After taking a numerical inventory, there are 237 full boxes of unpunched cards in addition to several ;larger boxes filled with cards. We retrieved 29 boxes of software on punched cards, including the 'operating system', DMS2 in two full sets, the COBOL, FORTRAN and RPG compilers, all the diagnostic decks, utility programs and a great deal of software from COMMON, a user group and other contributed programs.
Another 16 boxes contained IBM contributed programs, which are installed user programs (IUPs) and field developed programs (FDP), and anything else IBM would send for free. These include FORTRAN source code listing programs, ECAP, Linear Programming Software and many other applications.
I haven't yet inventoried the disk cartridges, but I have many of them. Some are set up with languages like Cobol and RPG, others have various programs installed, and the remainder appear to be data disks and backups.
This afternoon, I installed four wheeled casters on the 1442 reader/punch, allowing it to be moved around easily. With that done, we could winch it down to join the rest of the equipment in my garage where I will do the restoration to working order.
The software card decks are now all stacked in the garage, as are the many disk cartridges and the boxes of parts, ALDs and other maintenance documentation. The only items left in the truck as of the evening are:
- the 237 regular boxes of blank cards
- a couple of large boxes containing more blanks,
- four dozen padded blankets rented along with the truck.
It is still a bit of barely controlled chaos in my garage, as I unpack the boxes of support items and find homes for various items that came with the system. I did find six boxes of new-old-stock incandescent lamps, about a dozen sealed keypunch ribbons, several ribbons for the 1132 printer, and spare I/O selectric typewriter parts for the console printer.
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| Beginning removal of shipping protection on disk heads, arm |
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| Folded over punched card between heads, inside baggy, with loosened rubber band |
Regarding the nasty, nasty black foam: I've had to deal with that stuff at the CHM, too. What you do is suck it off with a vacuum cleaner. Dealing with a flat panel like the inside of a door, you can just take the tip of the hose and walk back and forth and it comes off leaving only the glue residue.
ReplyDeleteWhen dealing with the inside of a machine, where you have sticky black snow and general dust on the small parts and wire bundles etc, you have to be much more careful. Operate the vacuum at lowest power, and put a nylon stocking or similar fine cloth filter over the nozzle. If you wrap a piece of nylon stocking loosely over the nozzle and secure it with a rubber band, it will form a pocket inside the nozzle so you can get a couple tablespoons of smutch before you have to pull it out and clean it. But that way you won't be sucking up any important pieces of the artifact!
Re the punch cards, esp. the ones you hope to read, is there is any way to get them into a climate-controlled environment? Maybe clear out a closet in the air-conditioned part of your house, and stack them up with spacers so air can circulate between the boxes, and let them just sit there and acclimatize for a few months. That will probably save you some card jams later.
What's your plan with all the punch-card programs? Do you hope eventually to read them out to some other medium? In an online search I see one guy offering a service to read IBM cards, he wants 6 cents per card. Looks like a business ripe for competition from somebody with a 1442...