Tours

Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing Tour

Wednesday through Sunday, noon and 2 p.m.

The story of computing is epic. It’s driven by creativity, where accidents and luck can be as important as brilliant engineering. Explore the revolution that’s changed our world in this docent-led tour.

Docent-led tour. Open to the public for groups less than 10.

Image: View of the calculator gallery, where people and objects tell the story of calculation and its importance to human progress.

IBM 1401 Demo

Wednesday, 3 p.m.
Saturday, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The IBM 1401 transformed data processing, becoming one of history’s most popular computers. Journey to 1959 and experience the sights and sounds of a business computer center.

Docent-led demo. Open to the public for groups less than 10.

Image: The 1949 IBM 026 Keypunch. According to the 1970 US Census, there were about 473,000 keypunch operators, and 90%were women.

PDP-1 and Spacewar! Demo

First and third Saturday every month, 2:30 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.

PDP-1 Spacewar! Tournament every fifth Saturday of the month, 12 noon

Discover the 1959 machine and game that captivated an early generation of hackers and made Rolling Stone magazine rave, “Ready or not. Computers are coming to the people.”

Docent-led demo. Open to the public for groups less than 10.

Image: The DEC Type 30 display with light pen. One of the world’s first video games, Spacewar!, was first developed for this display.

RAMAC 350 Demo

Wednesday, 1:00 p.m.

The heart of the world’s first disk drive, the RAMAC 350 storage unit has 50 24-inch spinning disks and holds 5 million characters (about 3.75 MB) of information. Experience this “high speed” unit in action.

Docent-led demo. Open to the public for groups less than 10.

Image: The 1956 IBM RAMAC head-disk assembly, the world’s first drive and the model for all hard drives used today.