various Marks.
U. of Toronto
First 12-bit computer.

Forerunner? to minicomputer.

Rice University (virtual memory implementation)
IBM
I
650
701, 704, 7090, 709411 (parts only)
Printers 407
CPC, 607, 604--all early non-computers
1401
Stretch?

CDC, Bendix
160* (first commercial 12-bit computer)
RCA
Part of 601
UNIVAC (ERA)
Univac I*--especially to get first tapes and drums
ERAllOl, 1103
Burroughs
Datatron 205
Intel or Fairclild or?
FirSt microprocessors and first integrated circuits.
TCL
Ferranti-Pegasus--first general register machine.

,•
I

Zusc* equipment·

i
~.

I
j

To: Roy Gould
September 17, 1973
DEC Museum

Gordon Bell
-4-

-Technology to Shm'l
Terminals
Whirlwind, + Type 30, 5" precision, color, 338--all are firsts.
f'-'J.exourtersi Teletypes*--a number dating back \vould be
interesting.
First alphanumeric?
First dot matrix printer?
Card reader/punch/keypunchers: something frorn IBM/Univac--here we
want to have a chart to shmv how much data processing has been
set back by punched cards.
Tape readers etc.
r' '
Analog-digital: old EPSCO unit + Whir1\,lind + ne,.., chip.
Displays:

Type\~riters:

Memory
Delay lines: Manchester, NFL
ROM:--At1as
Storage tubes: MIT, earlier Manchester vlilliams Storage Tubes
Core: . Whirlwind; ord DECi new DEC
Tape units: vlhirlwind; possibly Honeywell Datamatic big drives
Disks: IBM, P~AC, IBM 1311 (removable), DEC RS64 (not unique);
IBM floppy
Drums: DEC 'swapper a la BBN or MIT; also NPL; also Whirlwind

DEC PARTS
PDP-1 with display. It might also have s\,lapping drum nearby--we can claim
it used in first or early timesharing. This should be kept operational
and used for playing space war.

A GT40 with moonlander \vould also be a nice interactive display.
Terminals to RSTS or a PDP-10 might also show terminals and timesharing.
Computers--rest of PDP's should be on display, but need not be operational.
Hodules--A demo with the first building blocks! Also, \'le might shmv the
evolution thnmgh various computers on a larger, tir::e-line displClY. Al~o,
30 Hhz, R'fH's. Our first receiver and transmitter modules for Teletype-first UART (nmv fits on a chip). )v,;(t (v,-- I . ' , ~ !( ':':)'/ /
Packilging--vivid \..,i th the computers.
including OUl.' o~'n machines for this.

I 6

Shm~'s

a mess + wire ...:rap technology

·,~

To: Roy Gould
September 17, 1973
DEC Museum

Gordon Bell
-5-

Power Supplies--rec:uction in weight and size with time
Terminals-- VT05, ].A30, Teletypes (especially 28 on PDP-4).
display + 338 + co: or.
Drums--from PDP-l

Also type 30

including'a large one from PDP-6) andRS series.

Disks--RI<OS
Memories--evolutio), from "lK PDP-I" through PDP-II 16K.
Tapes--DECtape + Tl rIO (maybe some old Potter 906' s), cassettes.
Books (for historii :al use)
Bell and Newell; Goldstine--The ComputE'r from Pascal to Von Neumann
(princeton);. BO'lden--Faster Than Thought (Pitman)

Software

Here we need sOllething.
be significant,.

Perhaps a library of reference manuals would

Pre-stored Program Computer
I'd like to see things like the Jacquard Loom (punched card control) ,
Thomas Arithome·;er. I'll spend a day with the British Museum in the
next year or so.
GB:mjk

J'\/\..(vvv...~' )
I'\; lC' t. t~, ,,V.

<""), '-.,1''1-'..

DfC 11 'C"c. ~\...t..~J
"

fV\.C..... \Ac~

,,""."',"'\

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r- "

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~("" "

\. I
_ c:..

TO:

SUBJ:

.:_ ~

•

10.. __ . J

I:-- ..

VRoy Gou l d and Museum Group

MEf\1I0RANDLJM
DATE:

October 1, 1973

FROM:

Gordon Bell

DEPT:

Engineering

EXT :

2236

I
I

' .

.' . ' . I

12-1

DEC MUSEUM

I don 't think we want an I BM 705 .
c ontribution it made to compu ting.
702 with core.)

(I don't know what, if any,
In essence, I recall it is a

Today, Prof . Murray Allen at the U. of N.S.W. in Australia, promised
me s ome parts of the Eng li sh Electric Deuce (Turing helped design)
and an IBM 650.
(I asked hi~ to deliver it to the Sydney DEC office
for shipment to us.)
In return, he wandered thxough our surplus parts.
Let's get together to discuss my ,memo on list · of parts.
GB:mjk

mD~DDmD

INTEROFFICE

MEMORANDUM

.. October 8, 1973

TO:

Gordon Bell

DATE:

cc:

Ken Olsen

FROM:

Roy Gould

DEPT:

Trade. Shows

EXT
SUBJ:

6B-2

2302

MUSEUM

Thank you for your recent memos regarding equipment for the DEC Museum.
As you have probably realized, the location of the museum has not yet
been decided.
We are currently holding parts of the Whirlwind Computer in storage
and hopefully the TXO from MIT will be tu+ned over to us within the
next four to six weeks. It i~ currently being held up due to
government paperwork.
At your.~onvenience, Gordon, I will be glad to get together with you
and the rest of the museum group to discuss our progress to date.

•

jac

--~

INTE ROFFICE

ME MORANDUM

TO:

Gordon Be l l }

DATE :

cc:

Ken Ol sen

F RON:
DEPT:

Oc tobe r 8 , 1973 _G>)'O r;

EXT :
SUBJ: .

Ro y Gould
Trade Shows

o vA
".;;>

"P:~/J>

6B-2

2302

MUSEUM
I

Thank you fo r your rec ent . memos re gard ing /e quipment for ·th e DEC Mus e ·um
As you have p robably rea l ized, t h e lo c atip n o f the museum has not yet
been dec ided.
/

~irlWind

We are c urrentl y holding parts o f t h e
Computer in storage
and hopefully the TXO f rom MI T will b e / t urned ove r to us within the
next four to six weeks .
It i s cur r ent'lY being h e ld u p due to
government p aperwork .
/

At your convenl ence, Go rdon , I wlU-/ be g1a d to ge t together with YOlI
and the r est of the museum g roup
discuss ou r p r ogre s s to date.
o

•

jac

'",,\oJ
..............

............. ,

)

INTEROFFICE · MEMORANDUM
TO: Gordon Bell
Roy Goul d -

DATE:

October 17. 1973

FROM:

Ken Olsen

DEPT:

Admi n i strat ion

EXT
SUBJ:

2300

WHIRLWIND COMPUTER

Last week Mr. Nixdorf of Nixdorf Computer came by and when I told him about our pieces
of Whirlwind for our museum he indicated he would like to swap pieces for parts he has
in his mu s eum.
I expect we will be sending some people over tc study what they are doing while we
consider possible ways of ccoperation and that time we might ask those people to
look into what pieces of hardware we might want to swap.

Ima

'TO:
.

.'~

,,'

Ken Olsen
,Gordon Bell
Public Relations

DATE:

12/3/73

FROM:

Dick Maliska

.. '.

Diagnostic Engineering
3714

",' SUBJ:

LaC:

3-5

PDP-4

• About a year and a half or mayb9 two years ago, the Drafting DCP2=tment phased out their use of PDP-4 #1. Because of this, some of our
neoole were te~norarily left without a machine to do p~21~~~~_~y
software debugging for "M1T" programs.
Since Drafting had decided to scrap the machine, and no one else
wanted it, we decided to take it into our area for Ol".r ovm use.
Since that time, our use of the machine has been reduced to none.
So there it sits, and what do we do with it?
On at least three occasions I have spokeri to the Public Relatioris
Department, inquiring as to whether or not,the "computer museum"
was still planned and if they wanted PDP-4 4tl - no reply. So I
assume that they either are not planning a lfiuseum or they do not
w~n~

~h4~

m~~h4"o

I spoke to the Traditional Product Line and they don't want it
either.
(It seems that there is not a big market for used PDP-4's)
It seems a shame to let that r·achine get into the merciless hands
of the .'3alvage area. I feel that the sentimental value is worth
something, but I would like you to have that choice.
Sometime in January (?)' I will be transferring to our Marlboro
, plant and I would appreciate having PDP-4 ills fate decided by
then. Lreally don;'t want to.move it over there.
Please find a horne for my orphan.

'.' .,-.
"

.j.

CONFIGURATION LIST

PDP-4 #1

. ;.,

..•..

1 central processor
8K memory

".~

'i···

'~'.

1 lineprinter (Analex)
2 card readers (Burroughs)
4 tape units (Potter - I think)
1 card punch interface (IBM)
1 Dectape control
2 555 Dectape transports
1 KSR-27 teletype
1 pap2r tape reader/punch

Comwter report VII
L

e ve ce
ec
a re

ea s:
e

Behind the Comput~r Revolution lay the vision and perseverance
of a handful of pioneers committed to open information excha'nge
rll" (..iI"',lil" ;Iiarlll '.\ih " 'lllllCl"d III l~ ' ,-)II h \ a prlillil
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I-bmboldt State University

\\'h(,11 thl'

\I (In!

"c'll'nput('r" genl'ntllv meilnl a p!'r";()f1 filth!'1' than iI
'I

machine. Three h un drl'd ye a r ~ of well -docu me nted
work by mathl'm a l1 ca l a nd inventi ve !!ian ts li ke P as ·
cal. Ll io niz. and Rabba!!!' had led to a h'TCa t ar w y of
ingenious m e ~hanic ll i device!' for t ab ulation and re cord-keeping. Fu rthermnrp. th ere w a~ little inler e~ t in
large scale . s~' s t e mati c cu mput a t ion in i ndu~ t ry. even
, .' among those who m ig hl ha \'e been expected t o he t hl'
. most in t e re~t ~d - the m" t he mati ("ian~ Such i llte r e ~
IlS there wa~ existed alll ollg a ha ndful of men work in g
quite independently of ,' ne a not her on spec ifi c a nd
.complex research pro bl ems in ~uch dis ~)8 rat e field s as
~~nomy. \vea ther forec i1~ting . spa ce ~harge phys ics .
and net work analysis . It I\ as t hese men - princi pally
George Stibitz. Howa rd Aiken . and .John Mau chly who built tbe first au t omatic digit a l computers 111
order t o do thei r own part icular resea rch.

The Stibitz and Bell Labs relay machines
George Stibit z was a \'oung mathematician- who
'had been intrigu ed with ~lect rica I gadgetr~' since his
ooyhood in Dayton . 6~io . (He rem embers nearl y set·
ting his home on fire at the age oi eight when he overloaded the living-room l'ircuits ru nning an e lectric
.. !Dotor his father had brought him.) ::itibitz attended
wha t for the World War I e ra was a ve ry experimental
and advanced high school- one that ha d been established in Dayton by Charles Kettering and some associates from Delco .• The school was quite informal and
the science program heavily oriented t oward individual student projects.
When Stibit z went to college he concent rated on
experimental physics and mathema tics. He received
his M.S . from Union College in 192i, and spe nt the
following year making r~ dio propagation . measurements for the General E lectr ic .co. 'This work was
performed ' in an isolated farmho{}se, a'n d 'he and his
, partne'r rigged a voice·actuated elect rical comm u n ica' tion link that allowed them to operate their equ ipI

,.,

•

ment b'.' remote control. Th ey abo uspd the link OIl
winter ml)rn il1 "':; to opcn t he d a mper on t he fire in the
("Uit! ~ t ()\ l' hel ,,:-t' lea\' ing t heir hom e.
Aftp r th e year with CE . 'St ihi tz went to Corne ll for
h i~ Ph D. '1' • math l' ma tica i p hv; ics, whi (' h he recei ved
n 19:10. That 1,11 1. he joined Rell Telephone Labora to·
rie" a" n rest:c arc h mat h(,;!l ::l.tician and hecame in\'llll'erl wi t h in\'e~ t igat ions into circuit theory t ha t
e \' e n t uall ~' led h im int o relay circuit proble ms . One
el·eni ng. in I fH'·. he brough t home a coupl e of relays.
so me fl ashlight batteries and bulbs. ~ wired up a
~ impl e hinary a dder tha t is referred to in the literat ure as the Model I{ (for Kitchen) · Cqmputer. This
\Vas a ~ignificant event because although Stibitz had
been introduced to the notion of binary a rithmetic in
his high school math book . this was the first tim !:' we
kn ow of that an yone actually successfully adapted the
concept to mechan ical computat ion.
While .stibit;t"s collea gues were amused that relays
could be used in thi ~ way . hi, computer didn't seem
to arouse any serious interest. Stibitz's main assign- .
ment a t this time at Bell Labs involved working on'
switching network problems that required dea ling
with complex numbers. These computations were so
la borious that they had ~o be done by a group of
about ten women using pencil and paper along with
the crude mechanical ca:lculators of the day. One /day

[1 J At the l ar lelt is one 01 thlj three operator stations lor
the lirst Bell Laboratories relay' computer, which went into
o p~ ration in January. 1940 . •the c omp'uter evolved ou( 01
the pioneering work of rese~rb,tJ. mathematician George 5tibitz. shown In the accompanying photo. which was taken in
the early 1940s at Bell Labs.

121 The l irst thoroughly automatic c omputing machine was
the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator. or Mark I
(bel ow). which was built at Harvard between '1939 and
.' 1944 by IBM engineers under the leadershiP.' 01 Howard
Aiken, who is shown in the accompanying phOto. from that
period. (Harvard Univ, Computation Lat) photQs) .

71
.>

in 1940-made its appearance in the Model V com:
a fellow employee suggested to Stibitz that thp work
puter.
might go faster if two or three calculators cr'uld someThe achievements of George Stibitz have probabiy
how be hooked together. Stibitz knew nothing of earnot. rel:eived the puhlic recognition they deserve. This
lier attempts to dll automatic computation (he had
i~ at least partly dill' to Jhe fact that he is a rather"
never even heard of Babbage), but t he suggestion inshy, retiring !TI"il who to this day is reluctant tif'{jo
terested him and he proceederl to design a circuit for
much public talking about his achievements, with the
an electromechanical calculator [hat coul d multiply
result that one learns about them mostly from others.
ilnd divide complex numbers. Stibitz's Complex
In some respects Stlbitz presents a marked contrast
~umber Calculator was built by a team of Western
to Howard Aiken, another great technical visionary of
Electric engineers headed by Sam Williams, and
the preelectronic computer period. While Aiken was
when it was completed in 1939 (with modifications so
not a publicity seeker; neither-' was he retiring. He was
it could abo add and subtract l. it could perform
an extremely forceful personality whose perseverance
the>'e arithmetical ope rat ions three times faster .than
and determination not only led to rema·rkable technihad heretofore heen pussible.
cal achievements, but made a n in<Hf.ble impact on
But the Complex I\umber Calculator had some unall who encountered him.
usual feat ure~ t hat made it far more than just anoth er ~pe('ial purpose calculator. First, it had an exAiken and the Mark I computer
tremely high degree of reliability-one that would not
Howard Aiken grew up in Indianap()lis ~ Ind .. find
be exceeded in the electronic automatic computers for
was forced to go to work after the eighth Igrade. His
many years. Second. because Stibitz felt so strongly
first job ~ as a switchboard operator twelve hours a
about the need to prevent the machm from making
nightr-aO nights a month, witn the Indianapolis Light
arithmetic errors, he built in a checking code so that
if a relay failed, it would be impossible to get a wrong
and Heat Company. During the day Aiken attended
answer. This Exce~s-3 code, as it is now known, also
Arsenal Technical High School, which was another
allowed a defective relay to bE:"teadi!y identified .
first-~lass secondary school of its time. The superinAnother notable feature· of Stibitz's machine was · tendent of schools in Indianapolis took a personal inthat it could be operated from a remote teletypewritterest in Ailten and arranged a series of examinations
rly and thereby ease
er terminal. The demonstration of this to a meeting
so that the boy could graduat
at Dartmouth College i'n the summer·of 1940 marked
his work-load somewhat. This same superintendent
the first publ ic display of remote data processing,
then encouraged· Aiken to 'attend the University of
It is quite conceivahle that ·Stibitz's contribution to
Wisconsin by assistinl! him. to . get a similar job.
with the gaS compal\Y in. Madison. In 1921, Aiken rethe future of computers could have ended with the
construction of the Complex Number. Calculator. , ceived his B.S. degree·and, overnight, a promotion to
chief engineer of the gas company. ·
Shortly after.it was fiIlishM, he approached the manAiken haa been a power ~ngineer for more than ten
agement. at Bell Labs with a request for approximate- .
ly $50000. to take the. next major step and build Ii
years when he decided in 1935 to go back to school
large-scal~ computer. but he was turned down. Man- : and enroll first a t the University of Chicbgo and then
agement ,~vidently didn't) share his feeling for the' imHarvard as a graduate student in physics. His doctorportance·of automatic computation, at least to a teleal research on the la~s of space charge ·involved him
phone company. However, World War changed all
in laborious hand cal~ations of nonlinear differential equations which, in turn, led him to investigate
this. hecause now the ~ for computation became
crucial, particularly in b8T1istics where resetlfch had
the possibility of high -speed, automatic calculation.
been -underway at the.: Aberdeen Proving Grounds
Harvard in those days was an extremely unlikely
since the ~arly . 1930s. As a result of his work, Stihit1.
place in which to find support for this kind of reand others at Bell Labs were asked to aid the Army,
search project. It was ~ center of "pure" research, and
and a series of five relay computers were eventually
Aiken ,was forced to persevere in the face of considerbuilt for the prime purpose of doing ballistics and
ble skepticism and, in fact, very- strong opposition.
at her calculat ions important to t he'defen~e effort.
For il\~tance, some people claimed that a machine to
do wliaSfAiken proposed would require so many parts
The Bell program was highly significant, for it
demonstrated that relay calculators could perform- esthat, ~l£sed upon elementary probability theory, some
sentially error-free calculations around he clock,
parts!would just never work. (A similar argument was
later iadvanced in opposition to Eckert's and Mauchseven days a week, with minimal down h111e due to
Iy's €NIAC project.) Others held that even if Aiken
malfunction. Thus, although it became apparent that
were; lucky· enough to get his machine working, it
the increase in speed would probably level off to
would only be a short time before it would have perroughly a factor of ten over maimal computation, the
fornied all the work it could possibly be required to
reliability and ease of maintai~ability of these comdo, thereby ending up as a museum piece, which was
puters made people extremely reluctant to move into
something Ii university should not produce! Thus, alelectronic computers 'until the 1950s, when new confithough Aiken received .important encouragement
dence in . this technology began to emerge. Moreover,
froln the astronomer Harlow Shapley and Business
the Bell relay computers had special features which,
though designed to meet specific wartime need~, . Sc~ool Professor Ted Brown, his was essentially 11
found their way into the mainstream of the postwar
lonery battle, won only by his great determination to
computer art. For instance, the 1942 Model II relay
re~ch a very specific and carefully'thought out goal.
f
computer had a tape program input and also utilized
biquinary error detection*; while floating, rather than
• A sc hem e wherein each decimal pIR(·e is repref\Cnt~d by .enn relays
fi);ed .. decimal ('om put at ion-which Stibitz conceived
artanged in !(TOUp~ of two and fille.

1&0 spectrum F.wnUARY 197.

with Dr. Aiken and his colleagues that at some point
This goal was to build a thoroughly automatic comhe would say, " at this stage, new ideas stop · and ·we .
puting machine controlled by a coded sequen~e of inbuild. Any new ideas that com~ 'afterwards will bi!
structions and capable of producing a punched card
saved for the next machille." His first electronic ma.' or typewritten output. Aiken wrote his proposal for
chine, the Mark ill, was only built at a time (the late '
"such a machine in 1937 and this document was pub1940s) when he felt the technology was sufficiently
lished in Spectrum, August 1964. The reader of the
, document will be" impressed by two things. First, of- reliable. Many peopie. have' interpreteq the late arrival of Mark ill as a reluctance on Aiken's part to
courSe I is the tremendous technical vision it· reveals.
admit that electronics "was the way to-go." This was
: • But evim more striking is its similarity to. the 'actual
not true. He merely waited until"the reliability of the
machine t,hat was dedicated at Harvard seven years
components reached his exacting standards.
later, in 1944~the Mark I. It is quite clear that what
Aiken did was first to analyze carefully, the procedure
fO T solving mathematical ·p roblems by hand and then to . Computers in Iowa
specify a procedure for performi'ng the same operaThe unfriendly environment in which Aiken worked
tions mechanically.
contrasts with the supportive one that existed at Iowa
One of Aiken's fust attempts to build his machine
State College in Ames. While all but a few of the
was made ~ith the Monroe Calculating Machine
most enlightened universities were ignoring complItation during the 19305, Iowa' had become fm important . . .
Company. He-went to Monroe's chief engineer, G. C.
Chase, who has described how" Aiken outlined to me
center for ' mathematical statistics as a result of the
interest of Henry Wallace. Wallace (later President
the components of a machine ;hich would solve his
Roosevelt's Secretary of Agriculture\as well as Vice
problems. His plans provided automatic co~putation
and the four rules pf arithmetic, preestablished sePresident) introduced IBM tabulating equipment at
I
. quence controls, storage and memory of installed
Iowa during the 19205 when he demonstrated its use
values, sequence control which could automatically
for statistical analysis in agriculture and weather
respond to computer results or symbols, together wit h ' forecasting.
a printed record'of all that transpires within t he r.naThe following letter, which Wallace wrote to Cuthbert C. Hurd, Feb. 21, 1965, provides a nice feeling
chine, and a recording of all ~ he computed resu!ts.3
Chase was colwinced Aiken's machine would be im· . for what it was like in those days:
.
portant to Monroe's future business and did his best
.
In the .Iotewinter [February and March] of 1923/
to get hia. management to agree. But t hey decided it
taught a .course in machine calculation of correl~was too impractical and t urned him do~. Cbase
tion coefficients ~t Iowa St(Jte, using a cheap key
then urged Aiken to approach IBM and suggested
driven machine. In the concludi!'1g session of ten
lessons j decided to demonstrate how the IBM ma.that Professor Brown of t he Harvard BUsiness School
chine could be adapted to corr£latian work. For this
would be a good initial contact . It was through-Brown
, that Aiken met Thomas Watson, Sr., and in 1939 a
purpo~e I used a truck from the farm to enable me
to haul an IBM machine from Des Moines to Ames.
contract "was signed whereby ffiM. with fmaneiaI support from the U.S. Navy, would build the Mark I.
I never used an IbM. machine as an aid to breeding
The Mark I is sometimes called a Babbage ·type
work but I did try to use it for some time in trying
machine, hut although Aikeri readily admitted t~
to predict weathrr. While this work was a flop. 1
"learning more about <;omputation from Babbage
think that Larry Page, ·the man u'ho cond!Jcted it
. for me had something to do with .start~ (Jerome]
than any ot her individual," .it would not be fair simply to infer, as some have, that Aik£'n built Babbage's .. Nemias of the Weather Bureau on his lon!?-range
machine. Without t rying to detract from the fantastic
. wrather {orecastitlg.
.
accomplishments of Charles Babbage,' I would pOint
For purpose8 of assembling yield test data in
out that · he and Aiken differed in a very important
form to study, tile Pioneer Hi -Bred Corn Co. of Des
Moines has long used punched cards and the IBM
way. Babbage.evolved a series of technical concepts,
machine so as to assemble the fa ets. so they may be
first for building a difference engine and later for
studied. The company now owns a machine and
building.the analytical engine. which he conceived in
1833 (this was the first design for a universal auto.keeps it busy assembling data on yield test with
both corn and chickens.
matic calculator). However, . in every case, bafore any
significant portion of his machine was physically'
An extensive program in computation evolved from
completed, Babbage would go off into new and better . this start and, by the mid- l930s, a computer project
conceptions. One has the image of wandering with
was begun by John V. Atanasoff.. a 'ProTessor of physics and mathematics. In a letter to the college rethis quirky British genius through an infinite seties of
rooms, . each representing some new and yet unfinsearch council in March 1939, Prof. Atanasoff exished level of machine development.
plained that as early as 1933 he had begun thinking '
about mechanizing the otherwise "extremely arduWith Aiken, however, his Mark I was conceived at
ous" solution of systems of linear simultaneous equasome point in the mid-1930s, articulatea very carefully' and precisely, and built almost to specific!ltions
tions having many unknowns. Continued Atanasoff:
About two years ago I came to a realization that
with, moreover, materials already on hand. There is
no technology in the Harvard Mark I that was not
computing machines can be much simplified.- by
availa\\l,e in the 1930s.
changing from the use of numbers to the' base 10 to
(
The .development of, the Mark II. III. and IX at
the use of numbers to the base 2. Further study has
reinforced this point of view and it now seems pos- ,
Harvard is characterized by much the same methods,
with each model designed to take advantage of a spesible to 'build into a small machine of perhaps the
size and intricac), of a Monroe a computational cacific level of technology. It is clear from my interviews

'")

Tropp-Computer report VII: the'efforvescent years

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mD~DDmD INTEROFFICE ·MEMORANOUM
TO:

..:
Gene Smith

DATE:

January 2, 1974

. FROM:

Roy Gould

DEPT:

Trade Shows

EXT:
SUBJ:

2302

LOC:

6B-2

Museum and Dick Ma1iska's memo of 12/3/73

Gene, I am on top of this and I have made arrangements to pick up
the PDP-4 #1 which Dick is referring to in his memo.
As far as the status of the museum is concerned, there is still
going to be one: however, where is the question. I have talked
with Ken about i.t and when he finds some time we are going to
get together along with Gordon Bell and get the ball rolling.

