Computer Museum of America - Grand opining July 20,2019

Computer Museum ofAmerica

The Grand Opening 

Computer Museum of America
 Roswell, Georgia - July 20,2019
Up Dated 10/5/2020

Our entire historical microcomputer collection (Bugbook Microcomputer Museum) of 13,000 items was acquired by the Computer Museum of America. David Larsen

See videos of displays 10/5/2020 "CLICK"

Click photo to enlarge.

David and Gaynell Larsen during the
Grand Opening of the Museum
at the  Apollo 11 Moon lander replica.  

The grand opening of the Computer Museum of America (CMoA) was an awesome event. The date was picked to to be the same day of the year on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing - July 20th.  The museum founder,  Lonnie Mimms,  is a long time collector of computers and  user of  computers. The museum has so many exciting attributes & amenities it is hard for me to give proper credit in a short blog. Take a look at the Facebook Page here. Look here of wonderful photos of the opening.

Lonnie Mimms museum
founder giving introduction
to the museum at the
Fundraiser event July 13th

From Computer Museum of America - Web Site
"After 40 years of collecting technology and four years of testing temporary exhibitions, the Computer Museum of America (CMoA) will be opening the doors to its new permanent home on July 20,2019. The CMoA will preserve the achievements of the digital revolution to educate, entertain and inspire the innovator in us all."

Karin Mimms
Vice President of the
Museum

Karin Mimms - Vice President speaks about goals of museum and introducing special guests at the Friday ( 7/13/19) Fundraiser  Event.
The opening week was in three parts - The Fundraiser Event on Friday the 13th, the Opening Celebration on Wednesday the 17th and the Grand opening for the public on Saturday the 20th.

David Larsen with NASA Astronaut
Dr. Sandra Magnus

NASA Astronaut Dr. Sandra Magnus was a very inspirational speaker about how her dream as a young person led to become a NASA Astronaut. Dr. Magnus made several shuttle flights and spent time on the Space Station. She is a wonderful enthusiastic advocate encouraging young people to pursue a career in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math).  One the museums mission is to inspire young folks to develop an interest & career in the the field of science (STEM).

Cray 1-M/2300

The museum has a wonderful representation of computers and technology items on display with great information about each artifact. The museum has one of the largest collection of Cray Super Computers in the world.

Cray 1 Serial #13
1979

This information came in the shipping container with the Cray-A.

Amazing supercomputer at that time.

50 miles of wire
32,000 circuit cards
250,000 integrated circuits.
Much more click photo to read.

Digital Equipment Corporation
"PDP-12"

The museum displays an excellent selection of Super Computers, Minicomputers, Microcomputers and some components of historical mainframe computers.  This just the Grand Opening - there are 250,000 artifacts in the archives and the number of artifacts on display will be growing and rotating on a regular basis.

David Larsen
with Mark 8 Computer

The museum has a good representation of Microcomputers on display - you can see some of them in the photos here.

The "Mark 8" computer in this photo was designed by my colleague Dr. Jon Titus.  Jon published his design in "Radio Electronics" magazine in the May, June and July issues 1974. Jon is given credit for being the one of the first to build an operational computer using a microprocessor chip and showing others how to build the computer.

.

Dr. Cyndy Moya  with
 Lonnie Mimms 

The museum had a large number of interesting visitors for the Grand Opening day.  Here is Dr. Cyndy Moya, Collections Manager at the "Living Computer Museum" in Seattle, Washington. On the right is Lonnie Mimms, Founder of the "Computer Museum of America". The "Living Computer Museum" founder was Paul Allen.

IBM  card sorter, collator etc

Some items on display from the old mainframe computers. Here are peripheral devices from the 1950/60s . A  key card punch, collator, card sorter and more.






Here is my audio description of the aswsome events during the Inaugural Opening of the Museum

My son, David Larsen Jr.,
at the July 13th Fundraiser

Visiting the CMoA and Roswell, GA for the the week of July 13- 20th Grand opening events for the museum was a very rewarding experience for Gaynell and I. To be with Lonnie and Karin Mimms and all the people that helped make Lonni's vision of a great computer and technology museum a reality was awesome.

This is just a start and the museum will be constantly evolving and expanding.  Lonnie has more than 250,000 technology artifacts in the collection with more being added every week. The museum has a second level floor of about 120,000 sq ft for expansion and more could be added - lots of room for expansion.

Museum Entrance at
5000 Commerce Parkway.

