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Edmund Berkeley’s Simon
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Derek Simmons
Apr 23, 2013, 1:22:16 PM4/23/13
to
This isn't the first time I’ve posted this inquiry but it has been about four years since the last time I did.
I’m looking for anybody with firsthand experience or knowledge of somebody having built or bought the plans for Edmund Berkeley’s Simon. I’ve watched eBay and searched websites but I haven’t come across anybody other than the author that built or tried to build one.
Edmund Berkeley’s Simon is credited as being the first home computer. But I am wondering if anybody ever built one. It appeared in a series of articles in Radio Electronics and an article in Scientific American. With minor differences in color printing, the computer pictured on the magazines covers is the same one. If you read the articles in Radio Electronics Berkeley presents types of logic circuits that could be constructed using relays for computer but he doesn’t actually describe how to assemble a complete computer.
Most of the parts he used were and are still widely available. In his design it mostly used toggle switches, lights, diodes and relays. The two parts that might be difficult to come by were the paper tape reader and the mechanical or state switch. The mechanical state switch could be found in a mechanical pinball machine. But the paper tape reader, how popular were those in 1950s? And, how easy was it for a home hobbyist to come by one?
At Brent Hilbert’s website:
http://people.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/simon/index.html
He’s come to some of the same conclusions that I have about the articles being incomplete and has filled in the gaps.
Its been written that the author sold schematics through the back pages of magazines. One of the theories I’ve come to is that maybe the articles were intentionally incomplete but enough to get someone started to lure them in to get them to buy the schematics later. At the Blinkenlights website (http://www.blinkenlights.com/pc.shtml) they claim that over 400 copies of the plans were sold. So, I’m also wondering if anyone ever bought a set of schematics? Or still has a set?
So, anybody ever seen an actual Simon?
I’m looking for anybody with firsthand experience or knowledge of somebody having built or bought the plans for Edmund Berkeley’s Simon. I’ve watched eBay and searched websites but I haven’t come across anybody other than the author that built or tried to build one.
Edmund Berkeley’s Simon is credited as being the first home computer. But I am wondering if anybody ever built one. It appeared in a series of articles in Radio Electronics and an article in Scientific American. With minor differences in color printing, the computer pictured on the magazines covers is the same one. If you read the articles in Radio Electronics Berkeley presents types of logic circuits that could be constructed using relays for computer but he doesn’t actually describe how to assemble a complete computer.
Most of the parts he used were and are still widely available. In his design it mostly used toggle switches, lights, diodes and relays. The two parts that might be difficult to come by were the paper tape reader and the mechanical or state switch. The mechanical state switch could be found in a mechanical pinball machine. But the paper tape reader, how popular were those in 1950s? And, how easy was it for a home hobbyist to come by one?
At Brent Hilbert’s website:
http://people.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/simon/index.html
He’s come to some of the same conclusions that I have about the articles being incomplete and has filled in the gaps.
Its been written that the author sold schematics through the back pages of magazines. One of the theories I’ve come to is that maybe the articles were intentionally incomplete but enough to get someone started to lure them in to get them to buy the schematics later. At the Blinkenlights website (http://www.blinkenlights.com/pc.shtml) they claim that over 400 copies of the plans were sold. So, I’m also wondering if anyone ever bought a set of schematics? Or still has a set?
So, anybody ever seen an actual Simon?
Michael Black
Apr 23, 2013, 3:26:49 PM4/23/13
to
On Tue, 23 Apr 2013, Derek Simmons wrote:
> This isn't the first time I?ve posted this inquiry but it has been about
> somebody having built or bought the plans for Edmund Berkeley?s Simon.
> I?ve watched eBay and searched websites but I haven?t come across
building that sort of computer in the hobby magazines, I have no idea how
they compared to the one you're interested in. I can remember one in
Electronics Illustrated in the early sixties that used telephone dials.
It was a niche market, like any construction project a lot of people would
read it, relatively few would build it, and fewer would built it as
described.
> Most of the parts he used were and are still widely available. In his
> design it mostly used toggle switches, lights, diodes and relays. The
> two parts that might be difficult to come by were the paper tape reader
> and the mechanical or state switch. The mechanical state switch could be
> found in a mechanical pinball machine. But the paper tape reader, how
> popular were those in 1950s? And, how easy was it for a home hobbyist to
> come by one?
>
But in the fifties, surplus Teletype machines were available, though often
on condition that you showed a ham license or that you were blind (two
areas that used tty machines, and the proof ensured the machines weren't
going back into commercial service). Tape machines would have been
available at the time. Certianly in the sixties one could even see both
sold as surplus in the back of ham magazines.
