The first Apple product (Apple1 computer) and the newest (iPhone 10) went on sale the same day. Charitybuzz auction of the rare Schoolsky Apple1 computer started September 12th and Tim Cook - Apple CEO announced the Iphone 10 the same day.
The Schoolsky Apple1 Computer has been announced to be at auction for a few weeks prior to start of the online auction with a peek at the Schoolsky Apple1 and all the documentation. The tag line "Take a byte of Apple Computer history with this rare vintage computer from 1976"creating a big response and a lot of buzz about the auction.
The new iPhone X launch announced by Tim Cook was tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs. Jobs is credited with growing the Apple company from a business selling the first 200 Apple1 computers built in his home to being the largest company in the world. The Apple1 computer was designed by Steve Wozniak the Apple cofounder.
The new iPhone launch was also a history making event on the new Apple 'spaceship' campus in Cupertino, California. The event was held in the "Steve Jobs Theater". The first facility to open on the $5 billion campus.
"By David Larsen" This is an exciting day for the old and new Apple products. Glad to be a part of the first Apple product sale " The Schoolsky Apple1 computer"
Ron Wayne owned 10% of the Apple Computer Company (April 1,1976) and was co -founder with Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak. Ron contributed his business & engineering skills however when the Apple needed to borrow money to build the first 50 Apple-1 computers he did not feel comfortable with his part of the debt responsibility. Ron Sold his interest in the Apple partnership for about $800 only 12 days after the formation of the partnership. Ron was a creative designer and continued his design work after selling his interest including the original Apple logo and schematic drawings for Apple.
The story of Ron's involvement in Apple Computer is not well known however their have been some interesting turns of fortune for him. The 10 % ownership Ron had for 11 days would now be worth about $30 Billion - that is with a B.
Ron was the business guy for Apple and wrote the original partnership agreement between Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and himself. Copiers were not common then and 3 original copies with all 3 signatures were made. Ron kept his copy of the contract in a personal file for years and sold it in the 90's to a signature collector for $500. That same contract sold December 13th, 2011 for $1.6 million to Eduardo Cisneros at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
Click image to enlarge
Montage of Ron's Documents - Credit Christie's
Ron had a personal file of proofs he helped create at Apple inc. and decided now was the time to make a sale with interest in Apple is at an all time high.
Mr. Wayne owned the documents that sold today in his collection and did very well at Christie's auction for $25,000. Today was a good day for Ron Wayne.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Learn more about Ron Wayne
Anyone having an interest in the Apple Computer company and how it all started will really enjoy this book. Steve's book has been in print for 8 years - if you missed it now is a good time do your read. Their are many reasons for the tremendous success of Apple however it all started with Steve Wozniak
Click image to enlarge
designing the Apple 1 microcomputer. Their were many good breaks as the company developed and sometimes just being in the right place at the right time was a big help. Steve Jobs convinced Wozniak to sell his Apple 1 computer and was the marketing guru that made the company grow to what it is today and those first months of the start up are very interesting.
Did you know that the first partnership of the Apple company included 3 people not just the 2 Steve's. Ron Wayne was in on the original official founding and actually is the one who wrote the partnership agreement and at that time owned 10 percent of the Apple company? Only 12 days after the partnership Ron dropped out and received about $800 for his interest. CNN story about Ron Wayne.
Wozniak as Woz
Steve Wozniak ( Steve often goes by just Woz ) designed the Apple 1 and Apple ll totally on his own and also wrote the initial software monitor and Basic program. Steve was and is a very smart and clever designer. Woz wanted to give the plans of the Apple 1 for free and in fact did so at Homebrew Computer Club meetings. Of course without the Apple 1 their would be no Apple Company today.
The first sale made by Steve Jobs was just a few days after the original partnership was signed and he sold 50 Apple 1's to Paul Terrell owner of Byte Shop. It could be that without this sale their would be no Apple Computer Company today.
