World Inventory of IBM 1401 Machines
Table of Contents
- Population of IBM 1401s world wide
- List of all known existing IBM 1401 major components world wide with:
- Notes & e-mails
- Serial Numbers of found IBM 1401s
- 1401's as the targets
Population of IBM 1401s world wide
 IBM Archives in Somers LPCU = "Lease Plan Control Units" |
from Maurice Papo see Note 01 |
 from Maurice Papo see Note 01 |
 |
 monthly census reports published in the Computer & Automation newsletter from the late 1950s (fit on a half a page) until 1972 (too many to count). |
List of all known existing IBM 1401 major components world wide
| Location | Owner | Picture | ID | Devices | Condition | Contact
Info from Mountain View,
| CA, USA Computer
| History Museum in 1401 restoration 
German
| SN # 28421 1401, 1402, 1403, 1406, 3- 729
| working
| Contact -
| Info from - Robert Garner Mountain View,
| CA, USA Computer
| History Museum in 1401 restoration 
Connecticut
| SN # 25478 1401, 1402, 1403, 1406, 4- 729 and many more in storage
| working
| Contact -
| Info from - Robert Garner Robert Garner Mountain View,
| CA, USA Computer
| History Museum in storage 
was "Visible Storage"
| 1401, 1402, 1403
| Frank says cables cut
| Contact -
| Info from - . Mountain View,
| CA, USA Computer
| History Museum in storage 
Details from Tom Szolyga - 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 SAP
| 1401, 1402, & red 1403
| -
| Contact -
| Info from - Boeblingen,
| Germany .
|
|
2010 Sindelfingen HzG 2011 Sindelfingen HzG 2011 Zabolitzky SN 25623-C2
| 1401, 1402, 1403, 1405?, 1406? maybe RAMAC 350?, 1407,
four 729's, and a 2311.
| working
| Contact -
Klaus Rindtorff
| Info from - Van Snyder Sindelfingen collection was moved to Boeblingen Powerhouse Museum,
Sydney, Australia
| web site
|
| 
.
| 1401, 1402, 1403, 1405, 1406, 4ea 7330
| ..
| Contact -
| Info from - Van Snyder, via Robert Garner Sydney, Australia
| Australian Computer Museum Society, Inc
| http://www.acms.org.au/ National Computer Heritage Centre 9 West Street CROYDON NSW 2132 AUSTRALIA Phone +61 (0) 2 8317 3011 ABN 89 972 080 502 | 
2, 3, 4, 5 SN 30451
| 1-1401 (cables cut), 1-729, in temporary storage
| .
| Contact - info@acms.org.au
| Info from - IBM Sao Paulo Solutions Center
| Sao Paulo Brazil .
|
| 
.
| 1401
| .
| Contact -
| Info from - J.Robinson picture: John Skinner as per Robert Garner Sao Paulo, Brazil
| Computer Museum - Brazil
|
| 
.
| 1401 (cables cut), 2x 1403 (red and blue)
| .
| Contact - Breno Oliveira Valli
| web site 3-D image
| Great Britain Chatterley Whitfield
Mining Museum Collection
| Pamphlet, compressed
| 
photos from Nigel Bowers 2, 3, Serial #s
| 1401-28803 1402- 164029p4 1403-40- 40033 1401 (cables cut ??),
| 1402, 1403 .
| Contact -
| Info from - John Adams and Nigel Bowers
| New Zealand "New Zealand Railway" (lobby)
| .
| .
| 1401,
| ..
| Contact -
| Info from - Van Snyder, via Robert Garner Auckland,
| New Zealand Museum of Transport and Technology
| .
| .
| 1401,
| ..
| Contact -
| Info from - Van Snyder, via Robert Garner in storage at IBM Archives, Poughkeepsie, NY as of 2024
| was 40 Washington Ave Endicott, N.Y. USA IBM Archives
| | 
.
| 1401 (cables cut) & 1403
|
| Contact -
| Info from - Georgia A. Burbidge (Jud) McCarthy Susan Sherwood .
| IBM Archives
| | 
.
| 1401 (cables cut), 1403
| "bad shape" "tired warrior"
| Contact -
| Info from - Paul Lasewicz (IBM Historian) as per Robert Garner Center for Technology & Innovation
| Binghamton, NY 13901 donated by Paul Pierce Portland,Oregon, USA
Center for Technology & Innovation
| Binghamton, NY 13901
| 
BillGreen FredPetras JackWestermann BobLusch ErikAdler JimUlrich NickHekman DonManning Serial #s
| 1401 21264 1402 21135 1403 13396 1406 729 13184 729 13204 729 13206 729 13249 729 30022 729 30023 IBM 1401 1402, 1403, 1406, 6 dual-connected 729s, all blue.