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CONFIGURATION LIST

PDP-4 U
1 central processor
8K memory
, 1 line printer (Analex)
___2_ card_ r ead e rs (Burroughs)
.--4_ tap eJ1Ili.J:.s-(Potter - I think)
---r-carap unch-rnt-e'rtace (IBM)
1 Dectape control
2 555 Dectape transports
1 KSR-27 teletype
1 paper tape reader/punch

Since Draft i ng had decided to scrap the machine, and no one else
wanted it, we decided to take it into our area for our own use. '
Since th a t time, our use of the machine has been reduced to none.
So there it sits, and what do we do with it?

.: : ~'

On at least three occasions I have spo ken to the Public Relations
Department, inquiring as to whe t her or not the "computer museum"
was still planned and if they wanted PDP-4 #1 ~ no reply. So I
ass~~e that the y either are not planning a museum or they do not
want this machine.
I spoke to the Traditional Product Line and they don't want it
either.
(It seems that there is not a big market for used PDP-4' s) ,

.;./.

' It seems a shame to let that machine get into the merciless hands
of the salvage area.
I feel that the sentimental value is worth
someth i ng, but I would like you to have that choice.

. ;';" ,:

Sometime in January (?) I will be transferring to our Marlboro
plant and I would appreciate having PDP-4 lIl's fate decided by"
then. , I , really don!_t want to_move it.:over there.
"

Please find a horne ,for my orphan.

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January 4, 1974

Professor Henry J. Zimmerman
Director of Research
Electrical Engineering Department
Building 26 Room 231
77 Massachusetts Av enue
0.2139
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Dear Professor Zimmerman:
'The purpose of this letter is to r e state Digital Equipment
Corporation's interest in regard to the TXO computer at
MIT.
As you kn ow we are planning a museum on the history of
computers and we feel, as you do, that th e TXO computer
would be a very important par t of this museum.
If we are
fortunate enough to obtain the TXO, our plans are to keep
it in an · operating state in the museum.
The museum at present is planned for our Marlboro, Mass.
facility and would be open to the public.
Please feel free to contact me if I or Digital can be of
any assistance to you on this matter.

RGG/jac
cc :

Ken Ols e n

DIGITAL

EQUIPME NT

CORPORATI ON,

146 MAiN

(617) 897-5 11 1 TWX:

STREET,

710-347 - 021~

MAYNARD,

TELEX:

MASS AC HUSETTS

94-8457

0175 4

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purch~ se ,' :, PT '\'barter f 0r :r~rt~: stib-sl'stems' ,:'6 r "whole inachi·ne ~'· ~".
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Would: api)J:ecri.~ te any assistance you can ' offer.'

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' HENRY 'CROUSE

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THE FREE
ENTERPRISE
SERVING

IIUIJ( RATI

A READER SERVICE OF THE ENTERPRISE·SUN
SUDBURY, STOW. BOLTON, BERLIN. NORTHBORO. SOUTHBORO, HARLBORO, HUDSON.

VOLUME 3
Third Year

Number 6

16 Pages

The Free Enterprise

. Wednesday, February 13, 1974

u.s. POSTAGE PAlO
PERMIT NO. 372
1N000ESTIR. MA. 01613

PUBLisHED WEEKLY BY THE ENTERPRISE-SUN
250 MAPLE ST., MARLBORO, MASS •

Office building will
become show'place
•

Digital to house computer museum
by EMDON D. MacKAY
IOf"" Enterprise-Sun Sfa")

MARLBORO - "We'll have one of the best, if not the
best, museum in the world" in the Marlboro division of
Digital Corp., according to Kenneth H. Olsen. president of the
firm that Is known as the largerst manufacturer , of
minicomputers in the world.
Olsen, who spoke at the meeting of the Rotary Thursday
noon at Marlboro Country Club, said the former Marlboro
RCA complex is ideally suited for the computer museum to
house Digital equipment beginning with the first whirlwind
models.
He added that Digital bas been looking for space for a
musewn for several years, but "every time we found floor
space, we decided it would be more economical to use the
area for building or testing new computers."
Olsen, who introduced John Leng as plant manager of the
Marlboro Digital complex, said that, although Digitaf is
known as a manufacturer of minicomputers, the ones built in
Marlboro will be the "king-size" DEC system-10, the largest
made by the finn.
Of the 1,000 Digital employes expected to be employed in
. the Marlboro plant by mld-1974, many will be local residents.
Olsen said. "We could conceivably have more local people,
but it is not our policy to rob employes from other industries," he added
Olsen said the Marlboro plant will bring the company to a
total of 3.5 million square feet of floor space occupied by
Digital plants worldwide.
Besides the headquarters in Maynard, "where it all
started in 1957,"Olsen said,other plants in the Bay State are
located in Westminster and Westfield. Digital also has plants
in Puerto RiGa and in Ireland.
Grow carefully
"Why did it take us a year to make up our minds to move
to Marlboro?" Olsen answered his own question by reminding the audience that it always baa been the policy of Digital
to "grow carefully and with cauUon."
Besides, he said, "many people didn't want to leave tile
old mill." Olsen noted - in tracing tile history of Digitalthat the fonner American Woolen MJ1II building where the
first Digital computers
designed was taken over floor
Ii&lg.,~~..~
. of,
. .

,.
~

Staff photo
by Art Phaneuf

THIS BUILDING will house a new computer museum planned by Digital officials for Marlboro. Kenneth
Olsen, president 1)f the Digital Equipment Corporation, told members of the Marlboro Rotary Club
yesterday that he has been looking for space for the museum for some time and the Marlboro branch of
the company Is ideally suited for his purpose.

In fad, Olsen said that when Dig"al was developing,
"growth wasn't Importallt ••. we lust wanted to a job we
could be proud of."
_
He said that when Digital started, they didn't want
government money. and, in addition, unlike most other
companies, were determined to be a profiil--making industry.
The $70,000 that Digital borrowed to get started, was
taken with the promise "that we'd make money," Olsen said.
In answer to a question. Olsen noted that the $70,000 loan has
never been repaid, but those who lent the money now own 80
per cent of Digital stock.
Founded in 1957
Founded by Olsen in 1957, Digital occupied 8,500 square
feet of floor space in the Maynard mill, and there were three
employes. Olsen noted that one of his chores, in addition to
designing the early computers, was to fill in as janitor.
Today, the company has more than 13,000 employes
worldwide. with more than 7,500 of these in its Massachusetts I
plants, DIgital ranks second to IBM in the number of eom-.
puters installed worldwuie, but is the world's leader in the
minicomputer field.
It manufactures more minicomplders than all other
computer companies combined.
Olsen noted that the. first true minicomputer was the
PDP.5, introduced by Digital in 1963. This handmade
machine, costing $27,000, created a market that Industry
analysts estimate will top the $1 billion mark by 1975.
By contrast, the DECsystem-10, the computer to be
manufactured in Marlboro, will cost up to $2 million,
depending on the use it will be put to. It Is a time-sharing
<;omputer, which can be used by several customers
Olsen cautioned the Rotarians that he cannot guarantee
that Digital will not go the way of RCA (which dropped the
computer business and closed its Marlboro operations about
two years ago) but "we intend to keep designing and making
computers as if we were going to be there forever."
He added that the move to Marlboro was made, "because
we needed the space ... and Heel we're wanted here."

--- ;1e< ~ t; /,.1.' U<-,.

2/21/74

(1 fj

Sal
Burch Lymberg
779- 601
Bolton
Telephone Notes on her background:
Librarian for Architects Collaberative
Establ ished the 1 ibrary.
Completed design cour~es in electrical, mechanical,civil engineering
around 1958 at U. of Arkansas--they would not let a woman go in the
field so she did not get her degree.
Geo Physics Corporation of America?
Established 1 ibrary right after Sputnik--had to do wlth documentation ·
of government secrets . on a computer.
' Reflectron Electronics, Conn.
Simulation for B-52, worked . with Director of Research and Engineering
in setting up and coordinating all information necessary for
simulation. Did navigation ' programming on the computer · for the
Japan "C".

·.iii..; /'

Sperry Rand, Norwalk
International Section of Business machines.
Worked for Marshall Truex, VP of patents. They decided to coordinate and
collect all information on Sperry Rand and go back to first computers.
The place where the action was, was not where the interest was, so the
project died. They did decide to go ahead with the business machines-forgetting the computers. She was in charge, started it up, and
completed this museum, 'which I guess is a big success.
She has worked with Chuck Stevens, MIT, Lin. Lab (1717 K St., N.W.,
20036.

\~ash.

On call at Simmons to talk to the class on systems analysis.
Worked at Intelek
Working/charter member of every society involved with computers.
Has these contacts, many of whom would be will ing to publ isize and
help procure things for the sake of history.
Worked with IFIPS Jcollecting a 1 isting of international programs on
computers to be shared with the Europeans.
Doing work now on a consulting basis for Lin. Lab trying to standardize
the information for catalogues and requests for information between
university programs on a computer.

2/21/74
Gordon,

f~1av .

A fri end of Sally Lymberg told her about
our museum article in the Marlboro paper .
She is extremely interest ed, has been for
several years, in the id ea of a compute r
museum. She wanted to know if it was going
to be internatio nal not just DEC.
She seemed to be a very energetic, enthusiastic
woma n, with great credentials for this project.
I made an appointment for Marc h 18 and have
already set up Ken, and Roy Gould, Bob Reid. ·
With her programming background I thought
' Portner wou~ d be interested too?
The attached is only a smattering of what she
said--I couldn't get it all down .
mj

_. . . . . ..... _ .u.._

_.~

...... _..__

.__ .. . ___

. ~

.~ I. ~

INTEROF F ICE

~ .

TO:

Gordon Bell

SUBJ:

ME M OR A NDU M

DATE:
FROM:

March 15, 1974
•
Jim Bell V

DEPT:

R&D Grou~

EXT:

2764 . LOC:

3-4

Dr. Sumner

Attached is a copy of the telex arising from your request.
via Ira Pote1l.

copy

Apparently, Dr. Sumner in return wants a

o~ Atl~nual if possible;

You should work

through Peter Burton of our Manchester office on this

!
!
I
I

I
i

. matter.

rI
t

JRB:cw
Attachment

V ·

•

' .

I
i

I
It
.!

\1
I
i
t

I!
Ii

': _.. _..-. ,. '
r~

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,._ . _. '' -~-,. ~ , ...: .. ,' .-. - '

SUBJ:
' Notel

We have a gre a t oDo6r tun l ty to es tab l Is h a co mci0 te r mu s eum
In t h e

f,j A.f I b oro

buT 10 1!'19 ,

In wh at I-Io u l d otherwf s~ be tot a lly

usa/'ass s pa c e , Sev er al of us ha ve t he I nterB s tto embar k on
th i s pro J ec tl on c e se t un , t he Incr eMen t a l pe r so nne l oper a t i ng
e~P9nses wf I I be c onstra in e d t o a bout 2 c soc l e ,
~~ aba li El v o

a I' t t~ 0 ugh

It m('l Y t Ur n out to be

f l na nc l u ll y r e,v a rd lng,
! t s .Ws e s r n c I l~ de:

r t ! sd 'f f f i e u I t o J L~ 9 t i f '/ ,

8e i nO used to e xhi b i t co mpu to r s to the l oc a l and computer
COmm!H1 Tty.

2•

Est a h I 'j s h 'f n gU S a san ' n te l I r, c t u ", I I Y s e ri o ~! s v end 0 I" v I a
ft s e~be d ded l ec t u r e h a l I for mUl t i p l e fUn ctI ons ,

Show l nq ou r wor k fn g comp ut e rs a nd c r c d~ct s .

Sh6w f ng ou r ow n ~as t a Ad pr e se nt t echno l ogy,
"

Us ln Q ft ~ R ~. l I a i son to va rio us U,S , a nd Eu ro~e a ri
! ab6 r at o rfe s a nd u~ !v 8 r s i t i Bs wh o WB r e ~ ! An ~nmcutB r mf dw ivAS,

It wou l d be a
~ s l b l B p l ace f or t e c h n6logl c ~ 1 a nd bus In e ss
h i stori ans to vl s i t . bY pl ac ing our own li t e r a tu re t h e r e
plus C6 mOHn Y arc hi va l data ,

rt ba I ng R ~ I a ce t o co ll e ct books ,
&nd tec hnol o gy Qut s l de of DEC,

Th e 20, 0 (3k)

$r1 ,

ma nUa l s,

f t , mlA S8LJ rn cOUld bo utill z eq

C Dm puter5~

In t ho fo ll'o wln g

way s :
L

!I 'l ~torfc a l t( ;;)13 li ne ( f ~m IIY tr sEl ) e vo l u t ion of
minlc ompute r s J t f I i z ln g our Nee e xh i b i t . ThTs ~ou ld

sho ll! ED SAC
( a ba y atid

( we hn v e to g e t

a Dart fr om Ca mb r i dge ),

WI"Iir l wln d

oa rl ohera. IS ), TX 00 , P OP"l , P1P .. 4, a n d o n
to vArf ou3 8 a nd 11 ' 5 1 Here we eQ Uid s how of?- shoots
l 'l t,s th o I n dr a,j'j 0 ,11; Cub an (3 , De G, Hun gar i a n, Sue,
Spra gue modUl e s , and ITT' s cop i es ,
2"

~ 0rr1 e

As ar e a I i y n I G (3 C 6 n f e r e ne e / s e mI n a r h a I I fo r I a mlJ sou m l ee .,
tUr e s e ri es , p r es s c o n fe r enc GS, PDP- 10 l oc t Gres , IEEE a nd
AC M ~gDt l nJs , s o ~ e of our own me etln as, Th i s wou l d bQ
re se rv ed 1 /2 tI me for t hese na t ivi tie s.
It "h6 u l d hol d
a bout 5 ~ t 1 03 nea pl a ,
c o ~cutB rs:
PDP-1 a nd NSA SUPer oo nso l s PDP ~4
9 P'1 C e . . i (j r ~ I " PDP 811 10-' I t tl m(10 n I ,l li d 13 F, t (~ r min a 1s t 0
va r f 0 tJ S r" a c h r n e s , ' Pe 0 D I \3 r. 0 I I I d v! s i t t h [ s J ~) s 'i; t 0 I 0 0 k a:t ~

Wor k l nq DEC

Yi i t h

a. n d u se 0 u r va r' f 0 u s c 0 n so l e '-' "
h

Te chn ol og y d ls ~ l a y s .
.. et

I ;)

We h a vn ma ny eX hf b l ~~ tha t

f r c :i1 t l e to t l mG .

Eo "

c~n

h i sto ry of d i sr.) I a. y s from

._ .IL

11101 -' ~t

~/.~:~~: - - ~~ ~~:
~ - ~ ~ ~: ~~~ ~ - ~ ~:~ ~ ~ ~
c
'__.

( IO~6)

TO:

Operations committee
ProdJ~t Lfne Managers

Go·rdon Bel I
Roy Gould

From:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~_"- _ _ R~- _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~_~.-_-~-"-- _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~ _ _ _ _ _ •

We have a Qreat oPPortunity to establ ish a computer museum
In the t-Iarlociro building, in what would otherwise be totally
use!ess space. Several of us have the Interest to embark on
this proJacti once SGt up, the Incremental personnel operating

expenses wi I! be constrained to about 2 peoole.

He balleve it I':'\ay turn out
alt~ough

is dIfficul

financially

to JustifY.

rewarcing,

Its uses Incluee:

used to exhibit cOl':'lputers to the local an:
commulity,

Being

~: s t n b ! ish 1n 9

Showing our worklna computers and products,

4•

Showin~

Using it as a liaison to varIous U,S, and Eurcpean
laboratories and universities who were also com~uter

ccrrp~ter

us as an i 11 tell e c t u?. I I Y s e rio u s v a r: ::i 0 r v i a
Its er:1bedded lecture hall .fo·r mUltiPle· f·unctlons.

our own cast and present technology.
"

~ij~lves.

It WOJld be a possiblo place for technological and business
historians to visit by olacln9 our own I iterature there
~Ius ~o~Dany archival data.

It being a place to collect ~ooks,
and technology outside of DES,

The 2 0 , e (1 J sa.

ft.

nanuals,

co~putersl

muse u ~1 c 0 u ! d b e uti liz e din t 11 e f 0 I I C ,-I i n 9

\-Iays:

ti-na Ijne (fa;')ily tree) evolution of
Minicomputers uti I izing a conDuter eXhioit.· Thi~ WCJlj
show S~SAC (·.-Ie have to get a part from Car:lbr·i:ge), ~,illrlwlnd
(a bay and 5 0 r.l G per I p h G r a IS), TX- J I P J P - 1 I ? J ? - ~ I a r j 0 r,
to varrous 8 and 11'5. Here we coulj show off-shoots
iil~o the Indian g, 11i Cuban H, DeC, HUn9ari2lr, SJC,
SoraQJe ~odules, and ;TT's ccpies •

Histo.ical

.-'.S

for:
arr\Jseu..., I eca really nice conference/StHlinar hal
pre sse 0 ~1 i ere nee ~, PO? - :. J IGctures, Ie:::: ai1~

\: u r G "3 e r i 9 s,

ACM Maetinas, Sone of OJt OWn ~eetlngs.
roserveJ 1/2 tine for t~9se activities.
abo u t .5 2 ';: 0 1;J,1 D eo;) i c •
3,

~orklla DEC computers:
PDP-l and NSA sUPer cansole ~JP-(
t h :3 D a C 0 .-: 3 r I , . . l.) ~l - 11 W j t t) moo n I and 0 r I t G r '1 I n a 1st 0
V fl rio .J S n'ti C ~) I n e s .
P e ~: pie co II l:j v I sit t his jus t "'.; 0 I 00 k n. ':

~'I I

and use
\

This wculj ::J8
It should r.;)!d

o~r

various

Tochnology displays,

c8~sclC5t

Wo have many eXhibits that

can be

set UP from tl~e to time. Eg" history of displays from
Whirl~lnd and in~ludes our first color and first precision
dlspl~ys.
Also, we had first UART In 62--sho~ the package
evolution to UA~T on a chip with chips and microphotographs,
In ooneral, thIs would coyer computers, computer parts,
and technology (eg., logic, displaYs, printers, tapes, pO\'/ersupplies),

0
C
C

5",

Comciuters from universities, research labs and other vendors,

A place for maChine and programming manuals for us and for
the abdve technologies.

DEC archival Information on computers and busIness.

A pla~e to debug trade-show booths.

Historical Com;)uter books.

MOD :J SOP E ~ A'n I :

The ~USeu~ wi I I reoort to Roy Gould, who wi I I hire a curator
to live t!lere for day-to-day operations, collect, guide and"
buy varloJS Internal services. A board of directors, consisting
of Roy, the curator, myself, Ken, anc 2 other people, ',Iill
9 u ide the .1' ," r n v lew p la n S!l and est a b I Ish p rio r I tie s •
The
ooeratlng budge~ wi I I be presented to the F&A Comrrittee,
ACCJ:1PL I S~MENTS

so r AR:

AlreadY, ~en has established the basis for our having the
most sicnfflcant operBtio~ ~~causc we have Whir Iwin: (firs~
m"ln!, cera, rrfcroprOgra:;l~ing, diSPlay, tapo, and "AI:).
Also
a great trading basis. We have the TX-O (first transistor ized
mac,ine) ../hictl "Hi I! be operational: All our orototype rracnines
are a va i I a b I e and 14 0 r k • ! ' v e col lee ted par t s f r or. A C::
( UK" i~ at. ;.l h y s. Lab), a 5:; 0, a 7 Z4, 11 ITO 1f. An a I y z e r .
GB::n-ik

(

~:~~

12r~/

APR 29 1974

~SANDERS

~ ASSOCIATES, INC.

CORPORATEHEAOOUARTERS
DANIEL WEBSTER HIGHWAY,SOUTH
NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03060
PHONE: (603) 885- 5182

In reply refer to:
0-1160-74-65
25 April 1974

I
!
i
I

Mr. Kenneth H. Olsen, President
Digital Equipment Corporation
146 Main Street
Maynard, Massachusetts 01754

i
I

Dear Mr. Olsen:
The last time I talked with you, about a year ago, was at
the Finance Executives Institute where you were the guest speaker.
At that time, I indicated that Sanders Associates, Inc. had an
operative PDP-I and inquired as to the number still in use.
You were not certain of the exact figure but indicated there were
relatively few and also indicated that you were ,not aware that
Sanders had this computing system.
It has served well our purposes here and still is in excellent
operating condition. We recently have ,concluded that the usage
of this computing system is so marginal now that we would like
to dispose of it. Recognizing that the market for used computing
systems is unstable, I should like to inquire whether DEC would
be interested in acquiring this system from Sanders, in view of
its age and excellent operating condition. It might be that you
people would want to display it somewhere or perhaps cannibalize
it to maintain similar PDP-l'systems.
I would be appreciative if you could let me know, or if you
would forward this inquiry to the appropriate executive at DEC.
To help in assessment of your interest, attached is a configuration
of our PDP-l computing system.
I will appreciate any interest on your part.' .
Cordially yours,
SANDERS ASSOCIATES, INC.

