🚀 go-pugleaf

The recent postings about computers with names ending in "AC" reminded
me of the $15.00 "digital computers" sold in the back of Popular Science/
Popular Mechanics type magazines in the late 50's and early 60's. It seems
that the original one was called the GENIAC ("GENIus Automatic Computer?")
but there was a falling out of the owners and another one called "BRAINIAC"
was sold at roughly the same price. The BRANIAC advertisements typically
mentioned the GENIAC, saying they had everything that the early GENIACs had
and more.

Well I saved up my pennies and bought a GENIAC (this represented better than
three months allowance, a *MAJOR* purchase). It worked, erratically, but was
a major disappointment -- I thought the thing at least would have relays
behind the panel, but the Geniac consisted of:

A Masonite panel with holes punched in it, and six masonite swith plates.

You essentually had six switches which you could program by placing jumpers
on the plates, the jumpers closing contacts made via screws in the panel.
It didn't make very good contact.  Output was via a row of light bulbs mounted
on the panel.

They gave you a bunch of programs, the most interesting of which were a
tic-tac-toe player (it would occasionally loose!), a weather forcaster, and
a music composer.

In 1966 I built a computer that (using diode transistor logic) implemented
the music composer. It got first place in the area fair so I guess I got
my money's worth from the Geniac! I should mention that the DTL was not
ICs (way too expensive at the time) but actual germanium diodes and 
transistors! There were even a bunch of relays and a mechanical drum switch!

Back to the Geniac,
they included a copy of Shannon's paper on switching logic. The company 
(Oliver Garfield) also sold courses on robotics at fantastic prices, and
a cylindrical slide rule, which would be a collectors item today.

Oliver Garfield wrote a book in the early fifties entitled something like
"Electronic Brain Machines and How to Use Them" that the local public
library had (this was their only computer book in the early 60's!). It
was exciting reading at the time.

Was this anyone elses first computer?

Tom Almy
to...@tekgvs.labs.tek.com
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