[HN Gopher] Hunting two PDP-1 photos (which are not what they seem)
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Hunting two PDP-1 photos (which are not what they seem)
Author : masswerk
Score : 82 points
Date : 2021-02-28 12:02 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.masswerk.at)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.masswerk.at)
| wdb wrote:
| I have the say the computers in these photos look awesome. Much
| nicer than today's day designs. Looks quite modern again :)
| mokedglass wrote:
| My guess is it was a figure in this article:
| https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/1988/04/man1988040...
|
| Edit: Confirmed, kind of. A similar but different picture is
| figure 9: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-Historical-
| Overview-...
|
| It looks like the picture slated for figure 11, that made it to
| the CHM archives, didn't actually end up in the article.
| ncmncm wrote:
| The article, without the paywall:
|
| https://sci-hub.se/10.1109/MAHC.1988.10039
|
| It downloads very slowly, for me. Be patient. UPDATE: literally
| 56KB/s, and 34 megabytes. The fastest modems used to be 8x
| slower that that!
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| This photo, also in the CHM archive but not digitized, is
| probably of the same layout / computer:
| https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10275791...
| masswerk wrote:
| The title attribution poses another riddle: "PDP-1/B and
| miniature model railroad at University of Massachusetts".
|
| The PDP-1B was the production prototype of the PDP-1 and
| there were only 2, we know of. The first one (white) was
| intended for LLNL, but the order got delayed and it went to
| BBN instead, the second one (blue) became the actual LLNL
| machine.
|
| Update: Curiously, the this page [1] also mentions a "PDP-lB"
| [sic!]:
|
| [1] https://www.cics.umass.edu/about/history-school-computer-
| sci...
|
| Anyway, this seems to confirm the Amherst link already
| suggested by Steve Russell.
| peapicker wrote:
| Good article... it points out that J.A.N. Lee was appointed
| Program Head of the new CS program at UMassAmherst in
| September of 1964. And that is the same person whom the 2nd
| photo was from in the thread's main article.
| driverdan wrote:
| That does look correct, great find.
|
| Unless things have changed it would be unusual to refer to the
| University of Massachusetts as UM. I grew up in MA and have
| only ever heard it called UMass. It's possible it used to be
| called UM before they expanded it beyond Amherst and Boston.
| masswerk wrote:
| Thank you very much, I will update the article accordingly!
|
| Edit: Updated! - Now a legit HN success story. :-)
| meddlepal wrote:
| I keep eyeballing the railroad track but that feels like HO and
| not O guage.
|
| The track spacing doesn't look right for O, also in 1961 im not
| sure two rail O gauge would be common... O usually has a third
| rail.
|
| Could also be OO gauge, but that is rare in the US.
| TacticalCoder wrote:
| If that's the model railroad from the MIT ain't it a completely
| custom railroad, unique to the MIT? So it could even be none of
| those?
| masswerk wrote:
| Here is a Wired article (2014) on the TMRC with photos of the
| actual layout: https://www.wired.com/2014/11/the-tech-model-
| railroad-club/
| pbhjpbhj wrote:
| "Model railroad" would suggest a [scale] model of some extent
| railway, otherwise isn't it just railway/railroad without the
| "model" designation. If it's not modelled on something isn't
| it properly a toy or miniature railway. /pedantry
| masswerk wrote:
| OO is just a slightly bigger scale (1:76) at H0 track. Since UK
| loading diameter is slightly narrower than on other standard
| gauge railways (which is the reason for there being OO at all,
| as H0 motors wouldn't fit models of UK locomotives), there
| wouldn't be much of a noticeable difference. To me, this looks
| bigger than H0, but there are other scales and gauges, as well.
| Admittedly, my knowledge about these is pretty limited.
| mbalyuzi wrote:
| There is also S scale between HO and O, which I believe was
| still popular at the time.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S_scale
| jacquesm wrote:
| Definitely not O, HO stands for 'half O', and OO is/was
| pretty rare outside of the UK, I'd bet on HO.
| masswerk wrote:
| Yes, not OO. There were probably no such US coaches
| available in OO.
| jacquesm wrote:
| And O would be _way_ larger:
|
| http://wgh.trains.com/-/media/Images/How%20To/Articles/AB
| Cs%...
| msisk6 wrote:
| It's definitely an American HO scale layout. The track looks
| like Atlas and I recognize several of the buildings as HO-scale
| Revell kits that were popular at the time.
| mseepgood wrote:
| Why did grown men play with model trains back then?
| breakingcups wrote:
| Why shouldn't they?
| gumby wrote:
| Well for one thing grown people play with all sorts of things.
| Boats are also quite popular, not just real ones but model
| ones.
|
| Also there were more "group" activities in those days (consider
| Moose and Elk lodges and other societies, of which only a few
| really survive any more).
|
| As far as trains specifically: For a long time trains were the
| definitional high tech artifacts; my dad bought me a train set
| (I was born in the early 60s) and though I thought it was
| merely OK, he, being from the 1930s, remembered trains as super
| exciting.
|
| Plus it's one of those activities with a gajillion degrees of
| freedom (mechanical, artistic, electrical, mathematical) which
| encourages groups of people to work together on the pieces that
| appeal to them.
| walshemj wrote:
| They still do and these clubs are very well known in the
| history of tech.
| masswerk wrote:
| http://tmrc.mit.edu
| raldi wrote:
| What is a grade student?
| alricb wrote:
| a grad student with an e added to the grad, I think.
| masswerk wrote:
| Meanwhile, something dutifully corrected. :-)
| atdrummond wrote:
| Delivered is misspelled as well, if you're looking for
| typos.
|
| Thanks for the interesting piece.
| masswerk wrote:
| A well, not a native speaker, sleepless night... but I do
| apologize for this being interesting! ;-)
| wombatmobile wrote:
| CORRECTIONS TO ARTICLE:
|
| 1. In the first sentence of the section Timeline, "delvired"
| should be "delivered".
|
| 2. The URL to this HN discussion at the end of the article is
| incorrectly syntaxed and gives 404.
| masswerk wrote:
| Thanks, corrected.
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