From: "Heinz Lenk"
Date: Wed Sep 17, 2003 12:02:11 PM US/Pacific
To: us032560@mindspring.com
Subject: Travel to Hamm
Hello Robert,
I drove yesterday to Hamm, north of Dortmund to meet with Mr.
Schweinsberg senior.
Wonder how some people can stand driving 700km (and more) every Day
on Germany's Autobahns.
Now I'm sitting here with an electric pad on my back to realign my
lowest intervertebral disk. Mr. Schweinsberg garage contains really heavy
stuff.
I made around 50 pictures and hope they show enough details to
alleviate your decision. As soon as the films are developed, I will send them to you.
Question: What address should I send them to.
The 1401 is stored in a car garage which is flanked by other garages on
both sides. The ceiling didn't show water stains so the roof is tight.
There is no air conditioning, so the 1401 and its periphery had to
endure summer and winter climate changes of many years.
The dusts in the cabinets are still the same as when the 1401 was
removed from duty.
In general all silvery coatings of contacts are oxydized by sulpureous
air, but cold contacts lock like new.
BTW: Mr. Schweinsberg heartily recommends to start cleaning the cards
AFTER it was set up running again. And then clean only few parts and try if
all is still running.
Film 1, Picture #
| 00A. | Mr. Schweinsberg senior, an astonishing agile old man.
I asked him later if, if you pay the ship fare (his physician
doesn't allow travel by air), he would be willing to resurrect the 1401 and all
it's periphery. He told me he would enjoy it very much to apply his old skill again.
| | 0A. | IBM 077 Mixer / Schalttafel
| | 1A. | IBM 360/30 Core 32k memory cardboard box
| | 2A. | " " " unpacked view from wrap side
| | 3A. | " " " unpacked view, core memory
| | 4A. | Tape Reels, ec. Autocoder w/o IOCS
| | 5A. | IBM 129 Card Puncher / Interpreter / Verify
| | 6A. | " " Serial number plate (need magnifier) & scrap
no bumps, no rust,
| | 7A. | Some of the boxes full of SMS spare cards (enough to build an other
1401). Some boxes became moist when the cellar, in which they where stored,
suffered a water brake in. The golden contact pads of the SMS-cards still lock like new.
| | 8A. | Tektonix 535A with probes for the purist maintenance guy.
| | 9A. | Technical descriptions, most of them in German
| | 10A. | Schematics (ALDs) and maintenance
| | 11A. | mechanical spare parts (wire relays, originally packed, wire
contact comb)
| | 12A. | original tooth belts (red box), Program cards,
Programmer for printer control ribbon on Printer paper trolley
| | 13A. | Schüttelrutsche (shaking slide), Papierwagen (paper trolley parts)
| | 14A. | Spare parts for tape storage. Tool to vulcanize new rubber onto
capstan rolls, bottom right. Mr. Schweinsberger once devised this tool
which works. Connectors, cables, program cards
| | 15A. | 6 of 12 boxes filled with various test programs on punched cards.
| | 16A. | Printer character chains (overexposed?)
| | 17A. | 5 Printer character chains with cleaning bath tub
| | 18A. | IBM 1402 Card Read / Punch, front doors open
| | 19A. | " front doors closed with card guide
| | 20A. | " left view, some rust
| | 21A. | " back side, doors open
| | 22A. | " right side interior
| | 23A. | " Serial number plate
some few parts where rusty where naked steel was exposed to fog. No bumps
| | 24A. | IBM 1401 front view. Beware the sealed connectors
| | 25A. | " main control panel
| | 26A. | " an other control panel
| | 27A. | " two card racks open, wrap side view
| | 28A. | " rack bottom left open, wrap side view
| | 29A. | " sealed connectors
| | 30A. | " control panel interiours
| | 31A. | " serial number plate (use magnifier)
| | 32A | " card rack open, left bottom
| | 33A | " Betriebsstundenzähler
| | 34A | " rear side (with flash)
Ancient dust lingers inside. No bumps, no rust.
| | 35A. | Mr. Schweinsberg's garage, home of the IBM1401 family.
All garages are separated by walls.
|
Film 2, Picture #
| 0. | Mr. Schweinsberger's neighbor's garage,
| | 1. | IBM 1403 Printer. Main cover open
| | 2. | " " Papar tractor, chain color ribbon
| | 3. | " " Serial number plate
| | 4. | " " back side
| | 5. | " " mechanic on left side
One small bumps on left cover (1), some rust at bare steel.
| | 6. | IBM 729 Magnetic Tape driver Tester (extremely rare species)
with "DIAGNOSE FUNCTION TEST" manual
| | 7. | IBM 1401 TAN9, Tape Adapter Unit rack, opened
| | 8. | IBM 1401 Power Buck / Bust Unit to simulate power fluctuations
| | 9. | Maintenance trolley with documentation, ALDs
| | 10. | IBM 1406 front view
| | 11. | " front view, cover removed
| | 12. | " Serial number plate
| | 13. | " wiring
| | 14. | " back side, cover removed
Additional Storage. No Bumps, no rust
| | 15. | IBM 729 Magnetic Tape Drive, One of five.
| | 16. | " front view internals
| | 17. | " back side internals
| | 18. | " card rack
No Bumps, some light rust. Maintenance documentation, ALDs
| | 19. | IBM 077 Collator. Only gears, relays and switches! Well greased.
No bumps, almost no rust after ca. 50 years.
Serial number plate
| | 20. | Deep inside the dark Garage three and one originally
packed IBM 729 Magnetic Tape Drive
| | 21. | IBM 077 Collator gears
| | 22. | " " back interior, relays and spare parts
| | 23. | " " one of many lubricators
| | 24. | " " more gears and relays
| | 25. | IBM 083 Sorter. right side interior and Mr. Schweinsberger a little
bit exhausted.
| | 26. | " front view (almost)
Maintenance documentation. No bumps,
Some mechanical parts like axles are covered with brown silk like
rust.
Obviously these parts where never plated with nickel or chrome.
| | 28. | My house, still under construction, but thanks to Hittachi, now I
have the time to do all things planed
|
Re. Just a few questions
| 1. | The garages are separated by wall. Because no window or vent opening
is there, no car exhaust could enter
| | 2. | The paints are in good condition. I didn't see any peeling
| | 3. | Yes, the corroded silvery contacts are in the punched card handling
equipment. ALL PCB cards have cold contacts (when I was young, I
bought
some as scrap to dissect them)
|
Heinz
|