~.~~~

E. B. Matthews, Director
Corporate Computer Sciences

EBM/ilb
Attachment.
cc:

E. Gettel

: I

· June 11,. 1974
Miss Jane Pughe
Asst. Keeper, Computing Section
Science Museum
Exhibition Road
London, SW7, England
Dear Miss Pughe:
It was a pleasure talking with you on Friday, June 7, regarding
possible interaction with you and the Science Museum. Professors.
Wilkes and Randall have spoken enthusiastically of your efforts
and exhibits at the Museym.
I'm interested in some means of cooperating with you in the establishment of our own DEC" museum in Massachusetts. DEC is a manufacturer of
mini (and larger) computers with sales of about $400M (about 1/3 of
wh i ch is in Europe). I t was founded in 1957, and "i ts antecedent
machines include MIT's Whirlwind and the Lincoln Laboratories TX-O
and TX-2. A booklet of DEC is attached. Our own museum will include
parts of Whirlwind, the TX-O (operational), other machines (operational)
and various technological parts.
The cooperation we might explore:
1.

Exchange of computers or computer parts with the Science Museum.
We have nearly all of Whirlwind. Also, we have parts or complete
machines of our early DEC machines. I (and Prof. Wilkes) feel that
Whirlwind should be represented in your museum. Simiarly, I believe
it might be interesting to have a working U.S. machine (minicomputer)
exhibit, too.

Your acting as a purchasing agent for early British and European,
computing instruments for me. Here, I would like to personally buy
machine parts which could be loaned to our museum; I have no intention
of having our corporation buy parts which would not have wide appeal
to the general American public. Since you have knowledge of this
field, I would like to prevail upon you to consider such an arrangement. (I will wait until I hear from you before I contact Sotheby's
I Bond St. WI). This arrangement would have to be cleared through
the Science Museum.

3. Since we (I and others directly involved in our own museum) are
considering a museum, we would like to have benefit of your counsel
from time to time.
4.

As a student of computing machinery, I would like to establish contact,
because I m~y write other books about computing. Enclosed is a bopk

DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION, 146 MAIN STREET, MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS 01754
(617)897-5111 lWX:

710-347-0212 TELEX: 94-8457

From:

'To: Miss Pug he
June 11, 1974

Gordon Bell
-2-

written by myself and Allen Newell of post Von Neuman computing;
. and this may eventually go into.another edition.
Please consider· the above possibilities, and I look forward to hearing
from you, and eventually visiting with you.

President, Engineering
Professor, Computer Science
Carnegie-Mellon University (on leave)
GB :mj k
cc:

Ken Olsen
Geoff Shingles
~oy Gould
Sa 11 y Lymberg

DIGITAL

EQUIPMEI'JT

CORPORATION

UNIVERSITY OF fv'IINNESOlf' · Bio·Med ica l Li brary
Diehl Hall
Minneapolis, Minnesot a 55455

TWIN CITIES

July 15, 1974

Ms. Sa lly Birch Lymberg
Museum Co nsultant
Di gita l Equipmen t Corpor a tion
146 Main Str eet
Maynard, Massachuse tts 0175 4
Dear Ms. Lymber g :
Audrey is no longe r di rec tly a ssoci a ted with the mlnl computer project a t Bio-Medical Libr a ry, so I am t ak ing
the liberty of res ponding to your letter. We hope yo~r
tape deck was r e cover ed, but susp e ct th at it wasn't.
We do have a maili ng li s t, .and I have added both you and
Mimi Cummin gs to it. We wil l s~rid copies of earlier reports that may be of interest, and wi ll include you in
the future dis semina t i on of this information. Our n ext
progress report will be in late Aug us t or S e ptembe~.
There is no connection between our project a nd the Univ e~
si ty of Illinois. Glen"l Brudvig, Gene Lour ey , and Audrey
~resented papers at a meeting held there in May of this
year.
About the project -- as you probably know, we are building
a comprehensive integrated library operations system to
include acquisitions, se rials mana geme nt, catalogin g , .
refe r ence s ervices, and circulation. Patron services will
be added in the future. The syst em is being wri tte-n. in
assembly l angua ge (MACRO-II) for the PDP-'11/40. Weare
writing all of th e so ftw ar e includ i ng the op e~atin g s yste~ .
Sorry we can't say we are using DEC so ftware , but· sales . ·
can take hea'rt from the nwnber of libraries that want .to:
install the comp l e ted system, and the fact th a t it will only
run on a PDP-II.
.
Thanks for your interest in our project, and if you are out
this way, please come visit us.
Sincerely,
. . . .~

_l:':>

,. ) "

;;.-~-- i...'__

(>:

L/-" - '

Bob Denn ey, Co-Di~ector
Mini-computer Project

SCIENCE MUSEUM
South Kensington

L()ndon SW7 2 D 0'

Telephone 01·589 6371 ext

-: .•.

Proressor Gordon Bell
Vice-President, Engineering
DigitalD:Iui~ment Corporation
146 l,!ain St reet
MAS'SACHUSErrS 01754
USA

Your reference

GB: mj~

Our reference

100/123/13

Date'

24 July 197 4 '

Dear Professor Bell'
First of all please let me apologise ror the delay in replying to your letter of
.,-: .. '
June 11th.
This ha.s been due to circumstances quite beyond my control, and I ..
assure you it does, not at all reflect a lack or interest on my part to the content .
of your letter.
. ,'.

J)"
()t-

we
~

I "Till ans...fer the points raised in the same ord:er. . Concerning exchanges of objects,
this can be a possibility, depending on the itens involved!
If you could give 09 a .
better ·idea of exactly what sort of artifacts you are looking. for, I hope '·le Hill
be able to come to a mutually satisfactory ~greement.
I am certainly.very keen to
have some parts or a \'jhirhrind y for instance.
-----------I have been advised that I may be able to act as a pu!,chasing agent for you, proyid..ed
It is not clear
that this did not conflict Nith my Euseum ,,;or}c and interests.
. . lhether you are interested in just cO::Jputers or also early calculating machines a.rui
Again I uould be grateful for details' of' what you think
mathenatical inst~~ents.
this ..;ould involve, as it \-1i11 have to be' conSidered. by senior officers here.
As to the other points, I shall be most pleased to give you an;)T help and advice that

I can for your ne\·1 Museum etc.
I Has deliehted to receive your book; th?...n..'< you ve!'y
Duch indeed.
He had not seen a. copy before " and it has alrea.dy proved !:lost helpful
in the preparation of one part of our forthconine exhibition.
,;

I look fon·:ard to hearing frol!} you.
Yours sincerely

~;? . Jz.ne

P-u.gh.
Assista...."1t Keeper
Department of Astronor!1y
lo!atheoatics & Earth Sciences.

:..

- ..... ..,i

.. 'J, .' .:~ ."

:.tl

. .....

INTEROFFICE

. . ~ ....

MEMORANDUM,

TO:

Ed Schwartz

DATE:

July 30, 1974

cc:

Ken Olsen
Gordon Bell

FROM:

Roy Gould

\
\

DEPT:

Trade Shows

EXT:

2302

LOC:

PK3-2

, Museum - Non-Profit Orga.nization

SUBJ:

...'. -

Would you please check into the possibility of setting the Digital'
computer ,Museum up as a non-profit trust, foundation, or corporation
,whichever is appropriate. This would aid us in donations of. displays~;
as no one· will donate to a profit organization. This is part of the,
problem we are having with MIT turning the TX-¢ over to us .. '". ,

I have enclosed a study done by Harvey H. Lippincott, Corporate'
Archivist for united Aircraft, for your information.

jac
enclosure

•

.. .
."

.'-'~'

.':\k/;'~,d~~i~t, .•

GREAT ADVANCES OF OUR TIME

Computers have changed our lives -

they solve our little problems and our big ones, like direct ing air traffic.

The computer revolution
By Isaac Asimov
C alculating devices of one sort
or another are as old as arithmetic. As soon as primitive man
got the notion of numbers, he
used his 10 fingers as a device
for keeping track, and for adding
and subtracting.
Then came the abacus, which
used pebbles or counters in rows
of 10, like many sets of fingers.
One row kept track of the units,
the next of the tens, the next of
the hundreds and so on. Centuries
later came the move to mechanize the process - to make as
little of it as possible the result
of human manipulation, and as
much of it as possible automatic.
In 1642, the French mathematician Blaise Pascal invented
an adding machine consisting
of a set of wheels connected by
gears. Each wheel was marked
with the digits from one through
nine, plus a final zero. By turning the wheels backward and
forward the proper amounts,
numbers could be added and subtracted and the results read off
the device. In 1674, the German
Modern Maturity August-September 1974

mathematician Gottfried von
Leibnitz arranged wheels and
gears in such a way that multiplication and division also could
be done.
These machines were curiosities and didn't come into wide
use. But in 1850, an American
inventor, D. D. Parmalee, patented a machine in which the wheels
weren't moved by hand, but by
pushing down marked keys. That
was the "cash register" which
was the calculating machine of
1900 and for a number of years
afterward.
Even the most advanced calculating machine in general use
in 1900 was scarcely any advance
at allover counting on your fingers. It did only the simplest
arithmetical computations and
it had to be supervised at every
step.
However, there were signs of
This is anothe1' in a series of articles
telling the story of the extraordina11J
scientific and technological developments of the 20th century.

something more .than that. If
one had a simple and repetitive
task to do, could one "instruct"
the machine once and for all and
have the machine do it without
further human supervision?
In 1900, something of this sort
was only three years old. It was
the pianola or "player piano,"
which reached the peak of its
popularity in the 1920s. A roll
of stiff paper was perforated in
a careful pattern and that pattern was the instruction. By the
action of foot pedals, air could
be blown through those perforations to activate piano keys.
Such punch-card techniques
were invented in 1804, by a
French weaver Joseph Marie
Jacquard. The presence or absence of holes in this place or that
on a rectangular piece of cardboard depressed or raised the
threads and created automatic
designs in silk-weaving.
In 1822, English mathematician Charles Babbage thought
of using punch cards to guide a
calculatin~ machine. By using
conti nued
29

The computer revolution continued
a proper combination of holes,
a sufficiently complex machine
could be instructed (or "programmed") to do every kind of
mathematical operation known
to man. Babbage spent years
trying to build a machine that
was sufficiently complex for the
purpose but failed. His theory
was perfect but the mechanical
techniques of the 19th century
were insufficiently sophisticated.
Simpler punch-card calculating machines were working by
1900, though, and they were improved over Babbage's attempt
by using electricity to move the
gears rather than mechanical
pushes and pulls.
As the decades of the 20th century passed, there was a constant
and growing need for mechanical
devices that could do calculations of a more and more complex kind in less and less time.
With advances in science, complicated equations of all kinds
had to be solved; and as social
life grew more complex, more
arid more statistics had to be
analyzed.

First computer was
a giant - but it
wasn't fast enough
In 1925, American electrical
engineer Vannevar Bush constructed a machine capable of
solving complicated "differential
equations." It was a successful
version of what Babbage had
tried to do a century before, but
it still worked with mechanical
switches and wasn't fast enough.
In 1937, Howard H. Aiken,
who was working at Harvard
for his Ph.D., produced plans for
a complicated device that would
solve differential equations by
using electrical rather than mechanical switches. The device
was completed in 1944 and was
called "Mark 1."
It was the first large-scale
automatic calculating device the first machine we could call
a "computer." It weighed five
tons, had more than 3,000 electrical relays and 500 miles of
wiring. It could add and subtract
30

23-digit numbers in three-tenths
of a second and multiply them
in six seconds.
Yet that still wasn't fast
enough. Even as Mark I was being
constructed, World War II was
raging and the need for faster
computations was growing.
In place of the electric switch,
there came the electronic switch.
Instead of closing a contact by
an electromagnetic pull, there
came the much faster stopping
and starting of a flow of electrons
in a vacuum tube.
By 1946, a vacuum-tube device
was completed under the direction of John P. Eckert and John
W. Mauchly at the University
of Pennsylvania. It was called
"Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"; in abbreviated form, ENIAC. It was the
first elect1"Onic computer. It contained 19,000 vacuum tubes and
was much faster than Mark I,
but it weighed 30 tons.
Hungarian-American mathematician John von Neumann
suggested methods whereby the
computer could store not only
the data fed into it and the results it obtained, but even the
operating instructions. It was
then unnecessary to start from
scratch each time you wanted
the computer to do some work:
If you already had the general
instructions stored in the machine, you merely introduced the
necessary modifications.
Once the transistor became
practical in the early 1950s (see
"The Electronic Revolution,"
Modern Maturity, June-July
1974), it became possible to replace the comparatively bulky
vacuum tubes by the much tinier
and much more rugged transistors. The result was that computers became much smaller
without becoming less complicated.
Punch cards vanished, too, for
it was found that data and operations could be stored on magnetic
tapes far more concisely, so that
even a moderate-size computer
can have an enormous memory.
As time went on, various "computer languages" were devised,
each closer and closer to ordinary
English. Now it is almost as

though you can talk to a computer
and have it talk back to you.
Computers worked so rapidly
that almost any reasonable problem could be answered in a matter
of millionths of a second. Even
if many problems were fed into
it at the same time, the computer
could solve one after the other
and even the last person in line
would not be aware of having had
to wait.

Don't blame the
machine w hen you
find an error
In 1965, therefore, the concept
of "time-sharing" was introduced.
Many different people could have
a typewriter connected to the
computer, some at considerable
distances. Each could use the
computer freely, taking his turn,
without ever being aware of
delay.
As early as 1948, two years
after ENIAC, small electronic
computers were being produced
in quantity; within five years;
2,000 were in use; by 1961, the
number was 10,000; by 1970, the
number had passed the 100,000
mark - and it is still going up
rapidly.
Computers have become essential for keeping government
statistics in order in these days
of income tax, Social Security
and welfare. Scientists have used
them in solving problems in every
field. Businesses use them to keep
track of a thousand matters from
warehouse items to orders to
billings. Computer memories are
serving everyone now, even when
they are scarcely aware of it.
And what of the future? Will
computers ever take over? So far,
there's no question of that. They
are still loyal servants of mankind, doing what they're told,
and when they make a mistake,
it is never the computer that
errs, but the man who has given
it its instructions.
And the annoyance with mistakes is completely overwhelmed
by the convenience of what computers make possible for us at
every moment.
Modern Maturity August-September 1974

Box 315
:Bolton, Massachusetts
',August 5, 1974
i

computer History Project
Smithsonian National Museum of
History and Technology
Room 4601
20560
Washington, D.C .

01740

·j
,

.J
·

·,

. Dear Sir:
The IEEE Spectrum of February 1974 had an article by Henry
. Tropp, former investigator for the Smithsonian History.
Project. Do you have any bibliographies or descriptive
material OL the contents of your project that are available
at ·this time?
I' am very interested in tracing certain points in the history.
of computers for a research project. Is it necessa'::'y to visit
.the Smithsonian and your Computer History Project in order to
use the material?
Sincerely,

Sally Birch Lymberg
Research Librarian
SBL/jac

;

.•
1·

.,:,~---'-~~-,~'~lJ

".~' ,~Dm,DDmD IN T E R OF Fie E· "M E M OR A NO U M'
TO:

Roy Gould

DATE:

i2 August 1974

cc: Marietta Ethier

FROM:

Ed Schwartz

DEPT:

LEGAL

EXT:,

,5500 LOC: Maynard PK-3/2

SUBJ:

MUSEUM

-"/ 'J.i'~

'k'

I have, asked Marietta Ethier of my department to look"
into the pros and cons of establishing the museum as a nonprofit corporation.
In addition~ we want to check out the various tax laws
to be sure that even if we can establish it as a non-profit
corpor'ation that it would have the, benefit of tax free status
so to take advantage of c'ontributions, as you indicated.
I trust that Marietta will be in touch with you shortly.

1m1.

',
,

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Danish National Tourist Office

Art and nature blend at Louisiana Museum in Danish countryside

Denmark's indoor-outdoor museum
Three million people have visited
rural 'cultural milieu' since 1958
By Diana Loercher
Humlebaek, Denmark
If you visit Denmark, don't pass up
its most popular, and most unusual,
museum. Traditional museums tend
to be gray stone monoUths, cold
storehouses of culture which Intimidate the visitor with their vast

treasures. Moreover, the urban location of most major museums enhances this atmosphere of Institutional tormallty.
The Louisiana Museum of Modern
Art, a few miles outside Copenhagen
bears Uttle resemblance to its predecessors. Designed In 1958 by Jorgen
So and VUheim Wohlert and completed In 1958, the one-story building
is made ot whitewashed brick, red
clinker, teak, and pine, and has a
Ught, airy, informal quality that remlnda one more of a ranch house than
~ museum. Moreover, it sprawls,
twists and winds In an irregular
fashion that obviates the monotony on
the traditional museum design and
introduces an element ot perpetual
surprise to the visitor's wanderings.
The rooms also tend to be spacious

and Ught, and the atmosphere lacks of
oppressiveness. One almost feels as if
one were outside while inside, and
impression which owes much to the
fact that windows are everywhere,
facing out onto the sea, the sculpture
garden and Into the woods. One of the
most striking Instances of the harmony between art and nature is the
square high-ceilinged room filled with
Giacometti's slender, spare tigures
which look Uke reflections of the trees
and reeds outside the huge window
which fills an entire wall of the room.

Dynamic director
Louisiana's dynamic director is
Knud Jensen who sold his cheese
business nearly 20 years ago to open a
museum ot modern Danish art. He
deUberately selected a nonurban location, In Humlebaek, North Zealand,
on the property of a nobleman who
called his estate Louisiana after his
three wives, all named Louise. Since
it opened, the museum has attracted 3
million people, an astonishing figure
when one considers that the museum
not only Is outside the city but deals
with modern art, which exerts increasingly little popular appeal. But
the combination ot Louisiana's scenic
location, Intensive program ot chang-

Ing exhibitions, and gradual shift In
emphasis trom the Danish to the
International scene has apparently
proved irresistible to the average
person.
Moreover, Lou1s1ana has become a
major influence on the Danish ~
scene. One ot its most important
exhibitions held In conjunction with
the Moderna Museet In Stockholm,
, 'American Art I1M5O-1970," Introduced
pop art to Scandinavia. As Gunnar
Jespersen, an art critic tor one of
Copenhagen's major newspapers,
said ot Mr. Jensen, "without him it
would be rather boring to be an art
critic In Denmark."
It is clearly the implementation ot
Mr. Jensen's museum philosophy that
accounts tor its untlsual BUcce•. In a
recent Interview Mr. Jenaen explained: "I hate the word education
but in presenting a wide yariety of
material you do stimulate people's
joy In looking at things. I guess yOl
might describe my approach as 'art
without tears.' There Is a long tradition
maintained
by
idealistic
bourgeois people that people go to
museums not for fun but because it's
an obl1gation, a visit to the temple ot
culture. Then too there's the complexity of modern art which they have
to
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m1n1shed by museums, and part of h18 '
. purpose in creating Lou1atana wu to
"avoid the loneUneu and unhappiness that the v1aitor orten fHIII." To
rd

th18 end he endeavored to bring art
down to human ecale by integraUng

functional architecture, abstract art,
and modem design even of the fumltore with each other and with nature.
His theory is that the unItlcation at
these various elements is conducive
to a fHUng of comfort and relaxaUon
In which the art experience becomea a
pl~re rather than an IItfllcUon.
In keeping with th1a view Mr.
Jensen hopes to tum Lou1atana into a
"cultural milleu," s1m1lar to the Museum of Modem Art in New Yom and
the Stedel1Jk Museum in Amsterdalil,
where fUms, concerts, and theatrlclol
performances also are held. Ail,
according to Mr. Jensen's v1eW',
should be a t'a IOClal event" and tIlfe
museum a place to experience ....
getheme." not only between ttle
various people and between the vaAart and llfe.

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Factors in Establishin..9:.-and Matnta~ning a Company Oriented f1useum

Federal and State Income Taxes. Company contributions to a
Connecticut membership corporation to form or maintain a museum
could be arranged to be either a charitable deduction or an
"ordinary and necessary" business expense.
A contribution by a corporate foundation to a museum would,
course, be a valid contribution if the museum had an exempt
ruling under section 501(c) (3) of the I.RoC. A museum open to
the public which displayed past produc~s.of a company and provided
historical and educational material probably could get a Federal
exemption.
It would be a "private foundation" unless its'receipts
(contributions or admission fees) from the public were at least
one-third ~f its total receipts, but the primary disadvantage would
only be a 4% tax on any investment income, which probably would be
negligible. Contributions could be cash or the fair market value
of any property given to ito
~f

Property Taxes. A Museum holding a Federal exemption as a charity
probably would not be subject to the Real Estate Property Taxes,
under Section 12-81(7) of the Connecticut Property Tax Law.
Section
12-89 of that Law provides that town Assessors shall determine the
exemption status of such organizations.
It would seem likely that
an agreement on this point could be reached.
Form of Orqanization
The most serious legal problems are the tax considerationS. However,
no particular form of organization is required to obtain tax exempt
status under the Internal Revenue Code. Generally, a non-profit
organization such as a museum would take one of two legal forms: a
membership or non-stock corporation, or a trust.
Some states have
enacted statutes which provide for the establishment of non-stock
corporations with minimum expense and effort. The charitable trust
is a creature of the common law. Either could be used to establish
the museum. The corporation ".,ould be required to file annua 1 reports
with the Secretary of State, but these are brief and not a serious
problem. Often the choice between the corporate form or the trust
form is made on the basis of a comparison of the powers and liabilities of' directors and
trustees. Trustees' powers are more
..... _--

.Jt.

limited and the extent of their liabilities is less certain than
is the case with directors.

Advantages and Disadvantages _of the Forms of Ol.~qanization
As previously mentioned the museum organization can be handled
two ways, depending upon the use to which the company wishes to
use it ..
It could be:

A wholly owned company facility

A non-profit, tax exempt corporation, foundation or truet
supported by. the company ..

In usage and in cost advantages, neither way is entirely advantageous for the company.
If the museum were wholly company owned, advantages would be:
1.

Full company control of the museum and its presentation,
thus insuring that the presentation is fully satisfying
to the company and correctly reflects its image
0

Full, unrestricted use of the museum for any purpose,
including sales promotion, engineering studies, technical
presentation, public relations and the like.

3 .. " A likelihood that the cost of the museum, at least its
annual operating expense, as a valid public relations
and business expense can be included in general overhead
and administrative costs used in price negotiations
would be acceptable to the governmento
Such would not be
acceptable if the museum were a separate non-profit
corporation or foundation.
Disadvantages would be:

Loss of town or city property tax exemption for the
museum.

Possible over-balance of company control and dictation
could adversely affect the museum's mission, presentation
effectiveness,'-and quality.

,',

,., ...... '-, .. ,_~_c.;.:.'.!..:..:,~·_.·,

"-"'~ :,~

3.
If the museum was owned by a non-profit, tax exempt corporation.
trust or foundation, supported by a company, advantages would be:

A higher degree of permanency should company control,
policy or direction change. While obviously affected,
the fortunes of the museum would not be directly tied
to that of the company. The museum might possibly be
able to refinance and continue to function independently
of a company.
It would be harder for an unsympathetic
company management to arbitrarily shutdown the museum
and disperse the exhibits.