Zaltair computer - steve wozniak
"Zaltair Computer" A really great practical joke that Steve Wozniak pulled of at the First West Coast Computer Faire in April 1977. Steve says in his book "iWoz" that he likes to do practical jokes and have someone else get blamed for doing the joke. In the case of the Zaltair he did a very good job and did not get accused of being the originator of the joke in fact Gary Ingram at Processor Technology was the one accursed of doing the hoax. The hoax was directed toward the Ed Roberts and his Mitts Altair 8800 microcomputer. Steve called his friend Adam Schoolsky to come help with this hoax.
I recommend reading the book to learn in Woz's words about the start up of the Apple company and his own story. It is worth a second read if you like history and these fascinating story's told by Woz. The book "iWoz" published in 2006 and was on the New York Times best seller list.
I had the opportunity to read this book for a second time and I learned many new interesting story's about Wozniak and the Apple Computer Company - a good read
Several months ago I was contacted about using parts of my Apple 1 computer videos for the BBC program - "iWonder - History of Computing Timeline". I don't know the schedule
of the program however I am delighted they chose to use some of my Apple 1 computer Video for the program.
Click on image to enlarge
BBC none exclusive use
Release and permission form to use our material. A simple use of our material however always nice to have some of the work done by our group used.
Earlier BBC documentary "Steve Jobs: Billion Dollar Hippy".BBC used some clips of my Apple one computer in this documentary as well at 11 minutes 50 seconds into the film. I watched this production again and noticed our group got a thank you in the credits as the LCF Group.
The Zaltair computer was not a real computer but a prank that Steve Wozniak and some of his friends made up and secretly distributed at the First West Coast Computer Faire April 15-17, 1977.
I am fortunate to have an original of the Zaltair brochure. I received this brochure from Adam Schoolsky as part of a package of material with the Apple 1 computer purchased from Adam in 1995. Adam helped Wozniak with this prank. The brochure was a prank using the most popular computer on the market - the "Altair 8800" microcomputer sold by MITS, Ed Roberts company. See the comment below blog for additional information.
Enlarge the photo's by clicking on them and then even
more by a right click and select "View image".
Zaltair brochure Front
Zaltair brochure Back
It is reported that this may be the only backside image of the Zaltair brochure on the the internet.
Much of this information I obtained from Steve Wozniak's book "iWoz"
Wozniak book
"Zaltair
Computer" A really great practical joke that Steve Wozniak (
designer of the Apple 1 Microcomputer ) pulled of at the First West
Coast Computer Faire in April 1977. Steve says in his book "IWoz" that
he likes to do practical jokes and have someone else get blamed for
doing the joke. In the case of the Zaltair he did a very good job and
did not get accused of being the originator of the joke in fact Gary
Ingram at Processor Technology was the one accursed of doing the hoax.
The hoax was directed toward the Ed Roberts and his Mitts Altair 8800
microcomputer.
Steve called his friend Adam Schoolsky to come help
with this hoax. Adam and Steve created the Zaltair handout and printed
8,000 or more of them for $400. They called in Chris Espinoza and Randy
Wiggington -- a couple of teenage friends to help distribute the
brochure. Steve told them all that no matter what, they could not admit
the hoax to any one.
They started by putting a good number of them
out on a table where many vendors were displaying literature. It was
discovered that they disappeared very fast so they watched and saw a
representative from the Mitts Altair Company was taking them all. It
was clear a much more secret way to put them out would be needed. At
this point they started to carry them around under their coat and put a
few here and there usually putting them a few down in someone else's
stack of literature. When Steve Jobs first saw the Zaltair brochure he
thought it was real and made the comment that the Apple 2 did not look
to bad compared to the other computers. Apple 1 designer Steve Wozniak.
It
was a number of years later that Steve Wozniak admitted to Steve Jobs
and Mike Scott that he was the one responsible for the Zaltair hoax.
They had a good laugh about the whole thing.