Complete cables, docs etc.
| .
| Contact - Center for Technology & Innovation
| Info from - Paul Pierce "from US DOD logistics agency near Phoenix where it ran in support of an IBM 7080 system."
Living Computer Museum
Seattle, Washington, USA
|
Living Computer Museum
Seattle, Washington, USA
| Used as the "Front End" for the WRE IBM 7090. Both from the Vigor family in Australia.
| 
from Carl Claunch 
from Lath Carlson .
| 1401, 1402, 1403, 729s
| ? - very rusty
| Contact -
| Info from - Carl Claunch and Lath Carlson Bengaluru, India
| Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum
|
| 
Photo from NY Times .
| 1401, 1402, 1403, 1406, 129 Keypunch, (2)7330
| .
| Contact - museum
| Info from - Amsterdam, Netherlands
| visit currently by appointment,
| Mrs. Annette Beentjes T: +31 (0)20 5767 325 M: +31 (0)6 33 76 85 08 E: annette.beentjes@ing.com Conservator Bedrijfshistorisch Archief ING bedrijfshistorisch.archief.ing@ing.com
| 
Collection Historical Archive ING e-mail division a history of ING 1401
| 4025737 1402 1601969 1403 4010577 left 729 II 0729 35 34058 K3 right 729 II 0729 35 33300 A3 1402,
1407, 2-729 II,
1401, 1403
| 1401 cables cut
| Contact -
| Mrs. Annette Beentjes (see left) Info from - Piet Schrijver, p.j.schrijver@ziggo.nl, (a Volunteer) (also a contact) Institut de recherche en informatique et en automatique (INRIA), Rocquencourt, France
| Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM)
|
| 
.
| 1401, 1403, 4 - 729
| 1401 cables removed, no 1402
| Contact -
| Philippe Dubois dubois at mo5 dot com Info from - Robert Garner .
| .
| .
| .
| .
| .
| Contact -
| Info from - |
Notes & e-mails
... charts came from the US for a simple reason, they are draw on a chart paper which was not in use in Europe!
Hello, Robert.
Just a point of clarification. All the machines that are now on display a few blocks from the Endicott site, on Washington Avenue, including a 1401 and 1403, are IBM owned assets that are on an extended loan to the Old Village of Union Historical Society. Ted Warner is their current board President.
Paul Lasewicz and I, as the Endicott site Program Manager, will continue to ensure the collection is appropriately and contractually maintained.
Georgia
Contact is Ted Warner, twendicott@aol.com
Best,
I was doing a workshop at the super modern IBM solutions
center in Sao Paulo Brazil, and there in pride of place I
saw this beast!!... Perhaps you should do a mosaic of
photos for all the 1401 on show at IBM centers across the
world......
from Van Snyder April 11, 2013
According to Rolf Ziegler < Ziegler-Boeblingen@t-online.de > (who ought to
be the "info" reference), much of the Sindelfingen collection
(especially the 1401) has been moved to the IBM Technology Center in
Boeblingen, just the other side of the Autobahn.
I have photos of my 2010 and 2011 visits to HzG, and my 2011 visit to
John Zabolitzky's collection (including a 705 that, alas, doesn't work),
at
http://picasaweb.google.com/wvsnyder
I don't object if you want to put one of the Sindelfingen 1401 photos in
the inventory page. [ Thanks much :-)), I'm now using one. Ed Thelen ]
Van
Robert Garner
from Robert Garner April 11, 2013
I now wonder if there's another behind it?
from Robert Garner April 11, 2013
Looks like it clearly has cables. Note strange yellow color.
===> Van,
from Robert Garner April 11, 2013
Sindelfingen collection moved to Boeblingen
from Paul Lasewicz, Thu, Apr 18, 2013
Cheers!
P~
A few years later when I was working for ITEL (a computer leasing company)
the reason for what we saw in Endicott came out.
IBM indeed didn't want the 1401's coming back as 3rd. party leased machines
from companies like ITEL, competing with current systems (360) and such.