More autonomy for the museum to establish its own operating
~~d exhibition policy without outside distraction which
would possibly result in greater operating stability for
the museum and ensure a continued high quality professionalismo

Av~ilability

Availability of state sales and other tax exemptions.

Exhibits would be the property of the museum and not subject to possible disruptive requirements or removal for
other company interests.

of town or city property tax exemption.

Disadvantages would be:

Outside of customer tours of the museum the company would
be unable to utilize the museum for business purposes, such
as sales and technical presentations,meetings and promotional
usages.- Such usage would prevent the museum to hold a federal
tax exemption. Without such an exemption, a non-profit museum
depending upon donative and charitable support cannot survive.
However, it may be possible to get around this problem by
renting facilities and selling services to the company.
However, these services would have to be available to anyone
or any organization at the same rates with all funds so
earned used solely in the museum operation and improvement.

In summation:

From an overall write-off standpoint it will make little
difference whether the company writes off the museum building construction and annual operating expense as a public
relations business expense or as an outright grant for
donative write-off to a non-profit organization. There is
little advantage one way or the other.
The bill is tho
same.

- : - .' - ....
.,

4 ..
The probability of expensing the museum cost in
general overhead and administrative expenses in
product price may balance out the loss of town or
city property tax o
2.

To maintain an acceptable company image and presentation,
a very liberal amount of support from a company would be
necessary if the musellm were a non-profit corporation,
trust or foundationo Under these circumstances, it would
be very difficult to raise outside funding to support a
company oriented museum.

Control of the Organization
A ccmpanywould wish-to be sure that any organization created
would continue to carry out the purposes for which it was established.
In the case of a non-stock corporation this would be accomplished by
providing in the certificate of incorporation that there would be no
voting members and that at least a majority of the Board of Directors
would be current employees or officers of the company. The trust
agreement would require that trustees receive the approval of the
company_
Liability of Directors or Trustees
The law places heavy responsibilities on both trustees and directors
of charitable corporations. The organization documents should be
drafted to limit their liability and to provide for indemnification
to the extent possible. As indicated above this is somewhat easier
to achieve in the case of the non-stock corporationo

If the museum is created as a non-stock corporation under Connecticut
law, it must include "Corporation'; "Incorporated", "Corp." or "Inc."
in its name.
If it is established as a trust, this is not necessary.
However, if incorporated, it can reserve the name and prevent others
from using it.

I
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Right to Property uEon Dissolution
Since a company would either be constructing a building for the
museum or providing the funds so that the museum can construct the
building and exhibit it would naturally wish to protect its investment b~ insuring that in the event the museum ceases for any reason
to continue to operate, the title would return to the companyo
Accomplishing this does raise tax problems in that it could affect
the museum's tax exempt statuse

Co=porate Archives
United Aircraft Corporation
August 19, .1974

.. '.

.....

..~:! ~. ' , . "

-, ;Jr.'.

IN TE R 0 F Fie E ' , M E M 0 R AN 0 U M
;' ': ':-':'; . r;',,:.

" ':. ~F:·,)·

.TO:

.' Roy

21, 1974

DATE:

FROM:
DE

LOC:
Fu ture Conference:':on Museums.

SUBJ:

/;:;\',0'
Ned Pearce, Boston MuseUm:" of Science, has given me the following
conferences which might.be· of interest to Digital:,
.'':''

,,<- ,

American Association of Museums, New Eng.land. Conference
Augusta, Maine':'
, .':, ,
State of Maine Museum
'
September 27-30
..

Seminar on Operations of Small Foundations (with part
emphasis on usefullness to company sponsored museums,
,exhibits, etc.)
Conducted by American Bar Association
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
November (dates will be furnished if we are interested).

;.:.

Agendas for both meetings are available upon request.
The first meeting is supposed to discuss changing trends in museum
operations based on actual expenses. The second meeting is more
for function and legal methods rather than operational procedures.

: ....-:

.. --

~D~DDmD

SUBJ :

INTEROFFICE

MEMORANDUM

DATE :

August 26 , 1974

FROM :

Jim B. ell ~

DEPT :

R&D

EXT :

2764

LOC :

41JG~

3-4

Attached lette r

What information on the Computer Museum do you have that
I can forward to Bert Raphael ?

JB : cw
Attachment

~(9~

REC~IVED

•

AUG 201974

STANFORD RESEARCH INSTITUTE
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA 94025
(415) 326-6200

August 13 , 1974

Dr . James R. Bell
Manager
Research and Development Group
Digital Equipment Corporation
146 Ma in Street
01754
Maynard, Massachusetts
Dear Jim:
Charlie passed y our recent note on to me . Please send us
more information about the proposed Computer Museum .
It is
certainly one of the possibilities we shall consider as a final
resting place for Shakey (although I would miss having him around-he makes a nice quiet office mate now) .
It is a pleasure to be back to the comforts and conveniences of
SRI and the USA.
Perhaps we can get together before too long .
Best regards ,

Bertram Raphael
Director
Artificial Intelligence Center
BR:dt

CABLE:

STANRES, MENLO PARK / TW X 910 - 373 - 1246

INT EROFFICE

~"
--- (;7------ ~~

~; JJ

C<4-P

SUEJ:

rv1EM 0 RAN OU M

I.
AUG 20 i974

DATE :

Augus t 26, 1974

FROM :

Jim Be ll ~......

DEPT:

R &.D

EXT:

2764

LOC:

STANF O RO RE Si:AR CH INS TITUTE
MI:;I\oLO PAR!>;. C A LI FO A~ IA 9~016

IJlIC~" _

141 5 1 0 26 · 6200

i'ZV)'1
3- 4

Attacned letter
Aug ust: 13, 1974

What informat i on on the Computer Museum do you have that
I c an forwa rd to Bert Raphael?

·1

Dr. J ames ·n. Be ll
Ma nage r
Resea rch and Develo pment Group

Digita l Equipment Corporation
146 Main St r eet
Mny na rd , Mas s achus etts
JB:cw

At tachment

Dear Jim:

I'i

01754

Chnrlic passed your recent note on to mc .

Pl ease send u s

more inform at i o n a bo ut th e propose d Computer Mu seuCI .

It i ;;
cer tili n l y o ne of the po ssi bi 11 tif:.' s \O'e s hu ll cons ider as n fi n n l
r cst1 n ~ place for Sh3kcy ( 0. 1 th ot,gh I \\'ould mi s!-' h av inG h ~m around -he makes a ni ce qui e t office ma t e now) .

It is a pleasure to bo back to the , c omforts a nd c o nveniences of
Sn I and the· USA.
Perhaps "·0 c a n get t ogethe r he f ore ~ ou lung.
Best r eg-nrd s ,

I "lie:):.
Be rtram Raphael
Di r e c to r
Artificial Intelligence Center
1J1l : dt

C ABLE : STANRES. MENLO PARK .. TW X ~ 10 ·37:l · 1 2"6

••

_~~ ..... , . . . . ~.

II"JTEF10FF=ICE

, __

:~i.,-,~.l,"",-.-'",:,":.• ~.,:,. -::.-;..,~._.3:.

DEPT: Legal
EXT:

Digital Computer Jviuseum

4428

eeJ

Ethi~~

LOC:

PK3-2

Ed Schwartz asked me to respond to your memo inquiring into the possibilities of making the proposed Digital .Computer Museum a nonprofit entity.

It is certainly possible.

At the moment, I think

a corporation, chartered under Chapter 180 of the Massachusetts
General Laws (popularly known as the charitable corporation statute)
might be the most flexible form of organization.

However, leaving

that consideration aside the 4uestion becomes whether a non-profit
entity is the desirable operating vehicle for the proposed museum.
2.

I have set forth below a comparison of the company-owned concept
and the separate non-profit approach with reference to several important features.
Independent Non-Profit
Taxes:

Company Ol'lned

Other things being equal, Larry Ricci informs
me that there is no distinct advantage either
way.

If company controlle4 contributions to

the museum, in whatever form, could probably
be labeled as advertising for the most part,
and, therefore, an ordinary and necessary
.-.,..::,:

; __ -4.. .,.'.:!ii:

rv1CfVlORANDUM

FROH: Marietta

SUBJ:

• ~.~ __ .~. ':'w:~' •.• ",:,.,,·_ •• ~! .. :r ... --:;...~.":,'_·~'" ' .•- ._.,

DATE: August 26, 1974

Roy Gould

TO:

,.__

• . • • ~...-............. £ ... _,._ •• _.

._. . . . . : ......

...

_".'.:.,.J. .. _.. '

... ".~." .. ~~

..
Roy Gould
Page 2
Au gu s t 26, 19 7 4

Independent Non-Profit
business expense.

Taxes:

Company Owned

Contributions to a legiti-

mate non-profit entity would be a charitable

(Cont. d)

deduction.

(There is a maximum level but

Larry thinks we probably wou~d never reach it).
However, in order for the contributions to be
classified as charitable and, therefore, deductible, the non-profit entity would have to
qualify under the Internal Revenue Code as a
tax-exempt organization and would have to conduct its affairs so as to maintain this status.
Control:

All control rests in the
managing body - A Board
of Directors elected by
members in the case ofa

Total unrestricted

corporation and the

control.

trustee or trustees for
charitable trusts.
(Note if in the corporation charter or by-laws,
we attempt to severely
I

;."

.~.-,~..,..;-

......... ...
,,"

..... ......

Roy Gould
Page 3
August 26, 1974

Company Owned

lndependent Non-Profit
Control:

membership to

linli t

DEC officials or employees

(COJ~ t ' d)

or at a minimum attempt
to assure that

~ ~ajority

members would be DEC affiliated, or if the Trustees
have to be approved by DEC,
this might mean denial of
a tax-exempt status initially; or possibly loss
of it eventually.

- I don't think the

Trustees of a charitable
trust could be DEC officials).
Use for Promotional Purposes:

Almost any use of the mu-

As with other company-

seum for advertising or

qwned divisions .the

pr~motional

facilities can be used

purposes by

DEC would probably result

for any legitimate

in loss of tax-exempt

purpose.

status.

,.....; .....

~,.

'. --,~·_ ........... , .... ·.• ........ i ... ;;;.~_.

. .... ,··.;:.J.-,;.!.I ... ~.,_w, ......,....

~.,_. '~,.'

....

d .....

~.' •

• .,. . . . . . . .J •

...... _

•

'U'~.l:,!... •• ~ .... --.:.

'0"

,,".'.

_ . . . . . . . . . . , •• _ .... " . _ ••. ,

Roy Gould
Page 4
August 26, 1974

Independent Non-Profit
Use of Museum
Facilities:

Company Owned

DEC would probably have
to pay for use of museum
. facilities and services.
Agai~)unrestricted

free

use might result in loss

Free unrestricted

of tax-exempt status.

use.

Also, technically, competitors might also be
entitled to use of the
facilities en
basis as DEC.
Availability of
Donations:

Clearly, this is the
biggest advantage.

DEC might have to
The

rely on loans, if

museum's tax-exempt

they can be.arrange~

status would allow corp-

or resort to out-

orations and individuals

right purchases ..

to deduct the actual cash
value of their gifts to
the museum and the nonprofit, separate identity status would provide justification to

Roy Gould
Page 5
August 26, 1974

Company Owned

Independent Non-Profit
Availability of
Donations:
(Cont ~ d)

other entities, such as
universities, in making
such gifts, not opening
them to the charge of
giving away university
assets to a profit
making corp.

Ir'reversibility:

A gift is a gift, is a

gift!

,given
Property to the

museum would probably be
forever loss to DEC, '
Loans could be arranged,
but then DEC would lose
at least some tax benefits.
3.

There are, of course, other valid and important social considerations which are well outlined in Mr. Lippincott's memo entitled:
"Survey of Company OloJned, sponsored and supported museum."

(See

especially page 2).
4.

Briefly, in order to achieve and maintain tax-exempt status so as to
attl'act donors, the museum \oJo,uld have to operate somewhat autono"mously.

Does DEC want to relinquish that amount of control?

..
-.............

~;,.-

...

' ,,,~~',,..-

., ,~

........ -... ..
~

';:.:~,- .:-....,~:

Roy Gould
Page 6
August 26, 1974

The pros and cons should be weighed carefully, thoroughly discussed
and considered.

At least during the organizational stage, I would

recommend that the museum be kept ~ithin the corporate structure.
In the long run, my feeling would be to maintain it as an integral
part of the corporation until such time as it becomes evident that
the museum's success will be greatly compromised by its' inability
to attract badly needed "gifts.

We can always convert it to a

non-profit entity, but 1ve, can I t easily reverse the process.

ME/dt

- . ~ :--: :. ;--

~flmDt1ml1
TO:

INTEROFFICE

R. Gouldi/
L. Ricci
cc: Ken Olsen
Gordon Bell

MEMORANDUM::

DATE:27 August 1974
FROM: John

DEPT:Administration
EXT: 4515

SUBJ:

Fisher

LOC:

12-1

Museum

J believe that

the changes to the tax law eliminated the benefit of
giving inventory.to charity but continued the benefit for depreciable
assets. Accordingly, there may be a significant tax benefit in setting
up the DEC Museum as a charitable institution and donating depreciable
and 'rotation property to be used for the exhibits. It could be that the'
tax benefit from doing this would more than pay for· the out-of-pocket
cost of getting the museum started.

nkp

'.'

.. '., .", "~ .
'

Cl'l J..L ~ -1...-; vI,

!1 . •

DATE:
FROM:

SU8 J : ·. -CAPTAPJ HePPER

* . ;}
'.l* * * ':- * * ~
* * PL EASE .:Hlo SE ~;J TO: G08 LANE
~
* ~ * * * * * * * *

* *

PAGE .- J08 '.)i ' 'II.

-GORDO N OF- I L

',j.

. -'

- SU BJ' ;

re i
~.

-,-

o l s t r l butlo1

We ne ed to glva carit. HODcer so m at' l ~g besIdes the
ex pen s es -,
I don't thrnk a financl~1 h:Jrlo rarl u::1 I s
In t el

gave h er a sat of

~1OS

orocessor chlos, · wh jc h she

us es I n har ta ·(k s,
~ · AS

soon as ~e ~et ~1"T~CQ30L o n a ~DP~R, wbuld It be aoororir fate
to s e nd a CLASSIC-a? An B/A board se~ - mlght a l sob s aCPfoorlate

We r eai" I Y n e~d a first

rate exh l,\t NhjCh wou l d be s l.l(ta ~) ! e for
t r a d e a ! a r CJ ::.!

a n () f f -I c e \-J ~ ! ,. 0 r d e s k ,
A Iso, wa s t I I I h a vet 0
ex h-lt..: -I t of this tyoe r'llth UX's Science 11u ~e urn,

An y ldea s ?
GB ir.1Jk

Dls t r ibut f on

.--------- ..
Ro y Go u I 0 ·

R- o-bJGa-rt-B ):j<..o

/LJ...}.'\f'(\ &~~.

SallY LYr1berg
H ike O/Connel!

-'-

~ -.- --- .

. .C': .';-. -

•

"!.

: \ -7

~
r

THE

MITRE
8EDFOR~

CORPORATION
MASSACHUSETTS

5 September 1974
B33-L65

Ms. Sally Birch Lymberg
Digital Equipment Corporation
Parker Street
Maynard, Mass. 01754
Dear Sally:
Under separate cover, copies of AC-6 Whirlwind I
Computer (MIT Project 6345), AC-23 Memory Test Computer,
and AC-3l Lincoln TX-O and TX-2 Computer were sent to
you.
These copies are for your retention.
Cordially,

EXC/ecc

·1

INTER 0 FFIC E
TO:
cc:

Gordon B e l l /
Ken Olsen
Roy Gould

Dl\'l'E.:

Septem~er

FROM:

Sall y Lymberg

DEPT:

Museum

EXT:
Museu~

SUBJ:

MEi\1l0R/~I'-JDUM
13, 1974

LOC:

2302

PK3-2

Coll ect ion

am making a list of objects that are ava ilable f or a di splay in
the museum.
By this I mean pre -DEC material or artif a ct s f rom all
companies. May I have your ~ssistance in compiling a n inventory?
To avoid duplication, I have c ome up with the foll owing li ~tof
the in-house collection:
I

vfnirlwind et al
Ken(~

Roy

Part s from ACE (UK-NPL)
650 & 704

(Gordon's r efe r ences )

(Go rdon ' s references)

MIT Differential Analyzer

(Gordon's r e ferenc es )

Ha ve th e re been . any offers from outsid e sour c es f or i·tems such as
manuals, old items, or old ma chines not li s t ed abo ve ?
2)

The fol lowing are from the £'.1use'0.111 file

(1<.0 1' ' s)

PDP-l
Early f'.lanuals
ARC
CASI NO
~luseum Material
TXO
Nixdorf Comput er
IBM - requ e st for pu rchase of ear l y object s
3)

DEC - Early Prototype Machines
( Roy h as l is t and wi ll coordinate)

Upon recei p t of this list, I can th en be gi n to fill in any re fere nce
sources for documentation of outside equipment if it is need ed .
For
\'lhirlwind , TXO et aI , I look to Ken for sugges tions on documen t u f.;;.i. o n
or comme n tary.
Lincoln Lab s , MIT, MITRE, Boston Public, will all
coopera te as we ll as ONR, Boston, as soon a s we know our needs for
manuals, reports, or .d9cuments.
Enclosure:

Digital Museum Project

..........

. .

• 0· • •

DIGITAL MUSEUM' PROJECT

.. As a result of the reseprch for .the Digital, ·Museum project,
a resource file has been created.

It consists of the

following parts:
1)

Historical File - alphabetical and chronological
(3 x 5 cards)

Backup file for· source material and information
for the above

Bibliography of primary and secondary sources

Reports, correspondence, and reprints file on
museums.

Bibliography of references used \vi th list of current. Ii tera ture
as revi~wed to establish two points:
lr

What has been done already in· computer museums, science
museums, or e~hibits in any related field.

·2)

What has been written about the same subjects together
·with.trends for the future. This information covers
subjects relevent to company sponsored museums, computer
exhibits, history of computers, computation, mathematics,
etc,.

With this, background research accomplished, I began to collect
appropriate historical data without duplication of an exhibit
~lready

established as well a~ an awareness of what was already

in planning stages. in our fields of interest·. '

, "Massachusetts

, '-1-

.... '

,Boston Museum of Science
Boston, Massachusetts
Children's Museum
Bosto,n, Massachus~tts

Toronto

Royal ontario ,l-1useum '
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Ontario Science Center
Toxonto, Ontario, Canada
ontario Place (Civic Center)
Ontario, Canada
MCMicheal Canadian Historical 1·1useum
Kleinberg, Ontario, Canada
Pall Mall of Rothman Ltd.
Toronto, Canada
Glass Nuseum,
Corning Glass Center
Corning, New York

New York

,Cor~ing

Connecticut

United Aircraft'Company
East Hartford, Connecticut

MUSEUMS VISITED BY OTHERS AT MY REQUEST:New York

I,BM
New York, New York

Germany

Munich Museum
Munich, Germany

MUSEUMS CONTACTED OVER PHOt-..1E FOR ATTENDANCE RBCORDS':
Fruitlands Museum
Harvard" Massachusetts

DeCordova Nuseum
Lincoln, Mass.

Mass Dept of Education
Boston, Hass.

,-2-

ASSOCIATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS
American Association of Museums

Association of Science Technical centers

Associqtion ?f,ComEuting Machinery

computer History ProJect
Smithsonian Institute
W'ashington, D. C.

Federal Archives & ,Record Center
New England Archivists
Special Libraries Association

codasyl

PERIODICALS

Museum Ne\vs

"PEOPLE IN THE KNOW"
Last, but not least, I have collected a valuable source list
of individuals, companies, librarians, and others who have
already supplied source information for both Roy's and my use
for the "Digital IvIuseum Proje'ct".
Mimi Cummings in the'DECCorporate library has been a valuable
asset in this research both inside and outside company history.
,At present, potent~al museum source material is being kept in
the

l~brary.

All names, addresses, notes on meetings,

rep~ints

6f articles,

arid references are: available.

131 BLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Betl.and Newell; Computer Structures
Goldstein; The Computer from Pascal to Von Newmann
John Von Newmann; The Computer and the Brain
N~gel

Hawkes; The Computer ~evolution

BO\.,deni F·aster Than Thought
Eames; A Computer Perspectence
(IBM Exhibit).
Brian Randall; The Origins of Digital Computers
Pamphlets on "Computer History Project"
Smithsonian Institute
Washington, D.C.
Encyclopedias, Computer Surveys, Technical Repo;!:'ts, Abtracts, etc.
PERIODICALS
l-luseurn News:

1974 January, ·February, March, April
1973 January, April, May, June, September, October,
November, December
1972 January, February, April, May; September,
November
·1971 September

American Education:

June 1974, Push a Button Turn a Crank by
Victor Danilov, Director of Chicago Museum
of Science

Honeywell Computer Journal:

Honeywell computers at Boston Huseum
of Sqience (date ·not given) ~ A view
of the history of COBOL (tombstone)

ACM:· 25th Anniversa~y 'edition of Quarter Centery of Computers
IEEE Spectrum:
Bell Lab Record:

Retrospective series on computers by Tropp
Beil Labs; a pioneer in c6mputing technology,
December 1973, January, February 1974
•

.,
.....

'-4t

Harvard Business Review:

Five .generat~ons of compute~~:
July, August 1974

Training in Business & Industry:

Teaching '~,"ith Computers; Albert E.
Hickey, Ap~i1 1972

Guide' to Nassachusetts' f.iuseums, Historic Houses i and Points ofI'nterest
by "Jerome and CYnthia Rubin'

MEr\liOR/~r'.!DUM

IN-rEROFFiCE
TO:
cc :

Gord on Bel l /
Ken Ols en
Roy Gould

DATE:

Septe mbe r

FROM:

Sa l ly Lymberg

DEPT:

Muse um

E XT:

SUBJ:

230 2

13, 1974

LOC :

iJ" J

hQ \l\",i\
\.p~'

PK3-2

Museum Co llection

I am mak ing a list of o bj ects that are avai la ble f or a d i splay in
t he museum.
By this I mean pre-DEC mate ria l or arti f ac·t s fr om all
comp an ie ~.
May I hav e you r assistance in comp iling an inventory?
To avoid dup lica tion, I h ave come up with the follo wing list of
th e in -house coll ection:

e t al
Ke n~ Roy

~rnirlwind

Parts from ACE (UK-NPL )
650 & 704

(Gordon ' s references )

(Gordon's re fer enc es)

MIT Differenti al Analyzer

(Gordon's refere nces)

Ha ve th e re b een. any offers from outside sources for items such a s
manuals, old items, or old ma chines not lis ted abo ve ?
2)

The follo wing are from th e Museurr fil e (Ro y 's )
PDP-l
Early Manuals
ARC
CASINO
Museu m Material
TXO
Ni x dorf Computer
I BM - reques·t for purchase of ear l y obje cts

DEC - Early Prototype Machines
(Ro y h as list and wi ll coordinate )

Upo n r ec e ip t of thi s lis t, I can then b egin to :fil l i n any reference
sources f or documen tation o f outside equipment if i t is nee ded. For
wn irlwind, TXO e ·t aI , I look to Ke n for suggestions on documenta t ion
or commenta ry . L inc·o ln Labs, MI T , MI'I' RE Boston Public, wil l all
cooperate as we ll as ONR, Bos ton, as soon as we . know our n e eds fo r
manuals, reports, or docume nts .
I

Enclosu re:

Digital Museum Pro j e ct

DIGITAL MUSEUM PROJECT

As a result of the research for the Di gi ta l Museum project,
a resource file has be e n crea ted.

