[TUHS] NROFF & Model 37s

Doug McIlroy doug at cs.dartmouth.edu
Sat Jun 9 04:04:16 AEST 2018


> I think RS took it and left it behind someone's car at one as a practical joke.

That behemoth was built to last. It would surely stop a car.
Moving it single-handed would be quite a feat. When Andy Hall 
retired his, he was able to push it as far as his back porch,
where it remained for more than a year.

Under the keyboard was remarkable mechanical crossbar
encoder that dripped machine oil. Fortunately the operator's
knees were protected by a drip pan. The oil smell led me
to keep mine in my workshop; its fragrance reminded
me of the first major piece of computing equipment I saw
as a child: Vennevar Bush's mechanical differential
analyzer, a room-size table of shafts, gears and integrators
that was redolent of machine shop.

Doug



More information about the TUHS mailing list