If it was just a reader (and not a punch), maybe people were expected to
create their own. IN the seventies, when home computers took off, there
wsa a paper tape reader (given the notion that paper tape might be useful
for distribution, but for local saves you'd use cassette tape), you could
buy at least one optoelectronic tape reader, that had sensors and some
schmitt triggers, and a guide for the tape, and you were expected to
manually pull the tape through the reader. SOmething like that was
possible in the fifties, though maybe required more ingenuity. But, if
you were the kind who wanted a computer, you likely were not the type
who'd be following instructions exactly. If nothing else, following parts
lists blindly could run up the price, if you knew enough to make
substitutes, you could save money. A good hobbyist would look at an
article, immedately think about how they could change it to work with what
they had, etc.
> At Brent Hilbert?s website: >
> http://people.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/simon/index.html
>
> He?s come to some of the same conclusions that I have about the articles
to a large project. So most of the projects were small. As things
improved, it was not uncommon to leave out things like circuit board
layout, if you really wanted to build the project and use a circuit board,
you'd mail away to the magazine or author to get the layout.
In the seventies when a lot of Big Projects hit the magazines, it was
pretty common for the articles to be incomplete. There just wans't space.
So you'd have to write away for the full schematic, or actually pay for a
full instruciton booklet. Note also, this period also was when plenty of
kits were described in the magazines, the full schematic published but you
coudl get the complete parts kit from the author or some company that
specialized in that sort of thing, and not have to fuss with getting
parts. So often people did buy the kits. SOmetimes a company created a
kit, and the article was more like an ad for the kit.
Note when the ALtair 8800 was on the cover of Popular Electronics, the
schematic wsa not there. YOu had to mail away for it, I think needing
only a large SASE, but then of course you could buy the kit. THe Mark 8
in Radio Electronics a few months earlier, was the same thing.
The worst articles were the ones that didn't give much detail, so you lost
content in the magazine. Eventually it got really bad, as microprocessors
took over, you often couldn't build the thing without the source code, and
once the source code wasn't in the magazine, the magazine became useless
by itself.
An articel that was incomplete but provided ideas were always great. A
long forgotten step in small computers was when Jim Huffman had an article
in "73" in November 1972 about building your own computer. It wasn't a
construciton article, but an "idea" article, mapping out the sorts of
things needed. It didn't deal with mircoprocessors, a tad too early, but
it was on the level of how people were building computers at home (a very
relative few, there was the Amateur Computer Society, I think started by
Sol Libes, that was around from the sixties, building their own or
resurrecting some commercial computer). THat sort of article at least got
people interested in having their own computer, even if they didn't build
one, or maybe got them interested enough to find some way of building a
computer, either a modification of what was published or some other plans,
or just jump in. IT wsa a very small circle of poeple who actually had
some sort of computer up until 1974 or so and they were more likely
vanguard than followers.
Michael
> This isn't the first time I?ve posted this inquiry but it has been about
> four years since the last time I did.
>
> I?m looking for anybody with firsthand experience or knowledge of
>
> somebody having built or bought the plans for Edmund Berkeley?s Simon.
> I?ve watched eBay and searched websites but I haven?t come across
> anybody other than the author that built or tried to build one.
>
> Edmund Berkeley?s Simon is credited as being the first home computer.
>
> But I am wondering if anybody ever built one. It appeared in a series of
> articles in Radio Electronics and an article in Scientific American.
> With minor differences in color printing, the computer pictured on the
> magazines covers is the same one. If you read the articles in Radio
> Electronics Berkeley presents types of logic circuits that could be
> constructed using relays for computer but he doesn?t actually describe
> articles in Radio Electronics and an article in Scientific American.
> With minor differences in color printing, the computer pictured on the
> magazines covers is the same one. If you read the articles in Radio
> Electronics Berkeley presents types of logic circuits that could be
> how to assemble a complete computer.
>
You don't give a date for the articles. There were various articles about
>
building that sort of computer in the hobby magazines, I have no idea how
they compared to the one you're interested in. I can remember one in
Electronics Illustrated in the early sixties that used telephone dials.
It was a niche market, like any construction project a lot of people would
read it, relatively few would build it, and fewer would built it as
described.
> Most of the parts he used were and are still widely available. In his
> design it mostly used toggle switches, lights, diodes and relays. The
> two parts that might be difficult to come by were the paper tape reader
> and the mechanical or state switch. The mechanical state switch could be
> found in a mechanical pinball machine. But the paper tape reader, how
> popular were those in 1950s? And, how easy was it for a home hobbyist to
> come by one?