It c onsists of the

following parts:

Historical File - a lphabetical and chronol ogical
(3 x 5 cards)

Backup fil e for source material and inf ormation
for the above

Bibliography of primary and secondary sources

Reports, correspondence, and re prints file on
museums "

Bibliography of references used with list of cu rren-t litera"ture
as reviewed to es -tab lish two points :
1)

vmat has been done already in computer museums, science
museums, or exhibits in any related field.

What has been written about the same subjects toge "ther
with trends for the future. This information covers
subj ec ts relevent to company sponsored museums, computer
exhibits, history of computers, computat io n, mathematics,
etc.

With this background research accomplished, I began to collec"t

..-,
appropriate historical data without duplication of an exhibit
already established as well as an awareness of what was already
in planning stages in our fie lds of interest.

-1-

LIST OF MUSEUMS AND SCIENCE CENTERS

Massachusetts

VISITED:

·Boston Museum of Science
Boston, Massachusetts
Children's Museum
Boston, Massachusetts

Toronto

Royal Ontario Museum
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Ontario Science Center
Toxonto, Ontario, Canada
Ontario Place (Civic Cen~er)
Ontario, Canada
McMicheal Canadian Historical Museum
Kleinberg, Ontario, Canada
Pall Mall of Rothman Ltd.
Toronto, Canada

New York

Corning Glass Museum
Corning Glass Center
Corning, New York

.Connecticut

United Aircraft Company
East Hartford, Connecticut

MUSEUMS VISITED BY OTHERS AT MY REQUEST:
New York

IBM
New York, New York

Germany

Munich Museum
Munich, Germany

MUSEUMS CONTACTED OVER PHONE FOR ATTENDANCE RECORDS:
Frui tlands Museum
Harvard, Massachusetts

DeCordova Museum
Lincoln, Mass.

Mass Dept of Education
Boston, Mass.

- 2ASSOCIATIONS AND I NST I TUTIO NS
Americ a n Ass oc iat ion o f Museums

Association of Science Te chn ic al Ce nte rs

Asso c i ati on of , Compu ti ng Machi nery

Compu·t e r His ·tory Proj ect
Smithsonian Institute
Washington, D.C .

Federal Archives & Re cord Center
New Eng l a n d Archivist s
Spec ial Libraries Association

Codasyl

PERIODICALS

Museum News

"PEOPLE IN THE KNOW"
Last, but not least, I have collecte d a valuabl e source list
of individuals, companies, librarians, and othe r s who have
. "

already supplied source information for bo·th Ro y's and my use
for the "Digital Museum Proj e ct".
Mimi Cummings in the DEC Co r porate library has been a valu a ble
asset in this research both inside and outside company history.
At present, potential museum source material is being kept in '
~.

the library.
All

nam~s,

addresses, n ote s on mee tings , r eprints of articl es ,

~tid

refer~nc~s

are available.

_BIBLIOG RAPHY

BOOKS

Bell and Newe ll; Computer Structure s
.....

Goldstein; The Computer from Pas ca l to Von Ne,vmann
John Von Newmann; Th e Computer and -the Brain
Nigel Hawkes; The Computer Revolution
Bowden; Faster Than Thought
Eames; A Computer Per spec tenc e
(IBM Exhibit)
Brian Randall; The Origins of Digital Computers
Pamphlets on "Computer History Project "
Smi thsonian Insti tu -te
Washington, D.C.
Encyclopedias, Computer Surveys, Technical Repo rt s, Abtracts, e-tc.

PERIODICALS
Museum News:

1974 January, February, March, Apri l
1973 January, Ap ril, May, June, Septe mber , October ,
November, December
1972 January, Februa ry, April, May : September,
November
1971 September

American Education:

June 1974, Push a Button Turn a Crank by
Victor Danilov, Director o f Chicago Museum
- of Scienc e

Honeywell Computer Journal:

ACM:

Honeywe ll computer s at Boston lYlu seum
of Science (date not given) . A view
of the hi story of COBOL (tombstone)

25th Anniversa~y edition of Quarter Centery of Computers

IEEE Spectrum:
Bell Lab R~cord:

Retrospective series on compute rs by Tropp
Bell Labs; a pioneer in comput ing technology,
December 1973, January , February 1974

· -4-

Harvard Business Review:

Five· generations of computers;
July, August 1974

.Training in Business & Industry:

Teaching with Computers; Albert E.
Hickey, April 1972

Guide to Massachusetts Museums, Historic Houses, and Points of Interest
by Jerome and Cynthia Rubin

ROUGH DRAFT - MUSEUM PHt LOSOPHY

In reviewing all the pages and pages of "historical stuff" about
"history of", I find a definite pattern in my notes
original, it's the result of this r ecording.

it ' s not

There are two basic

ways:

By concentrating om the equipment and the technology

On the ideas and the people who conceived them.
I have chosen arbitrarily to give ideas and people first
place -- I think it is the more interesting approach for
PEOPLE

This is important to me because I think it tells also a story
about DEC -In

is People.

~ bO~ prdlor to the last two years -- 72/73, the approach

for "history of computation" was based on first premise
equipment/hardware.
In order to "translate" into the people position, I am accumulating
a lot of information which has been ignored in favor of technology .
I believe part of my job is to tell "how I see it" ana * hy "it's
that way"

from basis of data reviewed.

I also believe this is

an important change in general and should be recommended as a
difference in presenting material or information as a basis for
display of facts.

. . -.,-.-~ ~'' ~'- ~'."'-: . . ."._-:.".-._. -'- ~~-~- . .....-_,-'........2:..: .... ,.,_.-~~.:.-.:;.~ ..- ::- ~._.: . -:f... ~.:. ~.-:-:..:..-.:...._ - ----.:-.---::----~ -~-.-:.-...;."'-r
~,

Mike: , Rasdk in
cc : Larry Ri cci.
Roy Go u ld:/
Gordon Be ll
. " Ke n a 1s e n

.-"-

.::-:~-;::.

. •

•

'l:.

DATE :26 Septem ber 197 11
F ROM: John Fisher
DEPT: Ad minist rat ion

EXT:

-:,./:,:. SUBJ' ~; DEC Museum
-"'1 •

r\/l E M 0 F~·~~. . N 0 U r~/ . '

IN T~ EROFl_ICE
;' TO: .

: ,,"":1:'

LOC;

4515

• ..

',: .-..:.1c

·.v~'·

I did not make 'nly se1f clear on t he subjec t-o f' donat ing p rope rty 't ~':i ~"~'"
ch aritable f oundati o n to sta r t up t he IDEC Muse um""
I don't- t hink it
is- a : quest io n of se ll i ng versus donati ng prope rty but ' r a ther i t is. a
~ u estion o f va l uing uniq ue , a nd per ha ps anti q ue equ ipme nt.
Ce rtain l y,
t h is :: eq uip ment has- a i,imrted val ue a s a subs titut io n f o r mod e rn fourth
generation c om pu t ers . Un the o t her ha nd, as uniq ue. l a s t of a kind'a .
1a Smithson i a n l it might b e possib l e to get a siz(-"l ble oL!ts id e ap prai s al
th a t ';:, would hold up for t ax pu r poses.
If you fin d th e re is any -merit to
th 1 ~ approa c h l etls ~et together to di scuss it an~ mak~ a con c lu s i~n •

..... ..... .. .

,..... J .~ ....

.~~.:
~

",...

":;.:'

...... '.,....

..~.

. ""~~

.:>~-)-.~.:/.:' .

:.: .

,.:;

~--

,.:~.

nk p -'.

M'.

~'';~ ~

...

'.'

..-;,

I NT E ROFF! C ~.

Mr~v10F4 l~. f'-JOUM

I
I

· TO:- ,

CC:

SUBJ:

Roy Gou I d J
John Tr e bendis

DATE :

September 27, 1974

FROM:

Ken Olsen

DEPT:

Adm in i s tr at i on

EXT:

2300

SURPLUS FLE X\.JR I TERS

You probably shoul d

put them aside and try to make th em look in decent order for our museum.bec~use
they are the machines that we o r i ginally us ed in the PDP-I, and close to the ori~i n a l
.:.flexwrite rs in th e old Wo r ld Wa r I movie .
/ma

~-.:'

'.:.

LOC: r'il1 2 //\50

lri the surplus junk room there are one or t wo old flexwr iters.

'"',

0 ...

:.i~i~.{;i.\:·,'"

BUILDING
Cafeteria area for the tower, 12,000 square feet, within the
building. 3,000 square feet mezzanine and 9~000 square feet
on lower floor.
ACCESS
Easily accessible from Routes 495, 290, 20, and 85. However,
no walk-in traffic; i.e., accessible only by car, no public
transportation available.
PARKING
Foresee no problems with parking.

Lots are more than adequate.

FOOD SERVICE
The cafeteria could be utilized with extra security so as:'·
visitors would not be able xo enter the plant.

':.. ;~,

Cost or fitting up to ready the area would consist of:
..
1) Sprinklers
2) . Electrical
3)
Air ConditionLig
4)
Tile in some areas
5)
Construct an entrance easily accessible from· parking lot
and create a walk to the door
6)
Labor
1) Provide toilet facilities in museum area
8) Some lighting
95K

SPACE RENT
$14,400 per quarter
$57·,600 per year
EXPANSION
Another·4,OOO sCVlare feet available if Direct Mail is
SUMMARY

....

. './

COST OF FITTING UP

Total cost:

, .

,~~:~ .:);;i.r<,':· . ' . c

The: building <in:;M~rib~~C;;ti'~"new and rnodern,<·h;~ever, ..
to as· the no
. bui
. and in: D .

•

,'r

,'"
$I.'

• '.Q . .

'.'

,':."

" ~~
~

TENTATIVE'
~ruSEUM OPEfffiTION PLAN

WR:l\.T vlTLL MUSEUH SHml/£
The museum will show the history of the computer. This will
begin by deplicting how man first learned how to count, the
first counting machines, important steps in technology,
hands-on. demos will be used, up to our present day computers.
All this will be done with graphics, copy, parts of machines,
and actual machines.

PROPOSED I-1USEUM HOURS
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
1'V'ednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday

11:00 AM to 4:00 PM
-Closed9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
9:00 AM to 4:00 PH
·10:00 Alvl to 4:.00 PM

Hours are designed so as not to have any affect on already',.
existing peak traffic hours.

a)
I estima'te that approximately 2,000 people will tour the
museum per week. This figure should be greater during the
surruner months.
b) Attendance would be from DEC employees, DEC visitors, the
general public, . school and group tours, and genera). tourism.
c)
I estimate that 1,000 will be on Saturday and Sunday; for
example, the Fruitlands'Museum in Harvard averages 600 on a
Sunday during the sunimer months.
d)
4)

Weather, of course, is a definite factor on attendance.

SCHOOL TOURS
My.figure of 2,000 should be average each week of the year
do to the fact that when the heavy surrmer tourism season
has ended, I anticipate a large turnout of. schools during
the winter months. Due to the scope of the museum, tours.
would be for fifth grade on up.
... ~}

PUBLICITY
The Digital Computer Museum plans an extensive
campaign.

:...

.. ~:.

We anticipate heavy traffic at the museum, "regardless of
location, during these periods. Perhaps as much as
75~lOO% greater~ especially on weekends.
7)

ADMISSION
At the present time, there will be no charge for admission.

STAFF
Staff \vould consist of myself as cost center manager, an
operations manager, an assista!1t, and a clerk for the gift
shop. I see no reason for a curator in the true sense of
the word. Future acquisitions and displays would be done
by the Board of Directors of the museum.
In addition to the full time personnel, part-time students
would be employed for the peak summer months as guides.
Also, guard and custodian service would have to be contracted
for through the Corpora.tion.

GIFT SHOP
A gift shop would be incorporated into the museum selling
such items as computer books, post cards, film and accessories,
jewelry items made" from IC' s, paperYleights, computer aided
designs, photographs and drawings, 'etc., marked Digital
Computer Museum.
The monies received here would"compensate someone to work in
the shop and anything above that would go into the operation
of the museum.

IO}

MUSEUM AS A NON-PROFIT TRUST
At the present, our Legal Department is researching the pro's
and con's of'whether this is wise.

\'NTEROFFICE
TO:

Bob Francisco

DATE:

October 11, 1974

FROM:

Sally Lymberg

DEPT:

Museum

EXT:
SUBJ:

MEMORANDUM

LOC:

Resources for DEC Museum

As per telcon and your check list, I understand you already have the
following material:
PERIODICAL REPRINTS
Man & Computer
New York Times

1972

Denmark's Indoor/Outdoor Museum
Christian Science Monitor August 1974
Those Overlooked Business Machines
Hartford Times June 16, 1974
Port Gamble "A Logging Museum"
Christian Science Monitor July 1974
In addition to the above, I am providing you today with:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)

Tureens, Old Money, ~~iskey -- Boom in Company Museums
The Computer Revolution
Rethinking Corporate Charity
How to Avoid Taxes
Cobol
The Effervescent years: a retrospective
The Whirlwind I Computer
Historical section from Computer Structures
Five Generations of Computers
Teaching With Computers
The Honeywell Computer Exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science

To supplement reprints and those listed above, the legal reference
referred to in our last meeting is also attached.
Interoffice Memo dated August 26, 1974

..n!.

-2-

Bol:> Francisco
....

October 11, 1974

In addition to the above, the following books are for your use:

Charles Babbage and his Calculating Engines
by Charles Babbage & ,Others

Lincoln Labs

The Analytical Enqi_~:
Computers -- Past, Present and Future
by Jeremy Bernstein

Lincoln Labs

The Computer Revolution
by Nigel Hawkes

Museum of Science

.The Computer and the Brain
by John von Neumann

Museum of Science

The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann
by Herman H. Goldstine

.DEC Library

A Computer Perspective
by Charles & Ray Eames

DEC· Library

At a later date, there will be several general reference books available
for you to read.
The film,

"Making Electrons Count ll is being shown today.

jac
Attachments

.:. "'

AD·MORE
INCORPORATED

October 17 ~ 1974

SUMMER STREET
SHREWSBURY. MASS.

ZIP CODE 015_45
PHONE (617(844-6321

Mr. Roy Gould
DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION
Maynard~ Massachusetts 01754
Dear Roy:
Let this serve as a re-cap.of our meetings with yourself, Mr. Olsen,
Mr. Bell and Mrs. Lymberg in an attempt to define the purpose and
direction for what will be called (for the time being) the DEC Computer
Museum. The following:
I.,

PUBLIC RELATIONS
A.

Level One
1. To soften the image of the computer in general .. to
allay the general public's fear of computers and
computer related things~ to lessen the sense of
mystery surrounding computer sciences, to present
computers as a servant of man as opposed to a threat.

M. O. for Accomplishment:

Educate the public as to the basics of how a computer
functions.

Educate the public as to the myriad uses of computers.
The elements'in our daily lives that would not have been
possible without the computer.

Level Two
1.

Establish Digital Equipment Corporation as a public
conscious people-oriented company, stable and with
as much tradition as one can have in such a new field.

ACMORE
INCORPORATED

Mr. Roy Gould
DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORP.

-2-

October 17, 1974

M. O. for Accomplishment:
1.

Name of museum should reflect Do E. Co name in some
way.

History area should reflect D. E. C. 's contributions.

D. E. C. equipment will be used as basis for all interactive computer exhibits.

II. ARCHNES
A. To preserve historically significant artifacts such as the
Whirlwind computer and place it in context with the development of computer technology. To present thepeople behind
the advent and history of the computer. To reflect on the
influence of the computer upon our society. To reflect on
the possible future direction of computers.
Cordially,

Robert J. Francisco
Executive Vice President

RJF/s

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INCOI'1?OR,~"E.!:)

56 SUM~.'!::R ';rr;r;:"'1

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October 21. 1974,

ZIPCoo£OI').~!5

PHONE C.6 17)

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. '. Mr Roy Could .
DIGITAL EQUIP:MENT CORPoRATION
MaynardJl . Massachusetts
01754
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Dear.Roy!'

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Herels'a brief 'recap 'Of our 'meeting with Jim L,oweat 10 B.,M. ga.Uery·
in New York on October 18th.. ';' ',:,'.
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Gallery covers 8000 sq ... feet -Jim's est:iInate to get entire ,thing up about o;o'e inillioll and a. half. p.olla~,~.
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·,.!".':I;'hr~~'t~ B.Mo· pe9P~e:.::bnfl.Oo~.a'f:·i·al1tir.nes ...' 'This 1 feel is due~'to the., :!
'·'inc,o:rnpten.ensihl1ity ,of toer':copy and general.; message6Ithe,:exhibits.· ' ./,
agreed .with this 9Pservation... The hardware' is beautifully detailed.
and'makes· very el~gant 'ifurnitUre. II . Age level is supposedly Jro High.'
School. 'T:o' understand most 'of what is there would take a'considerable
~ire-knqwledge,.of the ,aubJ~cts and a: great deal 'of reading time. 'The
exllibitis 'yery "tep'-chy'.' and essentially a beautifully packi;lged text

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',Jim agreed.that itgerieraliy reinforces the :i.l1comprenenslhUity of co:m''put~rsand I. B.,lVI .. 'andthe stupidity and uhworthinessof the 'general .

public.

. ."

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They handle about'~wo·~4hooJ. groupspet'day. ':['hey use a fil~ the'atre .'
. 'with several Eames I .. B~:'M;, fjlIns.o Th~y. do not solicit elementary school
. groups •.. The galleJ;"Y'.is; op'Em '4. days per ,week. .
.
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No :adm~SSiOnCharge~';:Falle'ry is not a~eparate nonfppofit, Organiz~tion ...
",

. 'GallerY' does notpr~seqt'su,bjects'direct1y related tp,computers .. ,Most ..
eXhibits are"scien~e'or1entedand travel after'spendiri.g average of one year
ing~eryo . .
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Sta1fconsists of 10·'O,.ecr'tJilie .. 2 mariagers.a:nd B "flQ~rWp~ople ~. 3 on floor· "
a ti!:nefor one hQur :
Staff consists of I. B. Mo people 'from ail
diffe,rent diseiplines;, . are assigned to gauerjr usually fo~ duration of
:: 2 years on their' way. .
ranks •

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t·;
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. M r .. ·Roy Gould
.
r'IGITAL EQUIPMEN'r. CORP.

-2-.

October 21J1 1974

;

y early exhibitm~intenance is contractedto an outside exhibit company"
b1.ldg~ted at about, $15~ 000 per year for totally static graphic panels ..
Jim Ys ideas ·on :planninig~

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lVlost Unportant ;a set .·criteria. and objectives first They didn't do this.
and Jim sayS they tend~o rationalize things after they' are doneo. Th~s .'
':makesthe directtonqf:tlle gan~ry. very weako Eames;p\.th:e d~signer ..
tends not t.o listen
gallery people and functions on:his6wn.'<
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to' the'

.,., Starthtg ne:ict .:itnonth} th~ ;~lery is. go~g to' be c1o~ed· ,~definitelyand.·· .
, used as a wmdow. eXhibit. (seen from sidewalk). Jim would not disclose,
: . ,whyII . nOr would he.giy-e ;·';me his annual budgf:;ito
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TO:

INTEROFFICE

George Chamberlain

MEMORANDUM

DATE:

october 24, 1974'

FROM:

Roy

DEPT:

Huseum

EXT:

SUBJ:

2302

GOU1~)~
-LOC:

_' (

PK3/H36

Chicago Museum of Science & Industry

," I recently vi,sited the subject museum and met with Mr. Mac11aster,
-":,"'President" and Victor Danilov, 'Director, and discussed DEC IS
possible, help with their: project "America s Inventive Genius", for
the Bicentennial. ' , '
.
I

'-~

"We discUssed how a' 'Digital mini could be tlsedin their, Phase II
part of', the program,\-lhere the computer would have twelve terminals
, (video l ,each one being an audience participant program where the
"individual asks questions about one of twelve subjects which
America has 'played a large or leading part such as industry,
aerospace, farming,' etc. We, of course, \.,?ou1.d be given substantial
recognition in the exhibit.
This exhibit would be in place for 2~ years and'it is estimated
that 10 'million peopte will view it. I talked about the possibility
of loaning'them the equipment for ,this length of time rather than
giving i;t to them. They seem to accept that idea. Maintenance, of
course, would be a main concern.. It is my recommendation that we
do something for them. If we do not come up wi'l:h the equipment,
they made i t cle,ar they would take any money we can give them!

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october 25, 1974
.-~'!"

'-; ':~.' : '- '-

., . Mr. Robert Nolan·'
.. Department of Education,
.; State Agency for Surplus Property
Boston, Massachusetts02111
"

. . Dear Mr. Nolan:

"-, ~

:" .

. Thank you for the time you spent with me during our 'recent
telecon.
This letter is to reinstate the interest the.Digital Computer
~luseum has in' obtaining the MIT TX-O· Computer for a permanent
working display in our Museum.
The Digital Computer Museum is scheduled to open in May of 1975
. and' will be located at our Marlboro, Massachusetts facility.
We are now in the process of making the Museum a separate nonprofit corporation under the laws of Massachusetts. The Museunl
will be open year round to the general public, school groups, .
civic groups, etc. There will be no admission. charge.' ,.
The Museum 'will show ,early computers 'up to present day computers. :':',:
It will- teach how computers work, what they can do, and what they"
are doing in many fields such as m~~i,cine, science, an~,~ndustry .. ,:
.

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. The '!'X-O was an important 'step in ,the' technology to defTelop
today' s modernmini-computers~ Our plans are to keep the machine' '
in a running condition in the Museum. The computer i~dustry is
only 25 years young, yet a lot of significant machines,' papers,
and films have already been lost forever. We see the Museum
playing an impor'tant role in preventing this in the future. Any
help you can give US, ,Mr. Nolan, in seeing that the TX-O:is not
lost forever would be appreciated.
;,~~>;,:

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Roy G'~".

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~!B~DDmD
TO:

INTEROFFICE

Ken Olsen·
Gordon Bell

DATE:

October 25, 1974

FROM:

Roy. Gould

DEPT:

Mu~eum

EXT:
SUBJ:

MEMORANDUM

2302

LOC:

PK3/M36

TX-O

At.tach~d:is. a. copy of a letter I have sent to Mr. Nolan of the·
Department of Education

State Agency for Surplus Property_

He has told me we are not eligible to receive the machine, but
we could. bid on i t if someone in education doesn't grab it!.
Can you offer any assistance? .

jac
Attachment

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~)~ct ;"~. h~ I~">;":>; . . . >(~:iW:~"~
II'J T E R 0 F F ,. C c:

M t= f'.JiG F=i AND U i"/l.
".-

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TO::>':':' Gordon Bell

DA1'E:

November 11, 1974

FROM:

Sally Bower

.....- CC :
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Charlie Spector

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Project SOLD,. University:of :\?i ttsburgh
. .•.. :

Bob A1brech·t - PCC, Henlo Park, California'.
l1arion Ba.l1

Tcr:;.ple Universi ty r.~edical. School
(Aut.bor of ~'h!;lt is F_ Computer,
. Houghton Hi.fflin 1972)

Peg Pulliam -- Lexington PeS. (E1emantary Education
Computing Program)
., .

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Children' s Huseum, Boston'
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.-------,' . .:. Boston ,r·1useu!Cl of Sci.en.ce
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'Perhaps YOu can pass th.e idea onto the appropriate people?'

