Subject: Computer Conservation Society (LONG ARTICLE)

From: [email-masked] ("Chris P. Burton")
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 23:41:14 +0000

I posted the following article to alt.sys.perq and several people have 
kindly suggested it might be of interest further afield, so here goes.

>snip-----
 Since the PERQ is what we might call a vintage machine, I assume readers
 are interested in such machines and might not have heard of, or would
 like to know more about, the Computer Conservation Society (the CCS).  
 The CCS is a Specialist Group of the British Computer Society and was 
 started about four years ago after an approach from the Curator of 
 Computing at the National Science Museum in London. He is responsible
 for the care, for ever, of machines in the collection, but with little in-
 house expertise available as to how to care for them; and he was often 
 approached by old-timers offering their skills. The original idea of the 
 CCS was to try to bring these together in an organised way. For the
 first three years, the Science Museum took on a BCS officer to manage
 the "Information Age" project, and he was allowed time and facilities
 to also act as Secretary to the CCS, thus ensuring it got off to a stable
 and solid start. Although he no longer works for the Museum, he is still
 the Secretary, working from home.
 
 Broadly the objectives are:
 
     Promote the conservation of historic computers
     Develop awareness of the importance of historic computers
     Encourage research on seminal historic computers.
 
 Hardware, software and user applications are all included in the remit.
 
 So far as I know, there is no equivalent in the UK to the Charles Babbage
 Institute in the USA, though there are academic departments, e.g. at the
 University of Warwick, with an interest in the history. The CCS thus
 provides a focus for these activities.
 
 What counts as historic? As a rule of thumb we would say it should be
 at least twenty years old, but that shouldn't rule out important younger
 things which might need rescuing. So early IBM 360s and ICL 1900s count.
 Commodore Pets count (yes, there are dozens about). PERQs count, just. I
 saw two in the Science Museum archive store about a couple of weeks ago.
 Visicalc counts (pun not intended). I think it will be some time before 
 486 PC clones count. BESM counts (we are very interested in Soviet 
 cold-war-vintage machinery).
 
 There are roughly 300 members of whom about 10% are actively involved in
 some way. Membership is open to anyone interested in computer conservation
 and the history of computing, and is currently free. Members give their
 time voluntarilly. There are half a dozen Corporate Members including
 ICL, Unisys, Digital, Bull HN Information Systems and Vaughan Systems, who
 donate a large amount of money annually to pay for running the CCS.
 
 In order to meet the objectives, the CCS does the following things.
 
 WORKING PARTIES
 
 There are a number of working parties, each led by a chairman, and 
 containing typically a dozen members who are prepared to give some time
 and effort, typically a half day every six weeks. Working parties are 
 formed as required and the current ones are:
    
    _Elliott 401 WP_. Very active, currently conserving and restoring to
    working order this very important, unique, valve machine built in 1952
    and in the care of the Museum. 
    
    _Pegasus WP_. Not quite so active, but has maintained in working order
    the also very important valve machine Pegasus, made by Ferranti Ltd
    from 1956 on. Not yet on display in the Museum
 
    _Manchester Group Pegasus WP_. Newly formed working party operating at 
    the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry to conserve, but perhaps
    not restore to working order, their early Pegasus, recently "discovered".
 
    _Elliott 803 WP_. Small but active, have restored and maintain the 
     Museum's Elliott 803 which was an early transistor machine.
 
    _DEC WP_. Active, maintains the Museum's several sorts of PDP8 and a PDP12. 
     
    _S100 Bus WP_. Active, masses of Altairs, North Star Horizons etc.
 
    _Totalisator WP_. Suspended, awaiting space and expertise. Yes, it is 
    considered that the electro-mechanical dog track totalisators from the
    late 1920's are large-scale, multi-terminal, real-time computers. The 
    Museum has three, I believe, in storage at the moment.
 