I really enjoyed
the book "iWoz" and liked the idea that Steve always looked out for
folks he was friends with or worked with -- like selling some of his
stock to about 40 engineers at Apple for a price he new would make them a
lot of money when the company went public. He also gave a reported
million dollars to several friends who had helped him in the early days
of Apple but were not in on the good buy like the engineers at Apple.
This material is based on information from Steve Wozniak,s book "iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It"
This blog has been fun to write and brings back some good memories of my collection and being able to obtain several Apple 1 computers in the 90's. I am always amazed at just what I will find when I look at 40 years of computer collecting in the museum warehouse inventory . Looking for a letter and response I sent to Soviet President Gorbachev in 1990 I spotted a Volksmodem made by Anchor Automation in the late 70's. It is mint and in original box never used - WOW the good old day's of 300 Baud data rates.
The LCF Group has several Apple 1 computers in our "Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum" and the stories about the early start up days of Apple Company are always of interest.
Steven Wayhrich, MD
The information below is from the website of Steven Weyhrich, a family practice physician in Omaha, Nebraska. Steven's writing's about Apple history is very informative and the paragraph below is directly from his web page.
""By early 1976, Steve Wozniak had completed his 6502-based computer and
would display enhancements or modifications at the bi-weekly Homebrew
Computer Club meetings. Steve Jobs
was a 21 year old friend of Wozniak’s and also a visitor at the
Homebrew club. He had worked with Wozniak in the past (together they
designed the arcade game “Breakout”
for Atari) and was very interested in his computer. During the design
process Jobs made suggestions that helped shape the final product, such
as the use of the newer dynamic RAMs instead of older, more expensive static RAMs.
He suggested to Wozniak that they get some printed circuit boards made
for the computer and sell it at the club for people to assemble
themselves. They pooled their financial resources together to have PC boards made, and on April 1st, 1976 they officially formed the Apple Computer Company.
Jobs had recently worked at an organic apple orchard, and liked the
name because “he thought of the apple as the perfect fruit–it has a high
nutritional content, it comes in a nice package, it doesn’t damage
easily–and he wanted Apple to be the perfect company. Besides, they
couldn’t come up with a better name.” "" The above from Steven Weyhrich's website.
Read the whole story on Steven's website about how the Apple Computer Company was started by Jobs and Wozniak in 1976.
Thank you for reading my blog - if you like info, news and stories about vintage computers please subscribe or follow by email. Thank You -Dave
David & Gaynell
Larsen
The interest in the Apple Computer Company is on the increase almost daily now. Several movies are being produced about Steve Jobs and these increase buzz about Apple Inc. I was working in the early days of microcomputers as faculty member at Virginia Tech and a member of the Blackburg Group.
An Apple 1 microcomputer sold at Chistie' on line auction today for $387,000. The price did not reach the high estimate of $500,000 - This is still a big increase from the $666.66 that was the original price in 1976.Less then 50 of these computer are remaining in museum's and private collections. These computers were selling in the range of $20,000 to $50,000 until the past few years. The price at auction started at just over $200,000 several years ago and reaching a high of $641,400 May 25, 2013 at a Breker auction.
The Apple 1 has become an Icon symbol of the silicon revolution and museums and deep pocket collectors seem ready to pay the price. The Apple Company has great visibility and is one of the largest stock valued companies in the world. Steve Jobs co-founder ( Steve Jobs passed away October 5, 2011) is considered to have been one of the worlds best at creating new products before customers even knew what they would want. His creative products and his ability to market the them have made Apple the envy of the tech world. The high price for the Apple 1 computer proves some are ready to pay a big price to have a piece of Apple history.
