18 Oct
2025
18 Oct
'25
4:25 p.m.
On Sat, 2025-10-18 at 16:27 -0400, Paul Koning wrote:
Our college 1620 had its 1311 system disk spring a
hydraulic leak
(the head actuator is hydraulic in that device). The heads and
system pack were cleaned with reagent grade isopropyl alcohol from
the Chemistry department, the leak fixed and the actuator refilled
and bled -- and all was well. That was in 1974 or 1975. Nice job by
the local IBM CE.
Haus zur Geschichte der IBM Datenverarbeitung (House of the History of
IBM Data Processing) was in an old IBM punch card factory in
Sindelfingen (near Stuttgart), before IBM sold the building and moved
(some of) the collection across the Autobahn to the IBM Tech Center in
Böblingen. They had a working 1401 with four 729s, a 1407, a 1406, and
a 1311 — and of course 1402 and 1403. The 1407 stopped working and they
couldn't get it going again because their expert, Karl Rohledder, had
passed away. I don't know whether they're keeping the system operating
in Böblingen. They also had a working 360\25, a working 403, and a
working 650. The 650 belonged to a museum in Vienna; it was returned
when HzG moved to Böblingen. I don't know whether it survived the
return journey.
CHM in Mountain View has a 1620 that worked for a while until the
cooling fan for the core stopped working. I don't know why they didn't
replace it. They didn't get a 1622 so they connected a PC that made all
the correct noises. They also got two 20-drawer file cabinets of 1620
software from a Purdue professor (Alvie Pule, IIRC) who was forced by
the fire marshall to get rid of it. And they have two 1401s and a PDP-1
that work.
John Zabolitky has a collection on the grounds of the Military College
in Neubiberg, a southeastern suburb of Munich. He has a working VAX on
which he sells time. He also has a working Cray T3E, but nobody is
paying to use it. He has a 705, but it doesn't work. And a lot of other
stuff.