retrotechnology.com, retrotechnology.net

retrotechnology:repair, restoration and/or reuse of old technology, particularly but not limited to mechanical and electronic technology. History of old technology trends and how they reappear in new technologies of the 20th and 21st century.

This site includes "Herb's Stuff", a support and sales site for S-100 computers (IMSAI, MITS Altair, Compupro)and other 1970's computers systems (Heathkit, DEC) of the 1970's; floppy drives support including 8-inch; and Apple Macintosh computers of the 1980's.

Herb Johnson, site owner & proprietor - click here for biography.

email: info AT retrotechnology D0T com

Thanks for visiting this domain. We will update this page with site changes as they occur. Check back for details. But refer to the sections mentioned here for specific and current information. Last edit of this page July 29 2009.

Computer retrotechnology for sale and show: Herb's Stuff

For 1970's and 80's computers, follow this link to see the Herb's Stuff home page.. I have a variety of "classic" computer interests, about computers of the 1970's through the 1980's. My biggest and oldest computing collection is my S-100 personal computer equipment and documentation from the 1970's and 80's.

I also sell older Apple Macintosh equipment and parts from the earliest Macs to PowerMacs. Among other old computer items, I have some Multibus, STDbus and VME cards and manuals; some old SGI and Sun computers, also some DEC and DG equipment.

For floppy disks and drives starting with the 1970's eight inch drives, check my floppy drives Web page. We have manuals, technical notes and discussions, actual drives and diskettes for sale.

For test and repair of old electronics, I have some electronic test equipment that you may be interested in purchasing. Also I have some odds and ends bits of equipment and books that I've found while obtaining all those other items.

Computing retrotechnology: history, display, restoration

For a VERY retro-technology computer, consider an astronomical computing device built by the Greeks over 2000 years ago. Here's my Web page on some recent work on the Antikythera Mechanism, and my very small involvement with that work.

The "personal computer" was NOT invented by IBM in 1981. The history of CP/M development in the early and mid-1970's is indexed on this Web page. It includes earliest products of Digital Research and Digital (Micro)Systems by Dr. Gary Kildall and his colleagues; and the work of others in the mid-1970's to develop the foundations of today's personal computing.

A dominant popular personal computing standard of the 1970's and early 1980's, was the S-100 bus first used on the Altair 8800 by MITS and the IMSAI 8080 by IMSAI. The history of S-100 development is this page.

From August 2007 to Sept 2008, I worked for the MARCH vintage computer club on an exhibit and Web documents of their donated 1970-vintage PDP-11/20 system. It was used to develop document scanning technology for the U.S. Census and the Post Office, at the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST). MARCH resides at InfoAge in central New Jersey USA. The exhibit was first shown in September 2008 and included many original DEC documents and papertapes; and videos of an operating PDP-8 were shown on a Linux system which included the Web documents I created. A copy of those documents and the "virtual" exhibit are at this link on my Web site.

I have several Web pages about computer restoration. They collectively describe repair, restoration, and display of computers of the 1970's and earlier; and why people should bother to do so. I offer why this is a valuable activity, and how restoration can be organized and supported. I'll list various organizations, Web sites, events, and individuals who actively support repair, diagnosis, restoration of these early computers.

Retrotechnology materials - GLASS AND OPTICS

OPTICAL GLASS IN ASTRONOMY:

Optics is a great example of old technology used in new ways, and new technology used in traditional methods of optical work. I and my ATM colleages are building telescope mirrors for amateur astronomical use, turning glass blanks into finished mirrors. Check out my work on figuring an 8-inch mirror; and my work on making an 8-inch mirror from start. I've been an amateur astronomer since the 1990's. here are details on my amateur astronomy interests

Retrotechnology materials - IRON AND MINERALS AND TOOLS

IRON MINES:

I live in New Jersey in the United States. Few Americans realize that iron was mined in New Jersey from the Colonial period of the late 1600's, up to the late 20th century. New Jersey supplied iron in war and in peace. In this section My colleagues and I explore the remains of the most productive iron mines in old New Jersey: the Richard, Allen and Teabo Mine remains at Mount Hope County Park, in Morris County in north NJ.

METEORS:

Beyond these terrestrial minerals, I've collected some meteorites. Check this section for photos.

MACHINE TOOLS:

About 100 miles from my location is York, PA. There's a tradition of factory work there through to today. It's also the site for the Cabin Fever Expo at the York County Fairgrounds in York, PA USA. It's a winter show for model engineers and vendors. There's almost always someone melting or scraping or cutting metal there! I've attended for several years: this site has images from Cabin Fever Expo 2001, and Cabin Fever Expo 2005, and Cabin Fever Expo 2006.

Site history

Retrotechnology.com was established in 2003. This is the PRIMARY site for Herb Johnson's "Herb's Stuff" Web pages. Sales from those pages support this site and these activities. If you have old links to me at "njcc.com", please change them. The alternate domain name to "retrotechnology.com" is "retrotechnology.net". If any "retrotechnology.com" links fail, change ".com" to ".net".