Photo from the Christie's Website sold at auction July 9,2013
Steve Wozniak the other co-founder of the Apple Company gets lots of credit for the price of the Apple 1 computers at these auctions. He designed the Apple 1 and wrote initial software all on his own. The design was really creative and Wozniak realized he had a great computer but it was difficult for the user to add a keyboard & power supply to have a working system. He then designed the Apple 2 as a turnkey plug and play computer. The owners of an Apple 1 were offered the Apple 2 and could use the Apple 1 as part of the payment. The trade in arrangement reduced the number of Apple 1 owners almost overnight. It is not known how many were traded in out of the 200 that were manufactured.
Send me atweet if you enjoy the blog or have a comment - Dave
I appreciate your doing a like on my Museum Facebook page
Thank you for reading my blog - if you like info, news and stories
about vintage computers please subscribe or follow by email. - Thank
You.
.
This auction continues the high price museums and collectors are willing to pay for the most well know microcomputer in the world.
Last week their was an interesting gathering of Steve Wozniak and friends with five Apple-1 computers - with at least 3 of the computers working. This group Apple-1 computers and owners apparently started with Ralph Simpson , a volunteer at the "History San Jose's Collection Center" getting permission to get their Apple 1 up and running. Ralph contacted Mike Willegal a well known microcomputer expert and historian - here is his response.
Apple-1 computer
" "There is a little back story to this "event". After much back and
forth with higher ups at the museum, Ralph Simpson managed to convince
them to let him get their Apple-1 into operating condition. When
permission was finally granted, Ralph contacted me, to see if I had any
recommendations about how to proceed. I put him in touch with Wendell
Sander and Dan Kottke and it kind of snowballed from there. By the way,
the Apple-1 that Woz brought to the event was not his prototype, but a
unit from the second production run. Regards,Mike<mike@willegal.net>via yahoogroups.com" "
Wendell Sander & Steve Wozniak
The Apple-1 owners at the event were Wendell Sander, Allen Baum, Andy Jong, Steve Wozniak (Woz) at the History Center. At least 3 of the Apple-1 computers were up and running by the end of the day. That is the most operating in one location in the last 30 years. "Wozniak agreed - it was historic and may not ever happen again" (from Mercury News) .
Two of these Apple-1 computers were not know to exist by historical collectors prior to this event. Their are less then 50 of the original Apple-1 computers existing out of a total production of about 200 in 1976. Steve Wozniak was the sole designer for the Apple-1 and the original Apple-2. He also wrote the software operating system and a version of Basic to run on these machines. It must have been a great meeting with Woz and the others. All the folks bringing their Apple-1 computers had early connections with the Apple Company. The 5 Apple-1 computers at this gathering should be unique from almost all the other known Apple-1 computers. They were signed at the event by Woz and Wendell Sander (an early Apple employee).
Steve Wozniak signing Apple-1 board
Wendell Sander signing Apple-1 board
The mystic and excitement that follows the Apple-1 computers continues to grow and get more interesting everyday with new stories and facts from the owners. It will not be too many years and all the original owners of the Apple-1 computers, developers and employees working at Apple during the Apple-1 times will be gone. Lots of exciting history and stories about the original Apple-1 computers are still being generated and much of it now makes the national or international news. I have several Apple-1 computers in my historical collection and look forward to the buzz about these Icon's of the microcomputer revolution, I want to credit Mike Cassidy and Mike Willegal for the information I used in this column. Here are links to their stories. You will enjoy these - the videos on the column by Mike Cassidy - just great.
Mike Cassidy - Mercury News Columnist
Mike Willegal - his blog post.
The 4 photos used here are from the Mercury News Column and credited to (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group) Send a Tweet'CLICK' hashtag #KK4WW if you enjoy the blog or have a comment Appreciate a like on Museum Facebook Page.
David Larsen KK4WW
This was a busy weekend for me. I was hoping to spend most of the time out at our Chantilly Farm working the amateur radio station for Field Day . Saturday my wife Gaynell and I went to a "Celebration of life for Professor Paul Field". Paul and I worked together on many projects during my 31 years at Virginia Tech and was wonderful friend. The Celebration was a great tribute to Paul and I am going to do my next blog about this former college. Our collaboration included a lot of work with early microcomputers. Sunday was a special day at church that was most of the day.