    _Software and Emulation WP_. Not active, but a lot of work on emulation,
    see below.
 
 Working parties work on Museum objects under very strict curatorial rules
 and procedures. Because they can only meet infrequently, progress is at 
 a much slower pace than in say industry or academia. 
 
 ARCHIVING
 
 The CCS has a good relationship with the National Archive for the History of
 Computing based in Manchester, with loosely separate spheres of interest.
 There is a large and growing collection of manuals, manuscripts, sales
 literature and so on from the early days. It is catalogued but not 
 easily accessible yet.
 
 SIMULATION AND EMULATION
 
 Hard to draw the line between them. Quite a lot of interest has been shown
 in the museum world by some of the simulators written by members to
 model the behaviour of early, and in some cases extinct, machines. The
 techniques are applicable to any large, functionally opaque object. At
 the moment simulators for EDSAC, Pegasus, Elliott 803 and Ferranti
 Mercury exist, and the Elliott 401 is under development. An emulator for
 the original Manchester Prototype has been obtained by a devious route
 from the net, but I have yet to work out it's provenance.
 
 SEMINARS
 
 At least one all-day seminar is held at the Science Museum annually, where
 usually pioneers of some system give talks and discussions. This year's
 will be on the IBM 360, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the launch.
 
 LECTURE PROGRAMME
 
 A programme of evening lectures is given during the year on relevant 
 topics.
 
 PUBLICATIONS
 
 All members receive the quarterly bulletin called "Resurrection", currently
 free of charge. This has short articles, transcripts of lectures and 
 reports on work in progress.
 
 INFORMATION CAPTURE
 
 The CCS recognises that not only are early machines dying off, but so
 are many of the pioneers. An urgent programme of interviewing and 
 video- and audio-recording pioneers has been started, but is not 
 progressing well due to lack of suitable interviewers.
 
 The above paragraphs describe most of the CCS activities. However,
 ambitions are wider. Some members are also active in getting Bletchley
 Park, where cryptanalysis was done in the last World War, together with
 some of the remaining Huts, saved for the nation. It looks as though
 they will succeed. The very large site and buildings will, among other
 things, house a Museum of Cryptography, and possibly a Museum of Computing.
 It will provide a permanent and spacious base for the CCS, which will be
 able to work on old systems of its own as well as of the Science Museum. 
 It is expected that there will be adequate storage space, so that 
 early artefacts and documents can be properly stored and worked-on. In the
 meantime, the CCS is grateful to accept objects, particularly if the owner
 can hold on to them for a few more months.
 
 Finally, although this posting has been intended to expose the activities
 of the CCS and not as a recruiting drive, if you feel you would like to
 join then send an application to the Secretary of the CCS, 15 Northampton 
 Road, Bromham, Bedfordshire MK43 8QB, UK. You will be put on a "steam"
 mail list on a database. He would like to know:
 
   Your name and address, post code and phone number
   Your BCS membership number if any. (membership of BCS is NOT a requirement)
   Your personal experience of which early computers as what (designer,
     builder, maintainer, user or whatever). Younger people not experienced
     on early machines are particularly welcome if they are willing to 
     learn from us old-timers while we are still lucid.
   Your experience with hardware technologies (delay lines, drums, tapes,
     valves, early transistors, card and tape readers and punches etc)
   Do you have early programs, either tape, cards or coding sheets which
     you are willing to share by copying.
   Your willingness to help with recording the history of computing.
   Your willingness to help with restoration of computers.
 
 Ask him if he has a recent issue of "Resurrection" for you to sample.
 
 Sorry, very few of us have email access, so we have to work via postal
 service.
 
 {I have not seen any other newsgroups to cross-post this to - .folklore is
 not quite the right one. If anyone has any other ideas I'd be glad to
 cross-post.}
>snip------ 

But as you see, I have been persuaded to cross post!
-- 
Chris P. Burton, not far from Oswestry, Shropshire, UK.