When in the Roswell, Georgia area,  I highly recommend a visit to the museum (About 20 miles north of Atlanta). The CMoA is open on Saturdays 10 to 5 PM and on Sunday 12 to 5 PM. Here is how to get there - Google Map. 

David Larsen
 Blog Author

"by David Larsen"  Board member of  "Computer Museum of America", Chantilly Farm owner, Computer Historian, and amateur radio operator -KK4WW   & N4USA .  I work out of one of the Tiny Homes at Chantilly Farm. A great place to work if you like the to be out in nature. I am 81 and ready to sell Chantilly Farm - I have a few more  projects I would like to do - if you have an interest to know more give me a call. 540 392  2392.

The "Bugbook"
Bugs

I am still collecting vintage computers & receive a calls very often about an old computer. Getting older and time to sell my chantillyfarm  -- Give me a call for information..

James (Nick) Cloyes – N4CL visit's computer museum

James Cloyes N4CL attend one of my workshops 40 years ago and visited the museum Dec 23.

Bugbooks

David Larsen Teaching Digital Workshop 1975

A few days ago I received a reply to our inquiry form at the Bugbookcomputermuseum web site from  James Cloyes N4CL.  The Blacksburg Group taught many microcomputer workshops in the 70's,80's and early 90's and it is alway good to hear from participants of these courses. The letter was interesting for  me and perhaps you will find it a good read.

------------------------------------------------------------
Nick's letter
Hi David:  I attended a one week Bugbook course at VPI, Blacksburg, VA in either 1975 or 1976 (not too sure of the date). The course was a wonderful beginning in digital electronics for me. At that time, I had several years of experience in analog electronics and was in a good position for learning. I remember receiving the coursework package in the mail about one week before the class started I was impressed that the coursework was sent early, showing good planning.

Bugbooks & Outboards

I was very excited to receive a breadboard with little circuit boards such as a clock, switch, seven segment readout, and others. The package included Bugbook I, and Bugbook II. I believe Bugbook III was not finished at that time. Also included were several 7400 series TTL ICs.

I can remember clearing airport security with the package which included a lantern battery. Airport security showed some curiosity, but after an explanation, let me pass. It is humorous to think what today’s security reaction would be if they saw all those things today.

I stayed at the Donaldson Center while attending the course. I believe that was prearranged and it seemed unusual to me to stay on campus. This again showed good planning by the instructors.

The course was fast paced and required lots of homework at night. I remember discussing ham radio with you. Since you and Jon Titus had chemistry backgrounds, I found it very easy to talk with both of you. There were lots of handouts such as uart programming and serial transmission.

After class on one of the days, Chris Titus gave a lecture on the 4004 microprocessor instruction set. After seeing that, along with the TTL logic of the course, I was set on fire. Digital electronics was much more exciting than analog, because you could build circuits with little knowledge of the IC internal circuity. Analog electronics required a person to understand a lot of theory.

After finishing the course, I built many small projects using TTL circuits. Some were related to Ham Radio, and others were related to computers. I intended to build a Z80 microprocessor from scratch and obtained all the necessary chips. After building an electronic keyer on a circuit board, I gave up on building the computer, because of the difficulty I had with printed circuits.

As soon as my finances allowed, I purchased a TRS80 Model I Level II computer with an editor/assembler and built several interfaces and projects. At the same time, a HP1000 was purchased for the lab at my employment. I was the lab supervisor, and I became system manager of that computer system.

After being in the lab for about 18 years, I took a systems engineer position with the same company and worked in computers the rest of my career.

I have enjoyed my career and found it to be very interesting. The Blacksburg Bugbook course gave me a wonderful start in electronics and computers. I am retired now, and I still and always will have a great interest in computers and electronics.

I am privileged to have had full training in DEC PDP/VAX and Microsoft. Without a doubt, the most interesting course I had, was the Blacksburg Bugbook course. It served as a foundation to all future learning.

You and all the people associated with that course are to be commended for producing such an impressive course.

James (Nick) Cloyes – N4CL

David Larsen - Nick Cloyes

David Larsen (L) curator and KK4WW
on the Right - Nick Cloyes N4Cl

David Larsen - Nick Cloyes

David Larsen - Nick Cloyes in the Bugbook Computer Museum, Floyd Virginia







----------------------------------------------------------------

David Larsen

I always love to hear from people in the past that benefited from our work in STE education. James sent another note that he would like to visit over the Christmas holiday. I hope he is able to made the trip to Floyd for a visit to the museum. James is now scheduled to visit the 23nd of Dec. 