>
on condition that you showed a ham license or that you were blind (two
areas that used tty machines, and the proof ensured the machines weren't
going back into commercial service). Tape machines would have been
available at the time. Certianly in the sixties one could even see both
sold as surplus in the back of ham magazines.
If it was just a reader (and not a punch), maybe people were expected to
create their own. IN the seventies, when home computers took off, there
wsa a paper tape reader (given the notion that paper tape might be useful
for distribution, but for local saves you'd use cassette tape), you could
buy at least one optoelectronic tape reader, that had sensors and some
schmitt triggers, and a guide for the tape, and you were expected to
manually pull the tape through the reader. SOmething like that was
possible in the fifties, though maybe required more ingenuity. But, if
you were the kind who wanted a computer, you likely were not the type
who'd be following instructions exactly. If nothing else, following parts
lists blindly could run up the price, if you knew enough to make
substitutes, you could save money. A good hobbyist would look at an
article, immedately think about how they could change it to work with what
they had, etc.
> At Brent Hilbert?s website: >
> http://people.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/simon/index.html
>
> He?s come to some of the same conclusions that I have about the articles
> being incomplete and has filled in the gaps.
>
> Its been written that the author sold schematics through the back pages
> of magazines. One of the theories I?ve come to is that maybe the
>
> Its been written that the author sold schematics through the back pages
> articles were intentionally incomplete but enough to get someone started
> to lure them in to get them to buy the schematics later. At the
> Blinkenlights website (http://www.blinkenlights.com/pc.shtml) they claim
> that over 400 copies of the plans were sold. So, I?m also wondering if
> to lure them in to get them to buy the schematics later. At the
> Blinkenlights website (http://www.blinkenlights.com/pc.shtml) they claim
> anyone ever bought a set of schematics? Or still has a set?
>
Actually, most of the magazines weren't willing to dedicate endless pages
>
to a large project. So most of the projects were small. As things
improved, it was not uncommon to leave out things like circuit board
layout, if you really wanted to build the project and use a circuit board,
you'd mail away to the magazine or author to get the layout.
In the seventies when a lot of Big Projects hit the magazines, it was
pretty common for the articles to be incomplete. There just wans't space.
So you'd have to write away for the full schematic, or actually pay for a
full instruciton booklet. Note also, this period also was when plenty of
kits were described in the magazines, the full schematic published but you
coudl get the complete parts kit from the author or some company that
specialized in that sort of thing, and not have to fuss with getting
parts. So often people did buy the kits. SOmetimes a company created a
kit, and the article was more like an ad for the kit.
Note when the ALtair 8800 was on the cover of Popular Electronics, the
schematic wsa not there. YOu had to mail away for it, I think needing
only a large SASE, but then of course you could buy the kit. THe Mark 8
in Radio Electronics a few months earlier, was the same thing.
The worst articles were the ones that didn't give much detail, so you lost
content in the magazine. Eventually it got really bad, as microprocessors
took over, you often couldn't build the thing without the source code, and
once the source code wasn't in the magazine, the magazine became useless
by itself.
An articel that was incomplete but provided ideas were always great. A
long forgotten step in small computers was when Jim Huffman had an article
in "73" in November 1972 about building your own computer. It wasn't a
construciton article, but an "idea" article, mapping out the sorts of
things needed. It didn't deal with mircoprocessors, a tad too early, but
it was on the level of how people were building computers at home (a very
relative few, there was the Amateur Computer Society, I think started by
Sol Libes, that was around from the sixties, building their own or
resurrecting some commercial computer). THat sort of article at least got
people interested in having their own computer, even if they didn't build
one, or maybe got them interested enough to find some way of building a
computer, either a modification of what was published or some other plans,
or just jump in. IT wsa a very small circle of poeple who actually had
some sort of computer up until 1974 or so and they were more likely
vanguard than followers.
Michael
Al Kossow
Apr 23, 2013, 3:34:15 PM4/23/13
to
On 4/23/13 10:22 AM, Derek Simmons wrote:
> This isn't the first time I’ve posted this inquiry but it has been about four years since the last time I did.
>
> I’m looking for anybody with firsthand experience or knowledge of somebody having built or bought the plans for Edmund Berkeley’s Simon. I’ve watched eBay and searched websites but I haven’t come across anybody other than the author that built or tried to build one.
>
October 1950 issue of Radio-Electronics
> This isn't the first time I’ve posted this inquiry but it has been about four years since the last time I did.