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BIT
Friday, November 22, 1974

FALL MEETING:
PLACE:

Belmont Hill School, 350 Prospect Street, Belmont, Hasso

02178

DIRECTIONS: Rte 128 to Rte 2. Head east towards Boston. Take Park JLv-e .• , exi t.
At end of exit ramp turn right at lights. Belmont Hill... is }(mile ahead at rotary.
PROGRM1

7:00-7:30

Registration and coffee

7:30

Guest Speaker:

Kenneth H. Olsen
President, Digital Equipment Corp.

******** A unique opportunity to hear about history
from a man who made it, and to contemplate the
future with a man who vJill help shape it.
8:30

Coffee

9:00

Special Interest Sections

Section 1:

Investigating Means, Sequences, and Series
Rodgers Close, HedforEl High School

Section 2:

How to Provide More Computing Sevice for Less Cost
Ned canty, Babson College

Section 3:

How You Gan Make Use of Calculators
Kermit Schroeder, Hang Laboratories
Dom Gualtieri, Wang Laboratories

10:00

END

BIT is a computer users group designed to provide information about the many
uses of the computer and calculator in the educational environment and to promote interest in the use of these tools in many disciplines.
MEMBERSHIP dues for the year 1974-75 are ~>3. 00 and may be sent along ",ith your
name and address to VJalter Koetke, Lexington High School, Lexington, Hass. 02173<

-------.

WE'RE planning a meeting for the winter oriented towards the application of the
computer in the sciences. If you knO\'I of a teacher in your school who would be
willing to participate in the program, please let us kno,v.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Directors for the year 1974-75 are:
Buddy Bates
Belmont Hill

Koetke
exiilgton H. So

Ned Canty
Babson College

St. Hark's School

Joe Hannigan
Framingham North H.S.

Ted Sage
Middlesex .School

Bob Haven
Project ~

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......,

Jean Stritter
Hiddlesex School........

.'V

Paul Shapiro
Newton Public Schools

Ann \'Jaterhouse
South .Portland H.S.

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INTEFiOFFICE

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DA'I'E:

D~~cembel':-

Ken Olsen
Gordon Be ll

E' RON:

Ro y Gould

D}~ P T :

jVl useum

EXT:

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MFMORANDUlv1

Irving Berg
J im Graci e.

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£Ilu seuJ."U

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7.3 02 '

LOC:

1974

PK3/H36

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:'~~hh~S will." confi:c :'~r recent telephoneconven; at.ion that ~~'1~;~

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__ ;~~£~~ constru ction . of : the -· museum - 'i's - i n ~ a " t empo rary hold '.' ;
Tb is ,:~_y~.;.' ,"
.;);'~;~:ineans tha.t:;· no~fund~-'would . be·~-, a·va:Llabie," fo r outfi tting th e --~::)~-';,.',-:'.':
:·~~:~-:f; area . in'. Marlboro -' (MB~'l) ~ that~ the: museu~'~ i~ slated", ·to go t .o > ::§·._
"';'~::7t'iThis do es · noti rnean · that. the- area ~:i s rel6!as ed a s ' the ' s i t e for.-::;:,:_
_~-~:1:::~;;;:'thernus euIIi";;:;ii-~:' You ··" rn ay:... cont:i.nue
, ',' t o . use · t'.h e.. area a s - a sora
t
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ge. -.':;'<:>

·)~~tkea, b,t~~¥?1~~:~~;:rl~~~~;C;;,~:~~~~. ~~;~;~i~2e .;:lc~~; : .. .·,~~~r

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,Hcurrently : being ·:-~tis ed · br- Softwa re·~ Service s::·i n the ,cMezzan in e "~3 «~ '
.~·;~:. be: ea rm a'rked -:' for - the -, rnuset.un. :':i:o r:~:itS' theatr e :i f, -and wb.en
:'-?~,:~~),\~.
-".. Softwa re Services r el inquishes that area.
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Thank you, . Irving and J i m, for you r help i n th e past and I
look forward to ~worki ng with you in t he f utur.e wh e n tbe
project .is·' started againGo' .... :. ,.
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]FOUNIDlElm lBY JrUlLllU§ lRo§lENWAlLD
. .

:17TH STREET AND L.AKE SHORE DRIVE

TEL.EPHONE MUSEUM 4.1414

Dece.mber 13, 1974

Mr. Roy.G. Gould
Exhibits Manager
Digital Equipment Corporation
146 Main Street
Maynard, ,Massachusetts 01754
Dear Mr. Gould:
, I am writing to. check on whether a decision has been made
to provide co.mputer terminals for the Museum's Bicentennial
exhibit on "America l s Inventive Genius. II
We are opening the first phase of the exhibit on January 15
and already are involved in the design of the section opening
this summer that would involve the use of the terminals.
Incidentally, I hope you will be able to attend the opening of
the Bicentennial program in January. It should be a sparkling,
affair.

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lewis Carroll's puzzle-book

The conjurer was a rabbit
stricken nuclear physicists w1ll
adore It at 3 a.m.
Schuster. '9.915. London: Thomas
All the same, it Is starWng to see
Nelson. £3.
how modern some of his Ideas are.
(Could it be that the twentieth century
is only the mirror-Image of the nine8y Robert Nye
Lewis Carroll used to relax by teenth? And that we are all lettplaying his musical boxes backward. handed Victorians?)
Alternatively, he would doodle away,
Thus, you will discover that
makll1&' apt anagrams of the names of amongst his Inventions was a proeminent Victorians - Florence Night- totype of the mlnlature traveling
ingale soon became' 'Flit on, cheering chess set, a primltlve kind of doubleangel."
sided adhesive tape, a game uncomHe was in private Ufe, as Charles monly like "Scrabble," a plan for
Lutwldge Dodgson, don, mathemati- controlling the London traffic at Covcian, clergyman, a curious dissolving ent Garden, and a novel new scheme
mixture of his own White KnIght and for Proportional Representation in
his own White Rabbit. Like the WhIte voting.
Similarly, you will find several of
KnIght, he had blue eyes, shaggy hair,
gentleness and a trick of seeing the his word-games antiCipating more
world upside down. Like the WhIte solemn tricks by such as James
Rabbit, he was more than a bit of an Joyce, Borges, and Nabokov. It was
Carroll who first drew attention to the
amateur magician.
When you think of that Image of the fact that if you spell the word LIVE
WhIte Rabbit in "Alice in Wonder- backwards you get another word
land" .:... with his watCh, his gloves, which might be taken to represent the
and his top hat - you are only one activity of Uving backwards. He lett It
step away from the Victorian drawing to James Joyce to draw attention to
room and a children's party where a the word DOG. And to Vladimir
conjurer has been called 1n to enter- Nabokov to draw attention to the word
tain. Only Instead of a rabbit pro- REPAID.
There is a special and rather preduced from a hat, you are confronted
with a rabbit in charge of the con- cious category of Uterary criticism:
that department which parodies its
jurer's properties.
The change is characteristically 0'YD seriousness by spending It upon a
Carroll in Its looking-glass magic, Its trivial object, quite consciously and in
inversion of the expected, Its pleasure some cases condescendingly. Alice's
in topsy-turvydom. Dodgson, a me- critics fall down this particular rabdiocre man while he took himself bit-hole falrly frequently, offering
seriously, became a profound one stuff about sex and mathematics and
when he started to joke. He stepped photography, and nonsense about the
through the looking-glass of logic poor girl being the first acid-head in
children's fiction.
hlm~lf, and found some of the probShe has been analyzed and eulolems of modern physics. .
gized
and made into a structure for
The Implications of that have already been well discussed, along with adult fantasy. Last year there was
cabbages and kings, in Martin Gard- even a book called "Aspects of Alice, "
ner's "The Annotated Alice." This edited by Robert Phillips, . which
new book by John Fisher Is not so added the anima and the Oxford
substantial, but It Is very nice. It Movement to the usual round of puns,
performs a function which Carroll chess, and philosophy. It was a book
himself intended to achieve but never with few pictures and fewer conversadid - namely, the collecting of all his tions, and it was a book in which
Alice's Wonderland was marked
games and puzzles and conundrums.
strictly
Adults Only.
Carroll would have called his own
Mr. Fisher's is not so exclusive. I
collection "Alice's PUZZle-BOOk," according to an entry in his diary dated can imagine an intelligent older child
March 18715. Mr. Fisher cannot quite having fun with its elaborate verbal
so presume, but he has done his gambits. Its main interest, however,
homework admirably and what we is in providing literary commentators
have here Is as complete and an- with the background of playful mystithology as anyone could desire. Re-, fication from which the Allce books
memberlng the experiences of Mar- grew. And beyond that purpose
ghanlta Lukl when she tried out one ("curiouser and curiouser," said Alof Carroll's games on her children ice) one Dlay note the paradox that
and ended up playing It herself out of when Lewis Carroll wrote "strai ht"
a sense of duty, perhaps "The Magic
of Lewis Carroll" is more than anyone
could desire. . . . I must admit I
skipped the pages full of complicated
mathematical exercises.
Carroll's idea of magic was sometimes no more than a complex plan
for baffling the commonsense of little
girls. This plethora of puzzles w1ll
certainly do that, but it would be
sentimental and untrue to claim that
much in it extends the imagination in I __....._
any worthwhile way. Perhaps we
should remember that Carroll was ar.
insomniac, and forgive him a number
of substitute dreams in the form of
acrostics?
different names?
It would be safe to say that this book ~----ft"'6~6~e::r:Tf"Nt'I'y~e::",-a
:-:y:::o~u;;;n:;g~po
;;;:e;t-,"f,is; is full of fun and headaches, and that
poetry critic.for the Times (London).
pedantic children and conscience;;.;...~--The Magic of Lewis Carroll. edited by
John Fisher. New York: Simon It

COMPUTER
GENERATIONS
There's never been anything like the computer in the history of
civilization. Historians will eventually have a field day. Computers have changed more in five years than the automobile
since its invention. In the twenty-five years of computing, many
performance and cost indices have improved by factors of
100,000. Every two years nearly twice as much computing
power is available for the same money; or conversely, every
two years computers halve in price.
Although computing goes back to the Chinese Abacus-or the
Japanese version, the Soroban-the roots of modern computers are found in punch card equipment, particularly its
ancestor, the Jacquard loom, which may have operated in the
DEC mill at one point. Calculators were built by mathematicians
Pascal and Leibetz, but modern mathematicians have given up
computer design-leaving computers to the engineers. Though
calculators are historically and technologically interesting,
they're really dull in comparison to the modern stored-program
computer, which gets its power by variable programs, with the
ability to calculate rapidly, hold lots of information and even learn.
We mark computer generations by the logic technology they're
built from. We're currently in the fourth generation, called largescale integrated circuit technology. The first generation began
in 1945 with vacuum tubes and ran until about 1958. The single

transistor package started then and lasted until about 1966. At
that time, multiple transistors were put in a package to form a
single functional array. In 1972 the fourth generation began, at
which time a whole processor was put on a single substrate.
The first modern stored-program computer was probably the
Manchester University prototype and we have a valve (tube, to
us) from it-so Prof. Sumner, who sent it to us, said (it's clearly
not from his TV set). The first useful stored-program computer
was EDSAC of Cambridge University, built by Maurice Wilkes'
group; Wilkes also invented the micro-programming concept.
Wilkes was at the University of Pennsylvania where Eckhart,
Mauchly and von Neumann worked to conceive the storedprogram computer, which we now also call the von Neumann
computer.
We now, overzealously I suspect, attribute Charles Babbage as
being the father of modern computing. He had the notion of the
stored-program calculator in the mid-1800's, but never got one
of his computers to run, because each time he got a better idea
for a new computer before the old one worked. In fact, he established other traditions carried into modern computing, including working with unbuildable technology. This caused him to
solve a number of peripheral problems, such as making gears
better than they had ever been made before. He also was about
the first person to receive a government grant-for calculating
nautical tables. These research projects were late and had cost
overruns.
If Charles was the father of computing, then Lady Loveless, his
benefactress, co-worker, and friend, was at least a midwife. But
more importantly, she was probably the first programmer. Another tradition established there was that she complained that
the machine specification was always changing.
If we look at the ancestry of the minicomputer, it is clearly MIT's
Whirlwind. These machines and people had a profound effect
on DEC. Ken Olsen, Dick Best, George Gerelds and several
others of DEC are Whirlwind alumni, and I even wrote a program
for it once. The PDP-1 was very much like lincoln Lab's TX-O
(one of the earliest transistorized machines), and TX-O like
Whirlwind. Beginning with Whirlwind, we can see four generations of minkomputers. It was operational in 1950 and was
packaged in a two-story building. The second, our own PDP-1,

SEMICONDUCTOR
TECHNOLOGY

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ARST GaERA110N
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COMPUTER GENEALOGY

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Industry began building computers in the early 1950's. English
Electric built a machine called the Deuce which came out ofthe
English National Physics Laboratory. Contrast this with modules from the IBM 650, and the 704. Probably one of the most
easily produced second-generation packaging technologies
was that of IBM for the 7090. Burroughs had an interesting
package called Cordwood.
DEC's own modules came at the beginning of the second generation. The first modules allowed experimenters to easily build
digital systems together. The systems modules allowed permanent digital systems to be made, but more important, they
provided the basis for building digital computers. These were
the modules from which the PDP-1, -4, -5, and -6 were made.
The flip-chip modules were built for the PDP-7 and -8 so that
modules could be made more easily and the back panels could
be wrapped automatically. Subsequently, this style of module
packaging has been used to include more components and has
lasted us through the third generation with the integrated circuits and on into the fourth generation, where it is used for the
LSI-11. And there's really no reason to change unless the fifth
generation is a big surprise, but that's a few years away, if past
generations are any indication.

~~:o~
Vice President, Engineering

DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION
MUSEUM PROJECT-1975

'"::>
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digital equipmentcorporotion
maynard. massachusetts 01754

PR OTQIYFE,'I N MILL..
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l'wn n· \·ng : thare on . thei!" o wn ope ra t i ng system~ ... u~nx· , to ma (ia ge -"
<dl the "~ dlsplays ,l ln . th.e f l"ont ': lo bb Y, . whlch 15 .i n fact abQ\,Jt ·,':
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DIGITAL EQUIPME~T CORPORATION
February 3, 1975
Jane M. Pugh
Assistant Keeper
Soience Museum
South Kensington
London SW7 2DD
England
Oear MIss Pugh:
Ken Olsen Just handed me your letter of January S, regarding
MIT's WhIrlwind. We have It in storage now, and Ken Is keepIng
1t for the Sm1thsonlan. The MITRE CerperatTon Is also trying to
Qet 1 t baok. Hence, I tis somewhat I n I I mba. We cannot pr om i se
a core memory or core memory plane to YOU Just now, but we
oauld make some other carts ava! lable ...... suOh as a swltch
regIster or a fll-floD from Its accumulator. Ken would I Ike
ta keep one
the cores systems in tact, and glve It to the
SmithsonIan, and dismantle the other staok so that Dlanes could
be made available to various museums.
But until thIs matter
1s cleared uo wi'th MITRE and the SmithsonIan, we can't really
move. Therefore, we wII I try to get a loan
a part of the
the memory core system, but we could get you other carts and
Dhotograohs If yOU are lnterested.

As for your letter of 24 July to me, I have certainlY been
late In rescondlng. We have been In the mode of cutting baok
our museum program, because we have Increased pressure for
oapltal and oeoole In the current unsettled economIc
c(lmate, Nevertheless, we are atl II proceeding, and In fact,
slnce our museum grouD really had little notloeable output
for their expend-Iture of time, oapltal, etc,I It Is Just as
well that we are doing lIttle. It has been really
dTfflcult to get the museum going.
I had asked RoY Gould to prepare a kit of parts that had to do
wTth the mlnlcomouter Part of technology for YOU and others, but
he has not made oroQress along these lInes. I hope he wI I I
take thIs opportunIty to assemble $ome materials and forward
them Ii you're Interested. I am startIng to get some material
from other places (e,g. the University of 1111nols, Manchester,)
and would I Ike to Qet these parts ~ut fnto DsrsDectlve and wi I I
oet them Into displays around our faci Iities to build
uc Interest in the historical section. Our museum will
oonslst of 2 carts: the oollectloM of old carts, and the worklng
Dart that exolalMs machlnes with demonstratTons. As a Coroorate
Office, I'm oushlng for the later, because of the general need,
but I'm oersonally Interested In the arohlval section
(which will be small).
1 Would I Ike YOU to give me an Idea of some of the machIne parts
that YOU could obtain. I wi I I buy these most likely for
my cersonal collection, which I will loan to our museum; DEG
and/or Ken Olsen may alao buy s~m$ of the oarts.
I.

I am Interested In all types of hlstorfcal carts;

mechanIcal

calculators, early data orocessln~ and storage eQulcment
and conventionalist and Znd generation computers,
I thlnk It Is )m6oitant to get some functional mechanloal
ment. and I oersonal Iy want a Thomas Arlthometer.

eQul~

I would hope that some ~arts of ea~ly Engl Ish maohlnes are stl I I
around 1n varlous Junk stores (e,g. STC, lCT, Ferranti). In
tnls regard, I have some pieces of the DEUCE, but would I Ike
to get some of ACE, and PEGASUS, together with other
machlnes that were commerolal versIons of the Manchester
machines. STC made a CODY of our PDP 1, and I would like part
of ft, but we orobably should go after It through ITT, In fact,
l' y6u have names of ~eoole withIn the UK computer Industry, 1 would
oorrespond directlY.
ft

~Iease

for the mechanics of purchasing,
let ma have an fdea
0'Asthe the
Darts and the money Involved, and 1'1 I send a check for
account. We should trY a few
and see If It Is
~urchases,

all right with both YOU and I. I'm sure we can get lawyers
(ioillcltors)fnvolved, but If we keeD It sImple. that Daln
can be avoided. Your commission shOUld be whatever YOU thfnk
1s falr~-l have no knowledge of these matters. The equlriment
can be del Ivered t~ our DEC office In London (and t~ Reading)
'~r transshipment.
It might be useful to talk wIth our manager.
Mr. Geoff Shingles of the U.K. office, because I've talked
wTth him about this from time to tlm .... ·hopefully he'll call YOU
tTrst at ~1.5e9t6J71. but the UK office number that he's at Is:
58 35 55.
I hODe we oan get started with the COllectIon.

Sincerely,
GordonB~11

Vice PreSident, OffIce of
co:

Geoff ShIngleS, U,K. Office
Roy Gould
Ken Olsen
~l mOl Cumm I nQS

OIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION
146 Maln Street
Maynard, Massachusetts 01754

,-."

Develo~ment

INTEROFFICE

MEMO.RANDU·M

Gordon has some antique comput~r parts in his office whiCh wi 1.1
eventually fino their way into our DEC museum. As a warm up to thfs
musc~m, Gordon would like to set up displays in our various lobbies.
John Clarke is putting together an -8 for the New England Conservatory
to do a music synthesis demo. We would ,like to use this display to
start the lobby exhibits.
Do you think we could do the following?

~)
\

Completed
by

Responsible

Resp.~o~n~s~i~b~le~f~o~r_______________~______________

3/20

Pat.

John Clarke can tell you the size of the
equipment for the demo.
J'eff 'c.an tell you what' he is .-plsrH,j·ng fO-r

the demo--maybe some can be used for the
lobby.
Sketch ~ simple layout for the Main Street Lobby.
Mimi will give you an idea as to the size
needed for a display case--if we don't have
anything we can use in house, please
give a plan for this also to Harold.

4/10

Hatold

Complete the display cases, special wiring (if
needed), and exhib1t area.
Give Pat some 1d~a as to the space needed fpr
for the enclosed dtsplay.
Please document,writea short description,
. put in order, the anti que computer parts
in Go~don's office.

4/15

Millll

Mouht in display cabinets.

4/20·

Jeff

Please return the -8 to the Main Street Lobby
and check \.fi11ieout on its operation.

What dO you think?
. hitches •. Tbanks.·

Can we do it?

Please le·t me know if you see·any

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LOBey EX~IBiTS

SUBJ:

* * • * • * * * * * *
•• PLEASE*-SEND TO; MiMi CUMMINGS
• * * * * * • * * * * *

GORDON SELL

* * * * ML5.4
* * * * * _ * * *
* * * * * * * * * '. * * 0' *
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EXHIBITS iN OUR fACILITIES (PRELUDE to tHE MUSEUM)

j' am Tni9ndTn~~~ ~ui iiaa'her varloys ax~Tblis in
~im~uta~ teoh~~(~~~ whTih mTght be pu~ In Y~~J~us BEe buTI~l~g~
~,~~ ih~ ilme 6aT~~. 1 ~iuld 11ke to di ~"e, and s~ew~ai Tt

Teaks Ilk".

T~! !~hl~i.t wou.fd Tnal~de, th.oar~~ t ~urrentr~ haya Tn mY
of110e, alus those whTeh other Deo~le are sandTna me.

iij~rde,.
"!~ka,a l"e~IJY .ffe~tly' .ic~lbTt. 1 wan' to, .
T~clude WhTrlwTndl Would YOU Dlease get me a ITlt ~, ihe ~a;t~
s~ i~~~ 1 ian s.I.~t s~me? ~r l' PossTble. I woul~ 11k.~

1'.

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diglt elTol a~Dro~ch'. Wei 1'1 h,ng them tOGether from the

oeTTTng as they were Tn ww.

A tiTane a"d onato of oore m8moF'Y,

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oOAtro'f easY'(y).

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r~"~ ~~rd ma~hTn~8~

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PAGE

02"'11~~5

GORDON BELL·

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INTEROFFICE
TO: Sally Lymberg

MEMORANDUM

DATE: 2/24/75
FROM: Mimi Cummings

cc:

SUBJ:

Bordon Bell
Dick Best
Mark Abbett
Consulting Job

DEPT: Library
EXT: 6465

LOC: M15-4

with reference to Digital Museum

This will serve as a written confirmation of the arrangments we
have made concerning your work here at Digital as Museum
Consultant. It also will clarify, I hope, for all of us what
you can expect from us and vice-versa.
You are currently engaged on the following two projects.
1.

Cataloging the antique computer parts in Gordon Bell's
office. This work began around February 17 and will
be completed by February 28. You will be compensated
at the rate of $7 for this work. I will help you with
this project and supervise your procedures, as necessary.

Submitting a written report which will cover your work
here at Digital as Museum Consultant over the past 6 months.
This is considered the logical extention of that work and
therefore you will not be compensated additionally for
this report. This report should be due to Gordon Bell
on March 14.
I hope that this report will contain the following:
A.
B.
C.

Your charter as you understood it.
Broad outline of the steps you undertoo~ to carry out
this charter.
Breakdown of what you did physically, e.g.
People you contacted
Museums you visited - your reactions to ,these
as well as information on what worked well,
what they would do differently etc.
Material available for the Museum including what we
already have at DEC, what we have been offered, what
we might trade etc. Include location of any of these
items you know about.
Archives and DocumentaimDn you know of, either in-house
or available on the outside, which will be necessary or
desirable as a back-up to the actual collection of
materials
Resources you collected including books in the Library's
collection, slides, movies etc. Annotate these resources
if you can and indicate where they are currently located.

