maxwell@speedy.DEC (08/24/85)
Okay, old "Edmund's" fans... Many years ago, I played with a friend's toy from "Edmund's Scientific" called the Digicomp (I ?). Remember that beauty? It was a plastic, mechanical, programmable, digital computer. It had a 'word' length of 3 bits, I think a 'store' of 8 'words', clocked manually with a slider, and was programmed using short 'straws' on pegs. It could be programmed to count from 0 to 7, add and subtract, and there was even a 3-bit Nim program for it. Wow! For a number of years now, I've half-heartedly looked for one to put on my office desk (the Software Engineer's version of the Executive Wave Machine), since Edmund's no longer carries it. Although a number of my acquaintances remember having them as kids, none were kept. As a result, I have been utterly unsuccessful in finding one. I just know people are out there hording the things. Is there anyone out there with a copy, and willing to part with it? Regardless of condition, name your price. No offer will go unanswered. I'm willing to collect several in various states of completion in order to produce one or two complete 'machines'. I'm even willing to *borrow* one long enough to draw up detailed plans in order to reconstruct one. In any case, I'd like to get the documentation if available, but I'd probably be able to puzzle it out without a manual. Who knows, with a reasonably complete working model to go by, I might even live an old naive dream and design and build a one with a larger word and store size, in brass.... -+- Sid Maxwell P.S. I'm not sure about the following mail addresses. If responding electronically is impossible, *please* use either AT^2 or USnail.... ...!decvax!decwrl!eiffel::maxwell ...!decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-eiffel!maxwell maxwell%eiffel.DEC@decwrl 37 Silverton Dr. Nashua, NH 03062 (603) 880-8859