.^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian}   
   Join museum on Twitter   Join museum on FB           

Computer collecting heyday for historical microcomputers 1985 - 1999

Altair 8800 microcomputer- January 1975

Bugbooks

I am fortunate to have been collecting historical microcomputers from the very first day they were available. I was not thinking at the time how nice this would be 44 years later.  Obtaining them from the original purchasers was a hayday in the years 1985 to 1999. During this hayday period many owners of these early computers had their first computer stored in the closet or basement and had not used it for years. 

These early owners were pioneers in many ways and they had their heart and sole in their first computer. They often paid what the wife considered a lot of money for a toy that could do very little or in fact nothing useful to the family. Remember prior to the microcomputers a minicomputers cost from $10,000 to $30,000 and was not possible to own one for most individuals. That was the price of a small house in the 1960s .The early users of  these machines invested a lot of time and money and wanted to have someone  preserve their computer. 

I placed a small wanted advertisement in several electronic publications for 35 or more years. hundreds or really their were thousands of responses to my request "Wanted pre1980 microcomputers for historical collection" . Most of my collection was acquired during this time including the 4 original Apple-1 computers in the collection. 

 I recorded all the phone calls in log books and kept all the letters with offers. Looking though some of these letters in the past few days I found them very interesting and decided to share several.  Most people thought I had lost my senses for collecting these unwanted computers however it was great fun for me.  A very big part of the fun was the hunt to find a new computer.

 Sometimes I would wait months or even years before working toward getting the computer offered. You will see this in the letter below taking 5 years between first contact and receiving the computer.
_____________________________________________________________________
To read CLICK on the letter to enlarge

First letter September 29,1990 about the Altair #21

This inquiry letter from Dean was received in 1990 and it was 5 years later I ask dean if he still had the computer. This resulted in my very best Altair 8800 ( Serial Number 21) . When I received the first letter in 1990 I already had a number of the Altair 8800 computers and did not think too much about adding one more.  





To read click on image 

January 10,1995 letter ready to send the Altair 8800

Five years after the first letter I began to understand that the computers with low serial numbers were much more desirable for a collector and remembered the offer for the Altair 8800 serial number 21. To my surprise and pleasure Dean still had the Altair and was glad to work out a deal for me to add it to my collection.


    The receipt for the Altair is dated December 17,1974. This is the month before the computer was announced in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics. This has to be the very first batch of  Altair computers. The CPU card in the computer is serial number 10.


I loved this part in the letter "The first program I ran was a music program which used an AM radio to pick up bus signals so that music would come out of the speaker. My wife was politely interested." I seem to remember that this music technique was one of the early programs to run on a PDP-1 minicomputer in the early 60's. 

Video of Altair 8800 SN 21 "CLICK" a real good look at this computer
____________________________________________________________________________

Apple-1 computer offer from Craig Solomonson

Here was a great offer in July 1996 of an Apple-1 from Craig Solomonson. The offer was for more than $15,000 but less then $40,000.  It was a bit short sited of me not to purchase this computer - here is the history of this computer.

Purchased from Frank Anderson, an electronic dealer in Great Falls, Montana by Craig Solomonson for MECC.  Craig reports that this computer was sold by Jobs and shipped from his parents address. Woz seemed a bit confused when Craig showed him the invoice and asked about it. He said "Not sold by us, although Job's may have sold it without telling me." 

• Sold by Craig to Jesse Sackman in California
• $50,000 unit sold in Ebay auction 320447681957, late in 2009
• This is the unit auctioned by Christies in London for 133,250 pounds in November of 2010 to Italian businessman and private collector Marco Boglione
• Marco continues to have this computer in his collection. 

However this was not the only offer I received for an Apple-1 computer. I had about 10 offers during this period and did purchase 4 Apple-1's - see this for the story of the four Apple-1's.
_______________________________________________________________________

Letter from Jim Trent N3EGE September 1996

Here is a letter from Jim Trent who had been seeing my advertisement in "World Radio" and other publications.

His wife was very glad he found my advertisement now he could get rid of all that old stuff and not have it tossed out in the junk. 

I seem to remember getting all his items for the historical collection.










___________________________________________________________________________

Post card from Tim Walker N2GIG

Sometimes I would get a simple card like this one from Tim Walker N2GIG.