"by David Larsen" KK4WWComputer Collector/Historian
Many computer collectors have ask me - How did you acquire an Apple 1 computer ? Good question because their are only about 50 or less of the original 200 made in the garage by Steve Wozniak & Steve Jobs in 1976. This did not happen as a one time event. I was involved with microcomputer's from day one in 1971 when the 4004 microprocessor chip was introduced commercially by Intel. Here is how Wozniak wrote basic for the Apple 1.
The Apple 1 as purchased from John Burch was only a single board as seen above. Steve Wozniak designed it using the 6502 microprocessor because it was very low cost compared to the popular 6800 or 8080 microprocessor. Owners had to add the AC power transformers, keyboard and TV as an output display device to get a simple operational computer. You can see the transformers and keyboard that was added to make my Apple 1 operation in the photos below. Even before all the Apple 1's were sold Wozniak realized that a much more plug and play computer would be more popular and started the design of the famous Apple 2. The Apple 1 and 2 were designed in total including the initial software by Wozniak. He was really a brilliant designer to make the computers with minimum amount of hardware and efficient software.
Original Apple logo
You can see this computer in the Apple 1 registry by Mike Willegal see -
Send a Tweet'CLICK' hashtag #KK4WW if you enjoy the blog or have a comment
My association with computers actually began in September 1957 when the Navy sent me to school at Remington Rand Univac in St. Paul MN. I was just out of high school and only 19 at the time. The computers in those days were really big room size vacuum tube monsters. It was fun and exciting to be a part of the Navy program to install one of the Univac computers at the War College in Norfolk VA.
In 1967 I started my career as faculty member teaching Electronic Instrumentation and Automation at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg VA. It was here that I become associated with microcomputers as a normal part of my teaching. I had many great experiences during this time and started collecting microcomputer memorabilia and continue to this day. To build the extensive collection I have today I advertised in various publications "Wanted pre1980 microcomputers for Historical Collection". This advertisement was placed in many computer & Electronic publications for more than 30 years. The most effective publication was 'Computer Shopper'. Running the advertisement for so long shows that repeat consistent advertising pays off. I had many calls from folks who had seen the advertisement for years and now were going into retirement or nursing home and call " I have been saving this computer for years but can't do it any longer and hope you can add it to your historical collection". Many times it was possible for me to add great computers and other items to the collection.
David introduces himself to you in the audio player above
David is interviewed by Robbie Harris of WVTF public radio July 29,2013.
David working on his Apple 1 purchased from Mr. Burch.
I have had about 10 Apple 1 Computers offered to me over the past 30 years. I keep a log of all the calls and still have the logs. Most of the Apple 1 computers were out of my price range however over the years I was in a position to acquire several including the one I describe in this blog.
I received a call from John Burch in the early 90's and he told me he was ready to part with his Apple 1 computer however all the collectors he had talked to wanted him to just give them the computer. The Apple 1 computers were selling at reported values of $10,000 to up to $50,000 during that time. I don't see how any rational collector would expect to get one free. Mr. Burch and I arrived at terms agreeable to both of us.
John told me he was the original owner of the computer and he had purchased it at a computer club meeting out of the back of a car from Steve Wozniak. (Steve Wozniak was the brilliant designer of the Apple 1 and 2). The Apple 1 did not come in any kind of case. This has beautiful wood case and I did not know who made the case. Some of the papers I received with the computer indicated it was from a Byte Shop so maybe it was one Wozniak was selling one for Byte Shop.He told me it was working when he sold it to me and I plan to make sure it is a working computer this year. I think I can do this myself but do have some friends near here who are very good and willing to help.
The serial interface card for the Apple 1
Many original manuals, data sheets, & cassette tape included
This is a beautiful computer and I hope to have it public display in the future.