Thomas Watson Sr. had learned this lesson well from his days with NCR trying
to crush the 3rd. party leased Cash Register business. He never forgot that
lesson and passed it on to TJ Jr.
Just a tidbit from 1401 history.
This probably had a lot to do with the decline of the large 1401 inventory
from the scene in later years.
Bart Cotton
Page start April 10, 2013
from Guy Fedorkow - Sept 2017 - New York Times
"IBM Now Has More Employees in India than in the U.S."
At that time the responsibility split was clear and simple
DPD is USA
WTC is the rest of the world
points were the usual maketing mesure.. no idea of split between minimal and complex systems. I am pretty sure however that the numbers are for the 1401 central unit alone since the printer/ tapes etc.. were accounted under their own number and since the 1401 had few options the average should be enough to understand the market penetration.
From: joerobin@us.ibm.com
To: jhmccarthy@aol.com
Sent: 4/5/2013 9:46:40 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: I found another one for you
In the lobby in Brazil 1401.
(See attached file: IMG_4880.JPG)(See attached file: IMG_4878.JPG)
Joseph D. Robinson
Distinguished Engineer - Integrated Communications & Networking SSA
Enterprise Network / Solutioning / B&P / Health Check / Crit Sit
Phone 919-254-4294
Cell Phone 919-244-6839
from Georgia A. Burbidge
Justin (Jud) McCarthy
deceased.
In a message dated 4/9/2013 4:09:18 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, JHMcCarthy@aol.com writes:
Robert: If you are pulling together a list of all the 1401 & 1403 units around the world, don't forget IBM has one of each in Endicott. Unfortunately, they do not function and the associated large I/O cables are sawed off. However, the good news is that the gates are fully populated
From: director@ctandi.org
To: JHMcCarthy@aol.com
Sent: 4/8/2013 10:45:22 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: Re: compiling a list of surviving 1401s (was Re: I found another one for you ...
Yes, there is both a 1401 and 1403 in the Plant # 1 Collection, which is
now located on Washington Ave in Endicott. There was a soft opening
this fall, and it will open for regular hours in MAy.
Susan
from John Skinner
the Sindelfingen system is listed as having 1401, 1402, 1403, 1405 and
1407. It doesn't have a 1405, rather a 1406. It also has four 729's,
and a 2311.
Here's a photo of the 1401 in the IBM archives that Frank & I saw back in 2008, at that time in Fishkill.
It's almost too sad to look at.
It appears as though it was modified for some other purpose.
Also, Van had found another large 1401 system stored in the Sydney Powerhouse Museum.
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=261786&search=1401&images=&c=&s=
The inventory list shows there's a 1405 (although I don't spot the 1405 in their pic,
which you can zoom in on at the website)
-----------------------------
Ed,
I've rediscovered the "swiss 1401" in a 2007 email: it's actually in a New Zealand Railway Museum!
And there's apparently another 1401 on display in an Auckland train museum - info below.
...
Did you ever contact Noel Coom (or track down the 1401 in Auckland?)
> His e-mail address is: Noel Coom
Greetings all! This is to let you know that the building that housed the Sindelfingen
collection has been sold, and that the artifacts were moved in March onto the IBM
Boeblingen site, where they continue to be maintained by those dedicated retirees.
So while the pieces are not at risk, these images are no longer an accurate portrayal
of their display environment.
Serial Numbers of found IBM 1401s
from Susan Sherwood < director@ctandi.org >
So far, based on serial numbers, it appears that this 1401 is the oldest found "in captivity" - although CHM curators have yet to chime in re:their machines in storage.
We also understand that a major design change was implemented starting with serial number 25000 - suggesting the team could be in uncharted territory until we can find additional documentation.
PHP/TechWorks! 21264
History@IBM Boblingen 25623-C2
CHM - Connecticut 25478
CHM - Germany 28421
CHM - Storage 1
CHM - Storage 2
1401's as the targets
from "Bart Cotton" < pickersenior @ gmail . com > - January 09, 2016
Trivia alert - When sent to Endicott in late 1969 to learn and bring up the
first 370/145's so we could take one to the LA Education Center for CE
training, we saw an interesting sight while there in early 1970. We went
to an old building in the plant complex, and saw a large room of 1401
mainframes scattered about with several fork lifts running around the room
like bumper cars. They were using the 1401's as the targets, and destroying
them. It was a mystery at the time as to what the purpose was.
Restoration Team
Updated January 14, 2022