Personal Recommendations: This part is perhaps
the most important one for us of all. I would like
to ~now what you ~ee as being the possible philosophies
beh1nd a corporate museum. How do you interpret DEC's
desires with reference to the possible choices? How
do you feel personally?
We are eager to have any suggestions you have to make
to us with reference to actual exhibits, audiences to
be aware of, etc.

Lastly, can you visualize what remains to be done
prior to the actual decision to go ahead (and the
attendant funding) - or what might you do for us
within the present economic constraints?

I hope that these ideas will clarify your two projects and not
impede your progress. I am sure I speak for all of us in saying
that we are looking forward to your report with great enthusiasm.
Once we have examined your report and considered where the entire
pro~ects stands at the present time, I promise that we will be
back in touch with you.1";!ithAt that time you can expect us to
tell you what opportunities there are for future use of your
consulting services.

I N TE RCJ FFI C E:
TO: Sally Lymberg

M E 1\/1 0 R J~N DLJM

DATE: 2/24/75
PROM: Mimi Cummings

cc:

SUBJ:

Gordon Bell
Dick Best
Mark Abbett
Consulting Job

DEPT: Libra.ry
BXT: 6465

LOC: 1115-4

with reference to Digital Museum

This will serve as a written confirmation of the arran'9ments we:
have made concerning your work here at Digital as Museum
Consultant.
It also will clarify, I hbpe, for all of us what
you can expect from us and vice-versa.
You are current.ly engaged on the following two projects.
1.

Cataloging the antique computer parts in Gordon Bell's
office. This work began around February 17 and will
be completed by February 28. You will be compensat,ad
at the rate of
for this work.
I will help you with
this project and / ~ upervise your procedures, as necessary.

hour

' t 'lng a wrl~en
,'OU- report wh'lC h Wl'I]" cover your
. wor k
S u b mlt

.
here at Digital as Museum Consul.tant over the past ·6 months.
This is considered the logical extention of that work and
therefore you will not be compensated additionally for
this report. This report should be due to Gordon Bell
on March 14.
I hOPE! that this report will contain the following:
A.
B.

,f.,

1,.

!
D.

Your charter as you understood it.
Broad outline of the steps you undertook to carry out
this charter.
Breakdown of what you did physically, e.g •
People you contacted
Museums you visi"ted - your react.ions to .thl=se
as well as information on what. worked w'ell,
what they would do differently etc.
Material available for the Museum including what ~Ile
already have at DEC, what we have been offered, what
we might trade etc.
Include location of any of these
items you know about ..
Archives and Documen"t:ation you know of, E~ither in-house
or available on the ou1:side, which will be necessary or
desirable as a back-up to the act:.ual collection of
materials
Resources you collected including books in the LibraryHs
collection, slides, movies etc. Annot.ate these resources
if you can and indicaba where they are current:.ly located.

".
~i

..:= ~'; .

"- -, ';:,. ",~,: '

, :,'l
.'

G.'
., :'

. '.:'.

Personal Recomme:ndations:This part is perhaps
the most important one fo,r us of all. ,I would like
to know what you see as being the possible philosophies
behind a corporate museum. How do you' interpret DEC's
desires with reference to the possible choices? How
do you 'feel personally?
We are eager to have any suggestions you have to make
to uS with reference to actual exhibits, audiences to
be aware of, etc.

Lastly, can you visualize what remains to be done
prior to the actual decision to go ,ahead (and the
,attendant funding) - or what might you do for us
within the present economic constraints?

I hope that these ideas will clarify your ,two projects and not
impede your progress. I am sure I speak for all of us in saying
that we are looking forward to your report with great enthusiasm.
Once we have examined your report and considered where the entire
,proj·,ects stands at the present time, I promise that we will 'be
back in touch with you. - :5.-'::: :At that time you can expect us to
tell you what opportunities there are for future 'Use: 'of your
consulting services.

.,.','!

Mark,
Here is a draft for Mimi.
mj

Sally Lymberg
Dear Sally:
This is to summarize our verbal discussion aR~ 9ytliAe what we would
like you to accomplish in the next 3 weeks:
1.

Catalogue antique computer parts in Gordon Bell's office.

This

started February 17 and will be completed by February 28.

You will

be compensated at the rate of $7 per hour for hours worked.
2.

Submit a report covering the 6 month period you were on contract
here.

This is to tie up your work and is considered part of that

work for which you have already been paid.

This report should

include:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.

People you contacted.
Parts/archives made available.
Location of parts for possible acquisition.
Trip reports to museums--what worked, what didn't work, what
they would suggest doing differently.
Your suggestions on how to set up the DEC museum

H.
This report will be due March 14 to Gordon Bell.
We are looking forward to your report and are sure it will be a great help
and guide as we go forward with the DEC museum.

At the completion of the

lobby exhibit and an examination of your report, we will let you know what
opportunities there will be in the future for your consulting services.

s ~ 4, .. Jou/dtnal _1/.u3

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Sally Birch Lymberg
Consultant
Box 315, Bolton, Ma. 01740

To:

Digital Equipment Corporation
146 Main Street
Maynard, Massachusetts 01754

For:

Consulting Services, DEC Museum Display
Feb. 12 - Feb o 27

68 Hours @ $7.00 per hour
$475.00

...... ..
':""

. ~~

.1
I
i

Sa lly Birch lymberg
.Consu 1tant
Box 315,. Bolton, ·Ma. 01740

I
r

!
I

. To:

Digital . Equipment Corporation
146 Main Street
Maynard, Massachusetts 01754

:!.

For:

Consu lt i ng Serv'i ces, DEC Mus.eum Di sp 1ay
Feb. 12 -Feb. 27

68 Hours @ $7.00 per'hour
$475.00
'.

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TELEPHONE M~MO

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.
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DATE

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mail stop

MESSAGE

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PLEASE RETURN CALL
WANTS TO SEE YOU

OWl LL CALL AGAIN

PLEASE RUSH

mail stop

Use on all inter-office mail with the exception of
confidential bulky items.
DEC 5(633)-1105-N 175

Staple to one corner.

APPR OV A L S IG N AT UR E 8: D A TE

REQUISITION I PURCHASE ORDER LjN- -. <:~.{I'_
;~/_... _. -______/ _'

mamaomD

DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPO RATION
THOMPSON ST. , MAYNARD, MASS. 01754
BLDG .
AREA CODE 617-897-5111

0
0

DIGITAL DRIVE, WESTMINSTER, MASS. 01473
AREA CODE 617-874-0111

;

1 FEDERAL ST ., BUILDING 111 FLOOR 3 , SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
01105
AREA CODE 413-781 -7010

•

PARKER ST. , MAYNARD, MASS. 01754
AREA CODE 617-897-511 1
BLDG. PK.

I
~

DATE

D EX:A~. U
SALE'lAX

TAXABLE

CONFIRMING PHONE ORDE R

l' l 1
1

QUANTITY

RECEIVING REPORT NOT REQUIRED (Please Check)

0
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ITEM

IVIA
SHIP

F RT. C OLL.

REFERENCE DEC. BASIC AGREEMENT NO .

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TERMS

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UNIT PRI CE

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1111 SOUTHAMPTON RD., WESTFiElD, MASS . 01085
AREA CODE 413-568-9511

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not to -~-....~ $1115. C""
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30x 315" 3olton,

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BUYE R S IG NATURE (L EG I BLE)

D ATE

REQUISITIONER NO. 2 ~T::-H::-IS~O:-R=-O=E-=R-S:-U:-:-::-B--:-J::-E-:-C-T-T-O T-E-R-M-S-A-N-O-C-O-N-O-I-T-IO-N-S..J
DEC 8·1490)·1039D·R87J

O N T HE FA

ursliing at the museums
Boston's Children's Museum offers computer fun and
education to thousands. Online services may soon
extend beyond the museum's buildings.
For most adults, computers are physically and conceptually inaccessible; they are objects of suspicion,
saddled by their critics with the mistakes and even
personalities of their operators. When bills are wrong
or credit records mixed up, the computer can be
blamed, and often is. And the public swallows that
blame whole. As Ted Nelson has pointed out in our
pages, cybercrud goes down easy. Isn't anyone doing
anything about this?
Yes. Bill Mayhew is.
Mayhew is the computer center coordinator at Boston's Children's Museum. He thinks that people will
accept the computer for whatever it is, given half a
chance; He also believes that people wiII get to know
the computer for what it isn't.
Computers, or at least an understanding of what
they are, must be brought into the world at large, the
world outside business offices, labs and classrooms.
"They must," says Mayhew, "be made accessible to
the public." So Mayhew views it as natural that the
60-year-old Children's Museum should possess a
multi-tenninal timesharing system. The museum is
private, nonprofit and independent of the other Boston area museums.
Three years before, rehashed

The museum's Visitor Center, one of its three major divisions, began computer activity three years ago
under the leadership of Richard Gardner. At that time
Mayhew was a part-time "associate developer." Mayhew had studied computer science and urban planning at MIT, and was dividing his time between the
museum and his own firm, Elcheapo Industries, which
he characterized as "dedicated to low-cost, humanoriented uses of technology."
Now 22, Mayhew coordinates computer group functions with other museum activities, directing his pm44

gram principally toward "children old enough to begin developing an undersfanding of computers but not
too old to ask questions without embarrassment."
At various times during its three years of existence,
the computer c~mponent of the museum has used a
variety of resources, including a PDP-8/1 mini and a
Teletype donated by Digital Equipment Corp., dialup service on Dartmouth College's Basic timesharing
system, the Logo system run by Bolt, Beranek and
Newman, Inc., of Cambridge, the Mimic minicomputer simulation system developed by Applied Data
Research and operated by First Data Corp., and a
four-user Wang mini system.
The Children's Museum found the PDP-8/1 Basic
system most effective. Although it was a single-user
interactive system, more than 550,000 people used it
between 1971 and early 1974, when it was retired.
They played number games and computer checkers
with it, and they ran a "turtle," a primitive robot that
responds to simple computer commands.
.
.

Grants to 'em
The value of the interactive computer exhibit was
apparent from the start. "We felt we had demonstrated the success. of our approach," Mayhew recalls,
"and in 1972 we had already begun to investigate enlarging the resident system."
The arduous search for funds delayed the upgrade
until last spring when, with aid from a Charles Hayden
Foundation grant and Digital Equipment. the museum
exchanged its PDP-8/1 for its present pOP-III 40 system. Equipped with 48k words of memory, two disk
pack drives. a line printer and a paper tape reader.
the system supports eight interactive terminals. The
museum lIses three efts, four DEcwritcr hard-copy terminaIs, and a TelctyIX. The operating system is UNIX, ,(t~
a~llIltil~gc timesharing system dcvclopc(1b~ \)-

,pJ-'f.. .

----------------------

COMPUTER DECISIONS

,\ .

- Laboratories which is partially modeled aft~r the MlT-- ." .J'addition has been instruction. The museum hoJds an
originated Mil/tics system, now Honeywell's largest
hour and a half class in computer languages ~nd
interactive system offering.
programming once a week. for interested school' .
children.
The system introduces visitors to interactive computing almost as soon as they arrive, since it asks
. It's very tempting to undertake more and more of
for their names, birth date and residences. The system
this kind of activity, observes Mayhew, "because of
can then cough up tabulations of the data it has gathour success with it. But except for occasional workered. This catalog has become a popular souvenir.
shops, we don't contemplate enlarging the teaching
The ages and residen~es of visitors are also added to
function. Our primary effort has been and will continue
a disk file that provides museum personnel· with a
to be to provide an environment fa, discovery."
measure of computer appeal, while names ~re disMayhew and the Children's Museum staff have
carded in the interest of privacy.
worked out future projects to lead participants through
progressive steps of man-computer interaction, beCursor-foiled again
ginning with simple switch-activated and theremin-genUpstairs, in the area set aside for computers and
erated commands to control lights, audio synthesizers,
computer visitors only, terminals open a dialogue with
and electric trains, moving eventually into simple coman outline of games that may be played: number
puter programming. They' would like to develop a
games, word guessing games (e.g., Hangman), graph
robot that could perform various actions under comgames, tic-tac-toe and others. Each user is limited to
puter control as visitors build up their skills. The
a three-minute dialogue, after which the computer
museum is also trying to raise $4,000 for an online
politely asks him to let the next visitor have a turn.
voice synthesizer; full software for the synthesizer has
The system has been altered to give it resiliency.
already been developed by Bell Labs.
"We painted the carriage return keys green to make
The last phase of the envisioned expansion of comthem easy to find," explains Mayhew. "We also disputer activities is the Portaputer project. A small
abled the cursor controls on the video terminals to
computer with a Teletype and a grab bag of modules
prevent wanted text from being wiped out, inserted
would be circulated to schools and neighborhood cena check routine to prevent the carriage return from
ters through the museum's Resource Center loan deworking on empty lines, and made certain that propartment.
grams could accommodate a full buffer of characters
Firmer than some of these plans which await funding
to avoid overload crashes. And, of course, we have
are activities involving other institutions that serve the
tried to make the programs as immune as possible from
public. The Children's Museum is completing arrangethe entry of garbage."
.
ments with the Metropolitan Cultural Alliance, gn
association
of area institutions including the Museum
-Diversity people
of Fine Arts, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the
Mayhew now spends about four-fifths of his time
Institute of Contemporary Arts and others. They plan
keeping the system alive and growing. The museum
to place a remote terminal in the MeA headquarters
shifted work formerly done outside to its mini-such
which will be used to process business data for' the
necessities as accounting, fund-raising support, mailing
alliance and its members.
list maintenance-:-offsetting most of the system mainAccess to grind
tenance costs. In whatever time he has left, Mayhew
chats with visitors and watches their activity, with an
The museum's computer staff has proposed a public
eye toward improving of the museum's program. One
information system for the 1975-76 Boston Bicentennial Celebration which would sprinkle terminals around
the city so that people could get up-to-the-minute
schedules of cultural events as well as information on
landmarks, tours and accommodations.
Yet another possibility is a permanent public information access system. The model for the Children's
Museum efforts is San Francisco's Resource One,
which placec,t terminals in stores, libraries and other
convenient sites. The terminals may be used to access
eve.rything from programs to poetry and constitute an
electronic bulletin board of sorts. If several such setups
were established in different cities, they might eventually be interconnected, yielding a system for nationwide public computer access.
Whether the computer will be the town crier of
tomorrow or the weekend amusement of today, Mayhew's plans for it "revolve about one central purpose:
to provide a realistic and nonhostile view of computers for large and diverse groups of people. We can
do it by making computers work for them, by making
the process an experience of pleasurable discovery.
"What else are computers for, if not to work for
people?"
0
MARCH 1975

.f,

March 17, 1975

Management Information Corporation
140 Barclay Center
Cherry Hill, New Jersey 08034
Gentlemen:
In the centerfold of one of your Data Entry Awareness Reports
there is a tree showingan historical rout e system, a time line with
dates and a tree showing the various computer fami1 ies. For the
past several months I have been doing research in behalf of a computer
museum. I have used the National Science Foundation tree of computers
with their generations marked.
Since this is a different type of tr ee, I wonder if you could
give me more information about its bac kground, its author, or an
original of the tree in a larger size. I am interest ed in using this
as a reference resource in my wor k because of the graphic character
of the information. I would be happy to hea r from you and would
appreciate any assistance that you can give me.

./ t

1
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y~~,c:rbel2w
: 7r')~
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Sa11 Birch Lymb rg
.Museum Consu I tant

SBL/mrg

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DI G ITAL

EQUI PMEN T

C ORPO I~A TION .

(6 17) 897·5 111

146
TWX:

MA IN

STREET,

MAYNARD,

7 10·347 ·02 12 TELEX :

MASSACH USE TTS

94·8457

0 1754

INTERO FF ICE
TO:

Gordon Be 11
~.
Mimi Cummings
Roy Gould
Ken 01 sen

MEMORANDUM

DATE:
FROM:
DEPT:
EXT:

SUBJ:

March 26-;~

/J) '

sa ~Yrrlberg
' V /
LOC:

Museum Project

This Progress Report for the DEC Museum Project gives a
quick, general ov erview of company museums, and comp uter
exhibits in larger mu seums. It is in t wo sections. There
is only one 60py of Section I I, Photographs of Science
Centers and Museums; it is being attached to Gordon BellIs
report.
There is so much to learn and so much to see that itls
hard to tell it all. lIve tried to hit the high spots
which are my ovm, based on the informat ion and guidel ines
given to me at the beginning of the proj ect.
11m sure there mu s t be much left untold in my notes and
references that cou ld be of more value~ if appl ied to a
specific prOgram .
I would be very happy to participate in any way possi bl e
towa rd the completion of this museum proj ec t .
I fad i scuss i on of the report wou 1d be he 1pfu I, I am ready
when you are.

_._-----

. I

Operations Committee
kanagers

, .. .'.1 .

Go'rdon Be I I
Roy Goula

rrom:

ProdJ~t Lrng
,.

•

-- ----- .. -... ---...... -----.. ------.. -.. --,,...... --\ -... --... ----.....-. -.-.•. "" ----.. ..

We have a Qreat oPPd~tunlty to establ Isha computer museum
In tho ,·Iarlooro building, in what would otherwise oe totally
use!esS space, Several of us have the Interest to embark on
t his pro J act; 0 nee S G t u D, the Inc r e me n t a I per s on n e lop era tin 9
expenses ~I I I be constrained to about 20900le,
.\.~

Wo believe it r.lay turn out to be
financially rewardlngJ
although it Is difflcul to JustifY,
Its uses l!"Icluce:
.•....

Being

used to exhibit conputers to the local

an~

:..{

ccrrD~ter

:;ommulity,

",J

us as an ir)tellectua.IIY sar lous verdor via
Its er:1bedded lecture nail .fc·r mUltlple·f·unctlons.

~:stnb! ishjng

Showinp our

Showf~~

USing it as a I ialson to var [ous U.S. and European
laboratories and universities who were.alsocom;;uter .midl-Ilves •

'.,'

. 6.
~.

workln~

CO!'!lPuters and products.

our . own . oas~I
and,present technology..

It WOJid be a possFblo place for techrioloQical and tusi~e~s
~o visit by o~acl"giour own t iterature thero
~Ius :&rrcany
archival data.
\

historians

7•

It being a ola:ce to collect books,

and

tec~nol6qy o~tsij~

The 20,0r~J sa,
ways:
1,

ft.rnusau~1

rnariuals~

corrDuters,

of DES.
could

be uti Ilzed in the f,6I1c ..ling

His' t 0 i i ca I t i ~iI eli n e 0 a ~ I I y t r e e) . e v 0 lu t ion 0 f .
i n i c om put e r 5 .u t I liz i !') 9 a c 0 r.l put ere x h i bit.· This \oJ C;) I d
.
show SDS:'C ('.-19 have to get a part from Cambri:gs), ~',;1Ir I,wlnd
La oa y and 5::> ra e per I p '1 e r ? IS), T X- a, P, J P -1, ? J P - 01, a r j 011
to v?rjous 3 and 11'5.' Here we coulj show off-Shoots
ilke the Indian··g, 11; Cuban H, DCC, Hungari:tr., S~e,

$ora?~e

~oduI8S,

an~

iTT's

"r:

cODies~

2 • .:..s areally :;')ice confcrence/samlnarhall fo·r.:
a:.-rrus~u'1Jec-::'ure -:3erlas, press co~)ference;j, PDP"lJ lecture-.s, !::C::':an~

ACM

Ma~tinoS,

so~e

resar.veJ 1/2 tlnefof
Ii b 0 u t

.~ 2

o~r

OWn

t~9se

. . . 0 . 1;J.1 . D eo p 1.0 •

~eetlngs.

acti~ities.

This wculj 09

Shc~ld

~orkl~o DEC computers:
PDP-l and NSA s~Per console ~JP-~,
;./ I t h SO a C I) ,~:i r, i i , PO :'-11 wit h moo n I a n de r, tor" I n a 1st 0

vnrlpJs ~uc~lnes. Pe~ple could visit this Just to
and uSe p~r va"iOus c~nsclcs.

4.
",'-

~~!d

Tochnology dISPlays.
.:~

loo~

140 havo many eXh I bits thn,t. c.n~ be;

. '.'"; ~:\i> ::{:/ 1~;t·.j;: ;~~~:::fl
L

..•..

~~';\Ri:::: i~;?A\::"'~~:~'"

;

~et

.,. ,~ .. .'

UP from tlrlO to ,tiMe.
~'l h i rI'l 1 n ':1 and h:.: Iud e s 0 :.J r

','::

Eg,,' history oi,d"fs'pl"aYSfrom

i
" ,•

fir s t Dr e: cis ion .
displijvs. Also, we had first UART In 62--sho~ the package
e v 0 I u ~ i on to U A;{ To n a chi p \~ I the hlp 5 and m I c rOD hot 0 9 rap h s •
In aa~eral, thIs would coyer com~uters, computer Darts,
and toe h n 0 I 0 q y (e g • I 109 ie, dis p I a y S, P r I h t e r s, tap e s, P0 vi e r -

.~,...

,,.....

fir s t

color

and

supplies),
C

Comouters

A Place for maChine and programming manuals for us and for
the abdve technologies.

DEC

A place to debug trade-show booths.

Historical Com;)uter o;)oks.

MOD~S

fro~

universities, research labs and other Vendors.

archival Information

computers and busIness.

OPE:~A\JI:

The ~USeu~ wi I I reoort to Roy Gould, who wIll hire a curator
to live t:,r.re for d8.y-to-:Jay operations, collect, guide and
buy varloJs internal services. A board of directors, consisting
of Roy, the curator, myself, Ken, ant:! 2 other people, ',.Jill
g u i :J e t h.e 11 " r r. v lew p la n Sfl and est a b I Ish Dr i 0 r I tie s •
The
ooeratlng budge~ wi I I be presented to the F&A Co~~ittee.
AGCO~1PL I ~,-{MENTS

so FAR:

AlreadY, v.en has establisfled the basis for our having the
r:10st siQni'flcant operatlor) becauso we have Hhirlwin::: (firsi:
m'irli , 'c era, rrf cr 0 pro 9 r a:;1 ~ i n g, dis p I a y, tap e, and ,A / : ) ,
A Iso

a groat trajing basis. We have the TX-O (first transistorized
mac:"line) ..lhie:) . . . r II be OPQratjonal: 11II our prototype rfacnines
are availJble gnC \-lork,
I've collected par-:s fror. AC::
( UK" ;Jat. .> h y s. Lab), a 5 ;5;J, a 7 Z 4, M lTD I f. A n a I y. z e r •
G8::1'!.ik

·r

.j
"

."'

".,':

", I

,;..;.

',-'.

• , .".'

•

"";~::; ,';"'::~
.•

-j

:.-

,',',"

','

". ,
. ,r>
l!i.!....<Jf', ,e;:.~~ "

"'&7

June 19, 1974

Professor Henry Tropp
Humboldt State University
Arcata, California

I
1

Dear Professor Tropp1
" '.

Your article in the IEEE Spectrum February 1974, (with references
to the Smithsonian
the right time for me.

History Project) appeared at just
I enjoyed it very much.

Have you any

other similar publications?
From the earliest days of Digital Equipment Corporation, there
has been a strong and co~tinuing desire by our President,
Kenneth Olsen, and others, to eatablish a computer museum with a
documented historical and archival base.
of the Com~any space

Many times in the growth

has been allocated, but in each instance

production needs claimed the space before the museum could take
actual' form.
In early February of .this year a decision was made.

