[GreenKeys] PDP-8 table

[Paul Heller]

> MidAtlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists
> On Mar 23, 2015, at 6:55 PM, Paul Heller <paul0926 at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Doug,
> 
> Did you by any chance check with March, the MidAtlantic Retro Computer Hobbyists group? 
> 
> Paul
> 
> 
>> On Mar 23, 2015, at 1:33 PM, Jones, Douglas W <douglas-w-jones at uiowa.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> This is a bit off topic, but there are some on this list with PDP-8
>> connections:
>> 
>> In working on the restoration of PDP-8 serial number 85, the
>> biggest cosmetic problem we face is that the gullwing-design
>> console table originally sold with the machine has gone
>> missing.  I would like to construct an accurate reproduction.
>> Here's a photo of our machine in early 1966, with the table:
>> -- http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/pdp8/UI-8/1966/IBMreport.JPG
>> 
>> I'm making this broadcast plea for information because I can
>> find no surviving examples of PDP-8 tables, neither for the
>> table-top model nor for the rack-mount model.
>> 
>> I have photos of the underside of the gull-wing table that
>> is attached to the PDP-7 in the Living Computer Museum in
>> Seattle (thanks to them for those photos!!)  Those photos
>> have allowed me to determine the general construction methods
>> DEC used for their 1965-era tables:  Formica over plywood with
>> a steel frame using the same 1x1" and 1x2" steel stock that was
>> used to build the relay racks.
>> 
>> What I need is detail for the gull-wing PDP-8 tables.  I've
>> taken measurements from photos of the tables for the rack-mount
>> and table-top versions, and the front halves of the two appear
>> identical, including the locations of the legs.  What I need
>> to know is how the legs were attached and how the steel framing
>> was arranged under the table.  Quick and dirty cellphone photos
>> would suffice to answer my questions, if anyone knows where to
>> find an original table.  Even old memory of how the tables were
>> built would help:  Did the legs fold or dismount for shipment?
>> Was there a straight-line member connecting the two legs or were
>> the only frame members parallel to the sides of the table?
>> 
>> Sadly, it appears that the Computer History Museum had such
>> a table under their exhibit of PDP-8 systems up until around
>> 2010, but they seem to have lost it.  (It came to them with
>> a table-top PDP-8 but was never inventoried as a separate
>> artifact, and when someone redesigned the exhibit, it may well
>> have been treated as generic surplus furnature.)  I've just
>> about given up on working through channels there to try to get
>> information about the table they appear to have lost.
>> 
>> Here's a 2010 photo showing the table the CHM used to have:
>> -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougletterman/4311206087/
>> (the table is displayed backward, with the PDP-8 that came
>> with it is still roughly positioned where it belongs, although
>> turned 165 degrees to face the audience.  More recent photos
>> show the machine displayed on a little square table:
>> -- https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5515/11040622066_7c9592ce7e_z.jpg
>> 
>> That table at the CHM may have been the last surviving table of
>> its kind.
>> 
>> Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I will, of course make up
>> detailed drawings for the reconstruction, should anyone want to
>> build a replica table for their rack-mounted system.
>> 
>> 		Doug Jones
>> 		jones at cs.uiowa.edu
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