[SIGCIS-Members] Response on course design from James Sumner

[Ian S. King]

There are Russian companies who would be glad to supply you with brand new
vacuum tubes.  However, buy extras: my experience has been mixed with these
sources!  I needed to replace a tube in the four-channel plug-in for my
Tektronix 561A oscilloscope (late 1960s).  After trying three tubes, I
found one that worked.  Good thing they sold them in lots of five.  Caveat
emptor -- Ian King


On Sun, Sep 29, 2013 at 9:34 PM, Aron Levy <aronpublic at gmail.com> wrote:

> On that note, after discussing with a friend of mine, the thought of
> sourcing nearly 17,500 vacuum tubes, many I which are no longer available
> seems to render the idea of rebuilding ENIAC somewhat remote.
>
> Unless Washington and Lee happens to have an entire warehouse full of
> tubes! (Stranger things have been known to happen.)
>
> Aron Levy
>
> I typed this with my thumbs. Please excuse my brevity.
>
> On Sep 30, 2013, at 12:11 AM, "Thomas Haigh" <thaigh at computer.org> wrote:
>
> > [James is still having problems sending to the list, but has a good reply
> > below. Tom]
> >
> > -------- Original Message --------
> > Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Seeking help -- if you could design your
> ideal
> > Computer/Information History course, what would you include?
> > Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 11:11:34 +0100
> > From: James Sumner <james.sumner at manchester.ac.uk>
> > To: members at sigcis.org
> >
> > Dear all
> >
> > What an excellent question -- and it's remarkable to see that the
> discussion
> > very quickly worked its way round to early hardware and games. My first
> > thought before seeing the follow-up messages was to give the students a
> task
> > something like this:
> >
> > "It's 1951. The firm you work for has just announced an electronic
> digital
> > computer -- the first to be offered for commercial sale. You have no
> > established competition, but this also means you're promoting an
> unfamiliar
> > idea. Many of the people you're trying to sell to are happy relying on
> human
> > clerical labour or existing punched-card technology, which they see as
> cheap
> > and reliable. And many people more generally don't have a clear sense of
> > what 'electronic digital computer' means at all.
> >
> > "Your big opportunity to do something about this arrives with a major
> public
> > exhibition on new science and technology of the future, to be hosted at
> > [insert name of suitable big expo venue]. Your firm has been offered a
> prime
> > space of [insert dimensions] for a display introducing computers to the
> > public. Your task is to build the display. You have X weeks."
> >
> > This is loosely based on the situation facing the British firm Ferranti
> when
> > it produced the Nimrod machine (http://www.goodeveca.net/nimrod/)
> > for the 1951 Festival of Britain. There was not enough time to implement
> a
> > full-scale working computer, and in any case there were questions about
> > whether a complex machine would be either reliable enough or intelligible
> > enough for public display. The engineers instead put together some
> > relatively straightforward electronics to play a simple interactive game
> > (Nim -- one step up from tic-tac-toe), and housed it in an enormous,
> > imposing case. The result worked well enough for attracting column
> inches,
> > but was judged a partial failure on the marketing side because it didn't
> > lead people to find out more about fundamental computer concepts.
> >
> > The idea behind this kind of project, of course, is to play to the
> strengths
> > of a class with a mixture of study backgrounds and skills. A clear
> > understanding of the conceptual principles of digital information
> processing
> > has to be present and correct, but there are avenues for taking the
> social
> > history seriously -- what kind of promotional technique were
> conventional to
> > 1950s audiences? What sections of the public would show up to this
> > exhibition? Would it be wise to address possible labour fears? -- and for
> > thinking about the practicalities of display, the style to aim for in any
> > written materials, and the performance aspects of any demonstration
> > involved.
> >
> > It might even rival "costumed battle on the front quad" if it could
> really
> > be built, assuming the students followed Ferranti in going for the
> > big-and-imposing spectacle approach.
> >
> > The main headache would be in determining what rules to play by on the
> > practical construction. Insisting on only "materials that could have
> existed
> > in 1951" would create major problems if rigorously enforced, and would
> focus
> > a lot of time and attention on elements which would probably be most
> > interesting to a small minority of students. Tolerating too much
> simulation,
> > on the other hand, would defeat the key point that equipment was
> inherently
> > unreliable, and that the question of whether digital automation was
> > worthwhile or not was still a live one. Perhaps experienced
> replicationists
> > might be able to advise here?
> >
> > All best
> > James
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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-- 
Ian S. King, MSCS ('06, Washington)
Ph.D. Student
The Information School
University of Washington

"Be yourself, everyone else is already taken."  - Oscar Wilde
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