[rescue] once-in-a-lifetime rescue

[Walter Belgers]

Hi all,

Although I mainly collect Sun stuff, see http://www.belgers.com/walter/computers/ 
  , I also collect "old stuff" in general. Think pluggable module,  
core memory, etc.

Last week I had a rescue you won't believe. I used to work for Philips  
Communication and Processing Services, a division of the multinational  
Philips, founded in Eindhoven, Netherlands, where I live. (Meanwhile,  
Philips C&P does not exist any more, it is now part of AtosOrigin.)

About a year ago, my wife, who works there, saw some pallets with  
stuff being hauled to someplace. She mentioned it to me and I (no  
longer working there) asked if they were throwing it away. The answer  
was no, but the kind soul put my name on it in case it would ever be  
thrown away. That happened last week: they found the note and  
contacted me. I could save it if I would pick it up on short notice.  
So I did.

And what a find! This was stuff coming from the Philips C&P internal  
"computer history display". It has stuff from Philips Data Systems,  
the division that made computers for Philips in Apeldoorn,  
Netherlands. But also older stuff, from Philips Research. There, the  
PETER computer was built in the 1950's. And I now posses some of its  
components!

Also many other Philips items (from their P1000/P1400 systems) and IBM/ 
Amdahl stuff coming from the systems that have been running at the  
computer center.

I am now trying to find out what all the items are exactly. I've  
posted a request on alt.folklore.computers. If you want to help out,  
leave comments in my gallery:

http://download.belgers.com/gallery/relics/

I am probably going to give away a lot of the stuff to people that are  
going to put them on display, because it would be a waste just sitting  
in my house. There are a few people who specialise in the Dutch  
computer history. But if anybody knows a museum that is the best in  
international computer history, I'd like to learn its name.

Cheers,
Walter.