EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: Canobi on May 04, 2015, 01:15:19 pm
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Hi guys n gals :)
Wasn't quite sure where to put this post, so mods, do feal free to move it if it's in the wrong place.
A good friend of mine is a lecturer and research fellow at Salford University (Manchester UK). A couple years ago he had the task of clearing out a room to move lab into. The room in question it turns out, had started being used for stage around the turn on the century. An uncountable amount of treasures were found in this room, including Graham Bell's bell jar used for showing that air was needed for sound to travel.
Orders from above were to skip the lot, but he could keep whatever he could carry home after the day was done.
Amongst those few gleaned treasures was the very first 4k memory module ever made for Big Birtha (for those that don't know, she was the very first fully functional computor).
Knowing exactly what it was he got in touch with a group who had just finish reassembling/fixing her up to working condition for a museum. They weren't interested it seems, so knowing I was into electronics and collecting oddities, he asked if I would be interested in looking after it.
Unfortunately I need to pass the torch to another who would be just as enthusiastic about looking after this piece of history. No money asked for, just some much needed TLC and a pride of place.
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Is that from MUSE? What's the word size?
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Is that from MUSE? What's the word size?
I'm a little light on the details I'm afraid. I do know it was 4k (b?), all the tiny coils are hand wound and it ran at around 90w.
I can find out more on it if your interested, though I can't guarantee I can get back in short notice so will post details when I get them.
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Looks like 10-bit with a couple of bits of parity.
Never heard of a "Big Birtha" ("Big Bertha"?) computer. Wikipedia and Google never heard of it, either.
The only reference I could find was on a "tinfoil-hat" web page where it was used as a nick-name for a "Beast" computer, also a tinfoil-hat exclusive.
http://www.whale.to/b/beast.html (http://www.whale.to/b/beast.html)
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I can find out more on it if your interested, though I can't guarantee I can get back in short notice so will post details when I get them.
I'm definitely interested in more information, tbh I'm more than slightly miffed I can't give it a good home. Just trying to work out the vintage as the earlier Manchester Computers used Williams Tubes for memory and then magnetic drums.
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if it's still local to Manchester i maybe able to store it safely until an appropriate custodian can properly care for it, i could even make a video / take photos / document it's current condition if people want to see it in more detail?
TNMOC maybe interested in it
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Looks like 10-bit with a couple of bits of parity.
Never heard of a "Big Birtha" ("Big Bertha"?) computer. Wikipedia and Google never heard of it, either.
The only reference I could find was on a "tinfoil-hat" web page where it was used as a nick-name for a "Beast" computer, also a tinfoil-hat exclusive.
http://www.whale.to/b/beast.html (http://www.whale.to/b/beast.html)
it rings some kind of bell with me regarding old historic computing, but i dont recall why :palm:
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it rings some kind of bell with me regarding old historic computing, but i dont recall why :palm:
"Big Bertha" was once upon a generic term for any really big machine. The biggest machine on the production line would be Big Bertha for example.
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Sorry for the spelling :palm:
It's been a while since I was given it so I may have details a bit mixed. I'll see if I can get hold of more solid info.
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it rings some kind of bell with me regarding old historic computing, but i dont recall why :palm:
"Big Bertha" was once upon a generic term for any really big machine. The biggest machine on the production line would be Big Bertha for example.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Dicke_Bertha.Big_Bertha.jpg)
This is the original "Dicke Bertha" (literal translation: thick Bertha). Designed by Krupp, and allegedly called so "in honor" of Bertha Krupp, heiress of the Krupp industrial empire.
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Depending on your nationality and your view of history the first working computer was either"
ENIAC in the USA, used to calculate firing tables for guns. To 'reprogram' the machine meant rewiring it.
The Manchester University Mk 1 machine which used Williams tubes for storage of both data and the program.
The Z2 and Z3 machines which was constructed by Conrad Zuse because he hated doing math by hand.
The Colossus code breaking computers constructed at Bletchley Park during WWII
MESM in the old Soviet Union which became operational in about 1950
I have no record of a computer called 'Big Bertha' in my papers so I suggest that you contact (in the UK) the national Museum of Computing. Finally, it is an accident of geography that Salford and Manchester are separate cities. Salford is therefore not in Manchester.
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Oh sorry, I wasn't at all denying where the phrase originated, just adding my input on why some people may have called the machine this was taken from that.
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I sort of take the view that Zuse was the first to make a computer, like Baird was the first to make a television...
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If the group who was fixing the actual computer up for display in a museum had no interest in this, I have a hard time convincing myself that anyone else would be interested. I love old tech and I absolutely love history but this looks like something that would just rust away in someones garage until its eventually taken to the dump.
That being said, if someones interested, great. Good luck to you.
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If the group who was fixing the actual computer up for display in a museum had no interest...
I'm convinced it's from MUSE or something newer. Pretty certain it's not from the Transistor Computer, hence MUSE or newer lol