_______________________________________________________________

Macintosh Computer

Current Steve Jobs Movie "News": Aaron Sorkin on Steve Jobs, Facebook, and why he ignored the iPhone





_______________________________________________________________

David Larsen

I am glad I saved all these letters offering computers as many of them are humorous and often include interesting stories about the owner. I think an interesting book could be written from the stories told by these letters from early microcomputer users.  Thank you for reading my blog and have a wonderful holiday season for 2015. Dave

.^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian}   
   Join museum on Twitter   Join museum on FB

Computer Museum Curator's Birthday -David Larsen KK4WW is 77 November 17,2015

LR brothers Howard, Chris & myself Dave

This time of year I always reflect on where I have been for the past 77 years (November 17,1938) and what is ahead for the next unknown years. A reflection on my family of 5 brothers & one sister always comes to mind first. The family is small now with only 3 of us brothers still kicking dirt above ground.  Chris (83 years),brother Howard (94 years) and myself  remaining. My parents were just great folks and they grew up in hard times during the early 1900's and Great Depression. Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles long gone now and memories faded.

Happy Birthday Dave

LR Chris & wife Thema, Me & wife Gaynell,
Howard

We had a great time during our September 2015 visit to home of Howard - Missouri.

Here we are in Branson having a wonderful BBQ lunch at the famous "BBQ Hut".

This is all the family I have still remaining - down to some second cousins that I do not know. All parents,aunts & uncles, first cousins have passed on.Don't wait to have that family time.

I grew up during the 40's & 50's & the Aunts & Uncles were scattered far and wide from my home and I did not get to know any of them very well.   Cousin's - their are many dozens and I know only a few of them - This is so sad for me.

I do get together as often as possible with my two brothers and always wonder - Will this be the last time? I wrote this in 2014 and we  did get together again in September 2015 - we are sure all getting to look older and my brother Howard at 94 is still living an independent life in his own home but getting a bit on the feeble on his feet.

Brother Howard is a writer and he wrote this "Ode" about our mother. He is correct she was a great Mom always showing us her love. Mother was born in 1899, 99 years old and died in 1999. We enjoyed her loving care for many years.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“An Ode To Mother”

I was standing by mother's bedside, watching and praying, as she lay in her tilted bed. Passing the time was very sad. God entered my soul and changed things. “Your mother is on her way to heaven to spend the rest of her days with dad.” Dad went to heaven several years ago. I lost my best friend.

You have been such a comfort to me mom. Your ninety nine years on earth have finally come to an end. As I walk this earth and get older each day, I'll have the rest of the family to enjoy as they work or play.

My children grew up knowing their Grandma. Her love was something they always would feel. At the end of the day before leaving, you would make them a tasty cooked meal. You never had a harsh word, always giving praise when I was around. Mothers and Grandmothers like you are someone that's hard to be found.

When I was just a youngster, we lived on a farm in the woods. You were always up early doing chores and working real hard. When that work was finished you chopped wood in the yard. We bathed ourselves in a galvanized tub. You were always there to give us a scrub.

In the winter you were outside working sometimes in the wind and blowing snow. You never gave up till your face turned red. Then you would go inside, clean up, put some wood in the old cook stove and make cinnamon rolls, and homemade bread. These are the things you did all your life, besides making my dad a wonderful wife. You lived several years after dad passed away, just part of your family is left here to stay.

I will stay here for the rest of my life remembering the good, forgetting the sad. You will be resting in heaven while living with dad. “Goodbye Mother” As you have been lifted above, you have left this earth with all of my love.

I am feeling good now forgetting the sad. When you are resting in heaven say hello and give my love to Dad.

Your Loving Son Howard

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dad Will, me  & Mom Ruth  1945

This photo brings back the good memories of my mother and father. I was 7 years old in 1945 and in the back ground is a 1941 Chevrolet - just delivered. Dad ordered the Chevy in 1941 however World War ll delayed the delivery by 4 years. 

David Larsen

I am counting down - only 23 to go ?  Could be 23 years or 23 seconds & I vote for the 23 years but sure know I don't have full control of the timing.  I am looking forward to slowing down in the next few years - don't need to travel much as been there done that - I would say just enjoy our children, grandchildren & great grandchildren and the great outdoors we have here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

.^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian}   
   Join museum on Twitter   Join museum on FB

Alexander Bell gets patent for Telephone - 3 minutes of history podcast

info click

Alexander Graham Bell

Here is 3 minutes of how Alexander Bell received his telephone patent. This podcast story is told by Curtis Anderson N4ON curator of the Telephone Museum in Richmond, Virginia. Podcast made during a visit to the Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum.




Alexander Bell get telephone patent ahead of other inventor by chance.