>
> I’m looking for anybody with firsthand experience or knowledge of somebody having built or bought the plans for Edmund Berkeley’s Simon. I’ve watched eBay and searched websites but I haven’t come across anybody other than the author that built or tried to build one.
>
http://www.vintagecomputer.net/images/simon.jpg
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/B1514.01
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/simon/
Walter Banks
Apr 23, 2013, 4:59:00 PM4/23/13
to
Gordon Bell probably has a lot more information, because he
was interested in old computers and he once was a major part
of the Boston Computer museum.
Last I heard he was working on special projects at Microsoft.
He should be reachable on the net
Walter..
Derek Simmons
Apr 23, 2013, 8:02:42 PM4/23/13
to
After some poking around today I found a copy of the plans for Simon at:
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000473670
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000473670
Michael Black
Apr 26, 2013, 10:28:40 AM4/26/13
to
On Tue, 23 Apr 2013, Al Kossow wrote:
> On 4/23/13 10:22 AM, Derek Simmons wrote:
>> This isn't the first time I?ve posted this inquiry but it has been about
> On 4/23/13 10:22 AM, Derek Simmons wrote:
>> four years since the last time I did.
>>
>> I?m looking for anybody with firsthand experience or knowledge of somebody
>>
>> having built or bought the plans for Edmund Berkeley?s Simon. I?ve watched
>> eBay and searched websites but I haven?t come across anybody other than the
>> author that built or tried to build one.
>>
>
> October 1950 issue of Radio-Electronics
>
That may be significant. At that stage, hobby electronics had sort of
>>
>
> October 1950 issue of Radio-Electronics
>
disappeared (there was a big surge when radio came along, then a lot of
those magazines died or morphed into industry publications). I don't know
where Radio Electronics was at that point, but there was a long period
when it was a repair magazine, or at least partially a repair magazine, I
don't know when that started. Even in the seventies when classic projects
like the Mark-8 and the TV Typewriter appeared, there'd be a column for
the professional service man, and various articles related to that sort of
job. If in 1950 it was covering electronic repair, the hobbyists might
have been relatively few.
FOr that matter, it wasn't until 1955 when Popular Electronics arrived
that hobby electronics really seemed to take off, helped with SPutnik a
few years later. Electronics Illustrated started up about 1960 and osme
of the odd magazines returned (or became) magazines for the electronic
hobbyist, a really prime time, lots of magazines, lots of projects.
So maybe in 1950, apart from other factors, there'd have been a limited
number of people who saw the article and from those had to be the ones who
might have built one.
A magazine has a short life, once it's off the newsstand it's much harder
to get. So by the time the people who wanted to build computers heard
about it, the magazine might not have been available new, making it that
much harder to find.
It's not like that Hayden book about building a computer that someone
posted about a few years back here, a book easily sits in libraries and
doesn't immediately go out of print. So it leaves time for someone to
find it, and anyone looking up computers at the library that carried the
book would find it, without having to know that such thing existed in the
first place.
Michael
l.n...@ieee.org
Jan 16, 2017, 3:55:51 PM1/16/17
to
I realize this query was posted a few years ago, but for anyone still interested, a couple of things:
--Berkeley advertised in the back of many magazines regularly. You can find him, for example, in the pages of Galaxy SF magazine.
--If you want more info on Simon's popularity and are not just looking for a kit, you might check the Computer History Museum in Ca.-the website is searchable and here you will find a guide to the papers of Edmund Berkeley: http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=edmund+berkeley%2C+simon+computer+kit -
--to find out how popular/sales, etc., you might look at sales records; you can also look for correspondence between Berkeley Enterprises and the various tech magazines of the period.
--Berkeley advertised in the back of many magazines regularly. You can find him, for example, in the pages of Galaxy SF magazine.
--If you want more info on Simon's popularity and are not just looking for a kit, you might check the Computer History Museum in Ca.-the website is searchable and here you will find a guide to the papers of Edmund Berkeley: http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=edmund+berkeley%2C+simon+computer+kit -
--to find out how popular/sales, etc., you might look at sales records; you can also look for correspondence between Berkeley Enterprises and the various tech magazines of the period.
dimesand...@gmail.com
Jan 27, 2018, 3:03:21 PM1/27/18
to
I've been scouring the internet and finally found a digital set of Simon plans!
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000473670
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000473670
Joe Pfeiffer
Jan 28, 2018, 12:04:59 AM1/28/18
to
dimesand...@gmail.com writes:
> I've been scouring the internet and finally found a digital set of Simon plans!
> https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000473670
Don't do things like this to me... I don't have time for more
> I've been scouring the internet and finally found a digital set of Simon plans!
> https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000473670
projects...
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