retrotechnology.com, retrotechnology.net

retrotechnology: reuse of old technology, particularly but not limited to machine tools and computers. 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 Altair Compupro systems of the 1970's and 80's); for floppy drives including 8-inch; and some older computing technologies including Apple Mac computers.

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 Jan 01 2008.

Computer retrotechnology for sale and show; Herb's Stuff

For old 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 early 1990'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. I've even obtained a number of Pentium/Windows laptops along the way.

Retrotechnology history in computing

The "personal computer" was NOT invented by IBM in 1981. The history of CP/M development in the early and mid-1970's, including early products of Digital Research and Dr. Gary Kildall and his colleagues, is on this page.

A dominant popular personal computing standard of the 1970's and 80's, was the S-100 bus of the Altair 8800 by MITS and the IMSAI 8080 by IMSAI. The history of S-100 development is on this page.

Since August 2007, I've been working at the MARCH vintage computer club on an exhibit of a PDP-11/20 system from 1970. It was used to develop document scanning technology for the U.S. Census and the Post Office, by the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST). MARCH resides at InfoAge in central New Jersey USA, will include many original DEC documents and papertapes for the PDP-11 line. Look at these items and the system as I work on it, at this link.

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".