Click photo to enlarge

Autonetics 1958 transistor computer
Oldest Transistor computer in the world

Curtis Anderson N4ON the story teller for our podcast today is inspecting what is perhaps the very oldest transistor computer in the world. This computer is on display in our museum.

The computer is an Autonetics Recomp 2.

David Larsen

Thank you for the visit Curtis - it was fun to talk about vintage computers and old times during our careers of 30 or more years ago.

           .^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian} 

     Follow museum on Twitter   You can help me with a like on Facebook - Thank you 

Microcomputer Computer Museum curator looks at old times, David Larsen KK4WW

info click

When writing one of my blog post or working in the computer museum I always think about events in my past various careers. This may be of interest only to me however here are few milestones that came to mind tonight. My wife and I also get to talking about old times now and then and it is fun to look back over my 76+ years.

David Larsen W7VZW

My growing up years were in Oregon during the 40's & 50's.

This photo is my amateur radio station in 1954. My interest in electronics and amateur radio would determine my career for the next 51 years.

Graduated from Oregon State University in 1963 after a 2 years of duty in the Navy.

To enlarge "CLICK" on photo,s

David Larsen 1957 computer school

Started Navy duty in September 1957 and was sent to school at Remington Rand Univac in St. Paul, Mn. This was so long ago that the famous Dr. Grace Hopper was there at the same time working as senior scientist developing computer programming. She wrote the very first compiler program. Dr. Hopper was 51 years old at the time I was at Remington Rand Univac. She retired from the Navy in 1986 at 80 years old as  rear admiral and lived until 1992.

David did complete the training 

While in training for the Navy at Remington Rand Univac I did manager to complete several courses of study.

This was my first experience with computers and it created a curiosity about computers that has lasted to this very day.

David's First design project at VT

After graduating from Oregon State University in 1963 I worked as an engineer for several companies before my 31 years as a faculty member at Virginia Tech (VT).  The companies were Raytheon, Konel, Fairchild, and Varian Associates then on to VT in 1967 as a faculty member.

This photo taken in 1968 was one of my first projects at VT. I designed some circuits that would take the output of a digital multimeter and print & punch out the information on  paper tape using the ASR33 teletype. It may not seem like much now but data was read off a strip chart recorder and then manually digitized for computer entry before I designed this automated digital data logger.  A few years later I did some consulting for IBM and Analog Devices and they both built and sold commercial products using my ideas.

David teaching PDP-8
Interfacing workshop 1970

During my 31 years at Virginia Tech I taught many short courses in "Data Automation and Computer Instrumentation.  These workshops were just great and also provided travel to dozens of countries. Tonight just received an email from Nick Cloyes who attended one of our workshops in 1976 - a lot of reminiscing with this.


This photo is one of the early workshops using a PDP-8L Minicomputer about 1970. I did not do this work alone and was joined by various faculty during the 31 years at VT. Some of my colleagues were professors Dessy, Rony and Field, Jon Titus & Chris Titus at the Blacksburg Group and others on various occasions.


Teaching / Outreach award in 1995.

David Larsen Outreach Award in Spectrum

It does not seem like 20 years ago - I was awarded the one of two of the very first Outreach awards at Virginia Tech ( VT ) . This was a real highlight and honor for me my last year of active teaching as a faculty member of the Chemistry Department at VT. Here is a little more information about this award.

Outboards - digital teaching aids

About 1974 I designed some very simple digital teaching modules and called them "Outboards". They were marketed by E & L Instruments of Derby, CT along with the Bugbooks and other products developed my colleagues at the Blacksburg Group.

Outboards

A catalog page from E & L Instruments showing a few of the "Outboards" in 1975. E & L also sold most of the digital products developed by our "Blacksburg Group" - some of the products were the MMD-1 computer, Bugbooks, Outboards, and other digital teaching equipment. See more here "CLICK"

teaching a digital electronics workshop 

Digital electronics were new to everyone in the late 60's and we taught many short courses to Virginia Tech faculty and researchers in digital electronics - learning all about Gates and Flip-Flops.

These folks are using the Outboards and powering the experiments with a 6 volt lanter battery.

That is me leaning over at the back of the room near the screen in 1974.

Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum

Their are many more milestones and stories along the way for me however; I have ended up at this time with a wonderful collection of microcomputer memorabilia and writing this blog. A small part of the collection is displayed in the " Historical Microcomputer Museum"  Floyd,Va.  I sure have lots of fond memories working with these old computers.

David G Larsen

 "by David Larsen" KK4WW Computer Collector / Historian 
      
              Join museum on Twitter   Join museum on FB