To paraphrase

Lewis Carroll;
./

"The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk
of many things •.••••••••••••• of cabbages and
kings~'

IOf Ace to Zuse, abacus, Babbage, Deuce, ENIAC
and Whirlwind I.'"
In short, the museum is now in its planning stage.
I am researching background, history and other computer oriented
museums or displays from the viewpoint. of historical and archiva+

":.

~'.,

... "

.....

,.:. '

content.

. ~ ,~"

, '.

.. ~ ,'..'

.... ~: .';, . ' :·-(';'<·~~i~

:.\f.i : \.;,.,

.::;

-2-

::~

It is, not the desire of the Company to duplicate any

work or information already successfully docu..mentedo

We are

fortunate to have Gordon Bell as our Vice President of Engineering.
Mr. Bell was formerly professor of Computer Science and Electrical
.....

Engineering at Carnegie-Mellon' University.

He is also author of

Computer Structures: Readin9s & Examples, C. Gordon Bell.
In reviewing as much of the revelant literature as I have been
able to locate,I cannot find any record of a complete source
for ,a history of computers all in or-e placeo

------

Perhaps it is

"pie in the sky", but I would like very much for Digital Equipment
, .'

Corporation to begin what would be a never ending process, namely,
,

a start for a museum of the history of computers as a research .too1
Cl;vailab1e, to the 90mputer world.
:: .

In addition,

th~re

,.,ou1d be artifacts,

•• j .•

antique p'arts, manuals,' on-line computer operat.ed displays, games, etc.
Can I "'talkll , about, this to you for a fe,., sentences?

IBM has its

Eames book, the ACM has its 25th Anniversary edition, and the
Smithsonian has its Computer Historx Proje'ct.

Since so much has

already been accomplished, no time should be spent in duplicating
this work.

However, as a 'researcher, myself, in the field of

.,'.',

informa'tion processing, I feel there should be some place, where
these questions could be asked or answered; with a high priority

;'.'

'on feedback; from a documented d.ata base;
1)
'2)
3)
4).
5)
6)'
7)'

. ','
'"

What is it?
~lho did it?
When'was it done?
Where :i,s it,?
Who'has it?
Could we use it? Look at it?
What is its importance?

Since DEC's prime product is comput'er~;',. ~ good beginning could be
,

, made' wi th a data "p~§e pf, referenqes t 11$4Ql?1~:,':,~~~i1ejl~qep<,1\:tV,j;;~g ,Joi; ;tllotJ to':;:"::;"
,~, "
.'1:'{J·:J;:r1t :}.:!t)! ':~( ,'1
'::,)f
:;;t}>·r,r>~;J' ": :/ :,' ,':0,1, :'~:'~;.'}:'~,::, . : ~ :,' > r; ,~!.:~ ,,·~t>t'::F·' ;:,:~

l:,;:

'f'

,: '.

:,:
"1;

..\
.~..

: .' .::'

,,' ,.t>

publications, proceedings, books, artifacts, and displays.

envision even the opportunity to borro~or loan historical
objects suc,h as' parts of Whirlwind, Mark I, and early abacus, or
even a facsimile of a punch card from the Jaquard Loomo
I have not had the opportunity to visit the Smithsonian, but I
understand that much still needs to be cataloged or processed
for actual use by t,he public.
an~

Boston seems to be 'a ,logical place

a central location for the beginning of aresburce center,

because of the many historical events occuring at, in, or near1
Harvard, MIT,Linco.ln Lab, NITRE,
, "
,.I: .

t·,

to say nothing of the

etc~,

evolution of the mini-coll}puters in ,Maynard at the' old American
Wbolen Mill site in, 1957.

t·

If your schedule is not too ,heavy,'I wQuldloV'e to hear from
, you with any comments, critique, or suggestions that you may have.'

',',i

::. ,

,,:.~

·.Y

.. . ,,::
~,

,
"

~;"'"

,.l:,,:,"

;.!'

J': \': .
"

MEMORANDUM

Case:
Subject:

Da~:Ju1y

15, 1975

Page:

Survey resul ts

Carol Johnson of AFCRL has completed the survey requested 'of attendees at
our April meeting at Hanscom Field.
I am attaching a copy of the resulting report she sent to Mr. Sauter at DOC.
These reports are being sent to the contact person for the Route 128 Special
Librarians Group in each participating organization. If a different person
in your company was also involved, I would appreciate it if you could see that
they receive copies as well.
Thanks are due to those who took their time to help the DOC and, in turn, all
of us, in responding to this survey. I also appreciate the fine job Carol
Johnson did in taking ,on this project.

S}~u ~(t('k/~-./

J~nne Bracken, Research Library

FrOln ....................................................................................... .

15 Acorn Park, Cambridge, Ma.
ADl-llS·874 •

15L/304 Ex t ...........................
864-5770 X3015
Bldg./Room............................
.

02140
Arthur 0 little,lnc

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE
AIR FORCE CAMBRIDGE RESEARCti LABORATORIES (AFSC)
LAURENCE G. HANSCOM FIELD, BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS 01730
RCPLY TO
ATTN OF.

SUBJECT:

, TO:

SUOL/Carol Johnson
Coordinator of Route 128 Libraries Survey

25 June 75

Utilization of DOC Services:
Report on a Survey of Route 128 Libraries
Hubert Sauter, Administrator,
Defense Documentation Center
1. Copies of Especially DOC were distributed to 48 organizations in the
Boston area during April, 1975.
2. Recipients were requested to review, comment and evaluate the report,
as well as to make additional observations or recommendations to be
considered by DOC.
3. Responses were received from 25 organizations, including 7 branches
of Raytheon (see attachment 1). It is believed that these respondents
represent the major DOC user population in the Boston geographic area.
4.

Responses have been consolidated and are reported in attachment 3.

5. The Route 128 Librarians' Group looks forward to a continuing dialog
with DOC to facilitate transfer of DOD generated information through
channels to the ultimate user.

",,<9 ••- ] . /

jf;tf~~,:;:~~
Director
AFCRL Research Library

Attachments

Organizations Responding from the Route 128 Librarians' Group (Boston)
1.

Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories

Analytical Systems Engineering corp.

Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center

Army Natick Laboratories

Arthur D. Little

AVCO Systems Division

Digital Equipment Corp.'

Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.

Dynamics Research Corp.

10.

General Telephone &Electronics Lab., Waltham Research Center

11.

GTE Sylvania/Eastern Operations

12.

HoneyWell Information Systems

13.

Itek

14.

Kennecot~

15.

M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory

16.

MITRE Corp.

17.

Raytheon Corporate Headquarters

·18.

Raytheon Co., Equipment Div. (Sudbury &Wayland)

19.

Raytheon Co., Missile Systems Div. (Andover &Bedford)

20.

Raytheon Service Co.

21.

Raytheon Co., Microwave & Power Tube Div.

22.

Raytheon Co., Research Div.

23.

Raytheon Co., Submarine Signal Div.

24.

Sanders Associates, Inc.

25.

Softech, Inc.

Copper Corp.

Attachment 1

...

Summary of Responses: Route 128 Librarians' Group (Boston)
1. Everyone responding felt that the Washington, D.C. committee had performed
a great service by conducting such a thorough review of the DOD Information
Transfer Process.
2. There was general agreement with observations and recommendations presented by the Committee on Information Hang-ups in Especially DDC.
3. Users were enthusiastic about the interest of DDC in soliciting user
reactions to their ~ervices.
4. There was overwhelming agreement that DDC provides an essential focal
point for DOD generated repo~ts and that the overall efficiency and scope
of DDC is to be commended.
5. In general, the greatest problems are in the areas of communications and
lack of coverage of considerable DOD sponsored work.
6. Below are listed some specific areas of concern, as well as some suggestions for services and directions for development. Most of these have
been mentioned in Especially DOC but they are reiterated here as being of
special concern to the Rt. 128 Librarians' Group.
a.

Users are poorly informed about DOC services and products.

(1) Publish a lJ ser Manual for all DOC services explaining services
in greater detail than the November 1974 Users' Guide. It would also be helpful if phone inquiries made to the phone numbers listed in the guide could be
routed directly to a knowledgeable person capable of answering the specific
questions.
(2)
Publish some sort of reference directory on how to obtain
types of DOD documentation not handled by DOC, or staff an office capable
of answering telephone inquiries about same.
(3) Conduct "User Training Seminars" on various services such
as preparation of report bibliographies.
b. There is unanimous dissatisfaction with the incompleteness of
reporting work unit information summaries. Erratic input causes users to
lose confidence in the system.
(1) Establish some sort of enforcement mechanism for reporting
of DOD sponsored reports and current and projected research projects.
(2) DOD should be made aware of this situation and requested to
study the problem to determine where the 1498s go astray.

Attachment 2

·1
'"J

c. Access to limited documents continues to be a problem, although
there was a concensus that some improvements were made when DOC streamlined
the requesting procedures and revised Form 55.
(1) Investigate ways of improving access to DOD generated information. Particular problems are overclassification, overly restrictive
distribution statements, and the problems associated with unclassified
limited reports.
(2) Publish a cumulated index to changes in "limited" as well
as downgraded or declassified documents.
d. Overlaps/gaps in indexing and coverage between DOC and other
government agencies is a problem which causes uncertainty and frustrations
in retrospective bibliographic searching.
(1) Investigate relationship of DOC with the non-DOD sponsored
information clearinghouses (AEC, NASA, NTIS). Explore possibility of networking and using common access procedures for each other's data bases.
(2) Explore possibility of accessing the DOD sponsored Information Analysis Centers through a DOC-lAC network.
e. Expansion of DOC services and products are considered a necessity
by all respondents.
(1)

Publish a DOD acronym listing.

(2)

Publish cumulative indexes to TAB (1953-60), (1960-69).

(3)

Introduce capability to access documents by project names.

(4)

Provide a link between WUIS/Report numbers.

f. Installation of Defense RDT&E on-line system in the downtown
Boston area was considered to be impractical and inaccessible by Rt. 128
Librarians.
(1) Plan to provide centralized access by contractor/government
organizations in a suburban location.
(2)
g.

Coordinate part-time use required by most of the respondents.

Miscellaneous Comments:

(1) It has become necessary for most organizations to curtail
their purchase of documents due to increased charges.
(2) Respondents were pleased to notice that an investigation of
mail delivery is being conducted to trace problems of delayed document
delivery.
-2-

·..
(3) Five organizations indicated that their users definitely
preferred full-size hard copy reports to microfiche. The volume of reports
ordered dropped significantly when fiche is the primary format made available
to users.
(4) One respondee objected to the inconsistency in terminology
used to retrieve documents. Key words used by authors do not match those
found in the DRIT.
(5) When reports are ordered from DOC using a Form 1, bills are
received from NTIS·for charges against deposit accounts. These bills do
not provide the individual requestor's name, which makes bookkeeping an
impossible task for the librarian.
(6) At least one user felt that the policy of distributing
classified materials directly from DOC to the field site of request, rather
than to a local D.C. address of that organization, inhibited their ability
to expedite a "rush" request.
(7) Strong opposition was expressed by a couple of respondents
to the idea of reinstating field offices. Service provided by field representatives in the past had not been uniformly rendered.
(8) It was expressed by one user that the AD numbers were too
long, making the possibility for error too great when ordering documents.
(9) One respondent with on-line access to DOC indicated that
the system was "down" 50% of the time they tried to use it.

-3-

",:~, "to, '~""''''''i''''''l''''I' " •• "",,'

""""t¢.iMl\'If"S

~.lmaDmD '1/

> -"-'

Peggy Dunn
cc:Ken Olsen
/.
Dick Best
Mimi Cummings

INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM
lOC/MAll STOP

ML12-l/A50

~ruly 18, 1975
Carolyn Sweeney
Library
EXT.
x6465
LOC/MAIL STOP.
ML5-4/A20

DATE,
FROM,
DEPT,

SUBJ.Response to your ,request for a memo and thesis
on character generation, with emphasis on author and affiliation.
Mimi and I searched the Digital historical files for a memo (M series)
or an engineering 'note (E series)containinginfopnation or reference
to character generation, but could not locate such. Through our'
interlibrary loan cooperation with M.I.T./!J.L. we asked them to search
their archives for an Olsen memo on cnaracter generation. They found
only two K. Olsen memos from 1952, neithe.r dealing with character
generation. Unfortunately, neither M.I.T./L.L. nor Digital has a subject
index to these files, so they could only be che,cked by date, 'author,
and title.'
The thesis which Sidney Bradspies completed at M.I.T. was entitled
" A magnetic-core memo:~:y with external selection," 1955, 169 pages,
Master's in Electrical Engineering. Dick Best agrees with me that this
title does not appear to be relevant to the topic' of character ·generation.
However, if you care to see the thesis it is, available for viewing at
the.M.I.T. Archives, or' the M.I.T. Barker Engineering Library, and it·
can' also be.purchased.
In an attempt to losate other references which might lead to the
particular item you'd like to see, I searched the abstracting and
indexing services of the Dig:i,tal libraryls reference collection.
Perhaps bibliographies from some of 1~ese citations will yield the
information you seek: .
.
Jones,E.D.," A versatile character generator with digital
input," WESCON Convention Record of IRE, 1959, vol. 4,
pp. 16 ff. (cited in W.W.Youden, Computer Literature'
Bibliography, 1946-l963,U.S.Dept. of Connnerce, ,N.B.S.)
Redman, J,., " Advanced display techniques through the Charactron
Shaped tube, n Proceedings I' 1st National Symposium, Society
for Information Display, Santa Monica, Calif.,March, 1964,
pp. 3l-46.(cited in S. Sherr, Fundamentals of display
system design, c. 1970)
Peterson, R.M. and R.C. Ritchart, "Recent developments in
shaped beam display and recording techniques," IRE Convention
Record, 3, pt. 3,(1958),pp. 21-30. (cited in Sherr)
* Loewe, R.T., et a1.,"Computer generated displays," IRE Proceedings,
v. 49, #1, January, 1961, pp. 188-190.
Gilbert, Barrie (Tektronix,1970) ,"Monolithic analog READ-ONLY
memory for character generation," IEEE'Jour. of Solid State
Circuits ,Feb. ,1971, pp. 45ff.
_ _ _--...,"priniticon: a new character generating monoscope for
use in visual display systE~ms, IEEE, Trans. ,Electron Devices,
1971,Feb.,pp. 118 ff.

* The bibliography from this article is att:ached.

12(a) lists several possihle alt('('llatives for direct vic\\'ing by individuals Of sillall gr'Hlps. Some sysH'l1ls lise
maglletic storage for one fnune of data AIl~ of the
various symbol gelleration techniques may theli be
used with a CRT for display. Jnstead of magnetic storage for image regeneration, image storage after digitalto-image conversion may be performed using hard copy
or display storage tubes (see Fig. 1).
Where large audiences must he accommodated, a projection technique may be used, as is illustrated in Fig.
12(b). Th~ image may be projected directly from a
, CRT or oil film or it may be projected from one of many
types of image storage media.
For any set of re'quirements for computer~generated
, displays, there may he a number of feasihle functional
, , ,flows' and a number of techniques for each function.
,Careful' analysis of the many possible combinations
should lead to a very effective computer-generated
display within the present state-of-the-art.

OIIl£CT VIEW

(a)

IilAGHETlC DRUM SEAM Sti"P'NG
"","UIC CORES ..... Vl.QIl..

DOTPATURH
SCMt PATTlR~
VIE"

(h)
SUM SHAPING

WAVEfORM

001' ,.nERN
leAH PATTEIlN

Fig. 12--,-Several typical fUJlctioJlal flows and implementations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors are indebted to represelltatives of many
firms for supplying informatioll, and are g-rateful to the
lIIany associates at Aeronutronic, including Dr. H.
\Veiss, Dr. R. H. :\leier,P. Rosenblum, R. L. Kuehn,
and J. Deutsch, who contributed information and assisted in various wa~'s.
BIBLIOGIUPHY

;;.
"

II] ijDigital printers,'·i1lsir. and COIltrol S),s., vol. 31, pp. iOO-707;
May, p. 103; July. p. 150; October, 1959.
[2] "Electro-mechanical printers," Electronic Ind., vol. 18, p. 10;
June, 1959.
.
,
'
[3] "Display type digital readout." Instr. and Automation, vol. 31,
,
pp. 1663-1665; Octoher, 1950.
ttl R. G. Stranix, "Special purpOSe eathode ray tuhes," Elri:tronic
Ind., "01.19, pp. IM-178; March, 1960.
[51 L. S. Allard,'"Elel'tronie devices employing CR beams," Brit.
Com7mm. and Electrflllics, vol. 4. pp. 620-625; October, 1957.
[6] H. G. I ;uhs7.yn~ki. "Slln'ey of image storage tubes," J. Sci.
Instr., vol. J4, pp. 81-89; March, 1<)57.
[7) R. A. Barker. "Techniques of dynamic display, part I: Cathode
ray tubes," Control. Engrg., vol. 7, pp. 100-105; February, 1960.
[8J N. Statlnad, "A comprehensive look at high~speed printout,"
Management and Business A ntomation; pp. 34-37; January, 1<)60.
(9) "Reading the high speed printers," Datamation, pp. 18-20;
, August, 1958.,
'
ftO] "Printers," Office A utomatio11, StlPPI. 33. p. 179b.
[111 S. C. Chao, "Character displays using analog techniques,"
Electronics, vol. 32, pp, 116-118; October 23, 1959.

[12] J. K .. l\·Joore and .1\J. I{ronenberg, "Generating high quality
characters and symbols." Electronics, vol. ,'13, p. 55; J line 10,
. .~:.
1960.
..
,{.' '
fB] "New high-resolution symhol generator," Automatic, Control,
,'i"pp. 28-29; ,June. 1960.
[141 C. F;. Burnett. "The 11101l()~mpe," RCA Rei'., vol. 2, pp. 414-420;
i',,':
"
AprIl, 1938.
, ,,[15] K. E. Perry and E. J. Aho, "Generatin~ characters for c'lthode
ray readout, ~ Electronics, vol. 31; p. 72; JaHliary ,~, 1958.
'~;.

>,:0.

__;

~._ _ _ _ _Ili!l!I!lPlIII!IPIIII!I_ _IIIIIJ_ _~_.I"4$'

!Ihi I'. y, S. Rat), "Cholfiict<,'r ,lisp"'\ . ,y~t"I1\ lor ;1'" ,l~ di~ilal COlli·

puter output," Re':'. Sci. Ins!r .. \'01. .~O. Pt>. 749-750; .\\lgu~I,
1I>5\).
[171 J. T. i\k:\ane~', "Electronic ,l(lIi' oper:II,t'~ hi!,:h ~peed printer."
E/~(/rOt!i(s, \'01. 31. p. 7.+; Septemher 26. 11158.
[18! J. T. ;\Ic:'\aIll·Y. '<The type Cl<)(';' chara('lnm tuhe and its ap·
plication to air snrveillance systems," 1955 IRE C()~Y['XTION
RECORD, pt. $. np. 31-36.
[191 J. F. Hider and S. D. t7slan. "EncydopI'dia on Cathode Ray
Oscilloscopt's and Their Uses," Rider PlIhlishing Co., ;'Iiew
York, X. Y.. 2nd ed.; 11)59.
f201 T. Soller, 1\1. A. Starr. and G. E. Valley. "Cathode Ray Tube
Di!'p!ays," ~1.I.T. Rad Lab. Ser.. McGra\\-Hill Book Co., Inl'.,
:\ewYork,:\. Y., vol. 22, sett. 18-11. p. 664; 1958.
[211 H. O. Hook. et al., "Viewing stora!{e tubes for large displays,"
RCA J., vol. 1i, pp. 503-514; December, 1<)$6.
[221 R. A. Barker, "Techniques or dynamic display, part II: Opties
at work," Control. Engr}!.., vol. 7, pp. 121-125; April, 1960.
fBI R. Olden, ".'\ thin-window cathode-ray tube ror high-speed
printing with 'Electrofax',~ RCA Rei' .. vol. 18, pp. ,,4J-350;
September, 1957.
[241 "Xerography,' Aircraft Production. \'01. 20. pp. 198-202; May,
19.1R
[2$1 H. Epstein, "The electrographic remrding technique," Proc.
H·JCC. pp. 116-118; March, 195.'i.
1261 R. E. West, "High speed readout for data processing," Electronhs, vol. 32, pp. 83-85; May 29, 1959.
[27[ :-:. Fyler, D. Cone, R. Dorr, and J. Wurtz, "High !'peecl direct
electronic printing cathode ray tube," Pror. 4th Natl. Convention
011 Mil. Electronics, pp. 623-629; J Ulle, 1960.
'
[28[ "An electronic printing process," The Office, pp. 88-90; August,
1959.
[29] "Display promises communication speed up," Industrial Labs.,
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[301 "'TPR' recording," Electronic Ind., vol. 19, pp. 76-79; February.
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"
(31) G. Destriau and H. F.I vey, "EI('ctrollimint'scer;ce and rela,ted
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[351 E. A. Sack. "Advances in Screen Structure and Data Distriblltion for the ELF Display System," Westinghouse Res. I.ab~ ..
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1959.
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[401 "New character generator," J. Franklin Inst., vol. 268, pp. 1351.~6; August, 1959;
'.
'
[41] "Readout system offers very high speed." Electronics, vol. 32.
',,','
p. 126; May 7,1959.
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,
.
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l.'fI-,144; >\oH'lllher, 1958.

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Ed Schwartz

DA'IE:

JuJ.y 30, 1974

cc ·

I<en Olsen
Gorcon Bell

FROM:

Hoy Gould

DEPT:

Trade

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LOC:

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Museum - Non-Profit Organization

WOl.1d you please check into the possibility of setting the Digi,!:al
COIl ::mter Museum up as a non-profit trust,
foundation, or corpor~ti( n
whjchever is appropriate.
Thi.s would aid us in donations of display""
as no one· will donate to a profit organization. This is part of the
pr.cblem we are having with MIT turning th e TX-¢ over to us.
I have enclosed a study done by Harvey H. Lippincott, Corporate
Archivist for Unit.e,d Aircraft, for your information.

jac
enclosure

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Box 315
.BoltoD; Massachusetts
August 5, 1974

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01740

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Computer History Project
Smithsonian National Museum of
History and Technology
Room 4601
20560
Washington, D.C.
Dear Sir:
The IEEE Spectrum of February 1974 had an article by Henry
Tropp, former investigator for the Smithsonian History
Project. Do you have any biblio9raphies or descriptive
material 01: the contents of your project that are available
at ·this time?
I am very interested in tracing certain points in the history.
of computers for a research project. Is it necessa-v:y to visit
,the Smithsonian and your ComFuter History Project in order to
use the material?
Sincerely,

Sally Birch Lymberg
Research I,ibrClrian
SBL/jac

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Roy Gould

DATE;

12 luigus t 1974

cc:' Marietta Ethier

FROM:

Ed Schwartz

DEPT:

LEGAL

EXT: '

5500,LOC: Maynard PK-3/2

, ::SUBJ:

MUSEUl'vl

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'/..t'1.

:1 have asked MaJ;"ietta Ethier' of my depattmen t ta look,
ihtot.he prasand' cons of establishing the rir~ls'eum as a non-'
pro~itcorpo~ation~, .
'

. . In addi tion,we,want to check out the various tax laws
to 'he sure that ,even if we can establish it as a non-profit
corprir~tion that it would have the, beriefit of tax free status
'. so to take advantage pfc·ontributions 1 as you, indicated.

".ItrusfthatMariettawill be in touch 'rith you' shortly.',
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