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Robert Garner provided the following letter that was exchanged in the process of procuring the "German IBM 1401"


From: "Heinz Lenk"
Date: Wed Sep 17, 2003 12:02:11 PM US/Pacific
To: us032560@mindspring.com
Subject: Travel to Hamm

Hello Robert,

I drove yesterday to Hamm, north of Dortmund to meet with Mr. Schweinsberg senior.

Wonder how some people can stand driving 700km (and more) every Day on Germany's Autobahns. Now I'm sitting here with an electric pad on my back to realign my lowest intervertebral disk. Mr. Schweinsberg garage contains really heavy stuff.

I made around 50 pictures and hope they show enough details to alleviate your decision. As soon as the films are developed, I will send them to you. Question: What address should I send them to.

The 1401 is stored in a car garage which is flanked by other garages on both sides. The ceiling didn't show water stains so the roof is tight. There is no air conditioning, so the 1401 and its periphery had to endure summer and winter climate changes of many years. The dusts in the cabinets are still the same as when the 1401 was removed from duty.

In general all silvery coatings of contacts are oxydized by sulpureous air, but cold contacts lock like new.

BTW: Mr. Schweinsberg heartily recommends to start cleaning the cards AFTER it was set up running again. And then clean only few parts and try if all is still running.

Film 1, Picture #
00A. Mr. Schweinsberg senior, an astonishing agile old man. I asked him later if, if you pay the ship fare (his physician doesn't allow travel by air), he would be willing to resurrect the 1401 and all it's periphery. He told me he would enjoy it very much to apply his old skill again.
0A. IBM 077 Mixer / Schalttafel
1A. IBM 360/30 Core 32k memory cardboard box
2A. " " " unpacked view from wrap side
3A. " " " unpacked view, core memory
4A. Tape Reels, ec. Autocoder w/o IOCS
5A. IBM 129 Card Puncher / Interpreter / Verify
6A. " " Serial number plate (need magnifier) & scrap no bumps, no rust,
7A. Some of the boxes full of SMS spare cards (enough to build an other 1401). Some boxes became moist when the cellar, in which they where stored, suffered a water brake in. The golden contact pads of the SMS-cards still lock like new.
8A. Tektonix 535A with probes for the purist maintenance guy.
9A. Technical descriptions, most of them in German
10A. Schematics (ALDs) and maintenance
11A. mechanical spare parts (wire relays, originally packed, wire contact comb)
12A. original tooth belts (red box), Program cards, Programmer for printer control ribbon on Printer paper trolley
13A. Schüttelrutsche (shaking slide), Papierwagen (paper trolley parts)
14A. Spare parts for tape storage. Tool to vulcanize new rubber onto capstan rolls, bottom right. Mr. Schweinsberger once devised this tool which works. Connectors, cables, program cards
15A. 6 of 12 boxes filled with various test programs on punched cards.
16A. Printer character chains (overexposed?)
17A. 5 Printer character chains with cleaning bath tub
18A. IBM 1402 Card Read / Punch, front doors open
19A. " front doors closed with card guide
20A. " left view, some rust
21A. " back side, doors open
22A. " right side interior
23A. " Serial number plate some few parts where rusty where naked steel was exposed to fog. No bumps
24A.IBM 1401 front view. Beware the sealed connectors
25A. " main control panel
26A. " an other control panel
27A. " two card racks open, wrap side view
28A. " rack bottom left open, wrap side view
29A. " sealed connectors
30A. " control panel interiours
31A. " serial number plate (use magnifier)
32A " card rack open, left bottom
33A " Betriebsstundenzähler
34A " rear side (with flash) Ancient dust lingers inside. No bumps, no rust.
35A. Mr. Schweinsberg's garage, home of the IBM1401 family. All garages are separated by walls.

Film 2, Picture #
0. Mr. Schweinsberger's neighbor's garage,
1. IBM 1403 Printer. Main cover open
2. " " Papar tractor, chain color ribbon
3. " " Serial number plate
4. " " back side
5. " " mechanic on left side One small bumps on left cover (1), some rust at bare steel.
6. IBM 729 Magnetic Tape driver Tester (extremely rare species) with "DIAGNOSE FUNCTION TEST" manual
7. IBM 1401 TAN9, Tape Adapter Unit rack, opened
8. IBM 1401 Power Buck / Bust Unit to simulate power fluctuations
9. Maintenance trolley with documentation, ALDs
10. IBM 1406 front view
11. " front view, cover removed
12. " Serial number plate
13. " wiring
14. " back side, cover removed Additional Storage. No Bumps, no rust
15. IBM 729 Magnetic Tape Drive, One of five.
16. " front view internals
17. " back side internals
18. " card rack No Bumps, some light rust. Maintenance documentation, ALDs
19. IBM 077 Collator. Only gears, relays and switches! Well greased. No bumps, almost no rust after ca. 50 years. Serial number plate
20. Deep inside the dark Garage three and one originally packed IBM 729 Magnetic Tape Drive
21. IBM 077 Collator gears
22. " " back interior, relays and spare parts
23. " " one of many lubricators
24. " " more gears and relays
25. IBM 083 Sorter. right side interior and Mr. Schweinsberger a little bit exhausted.
26. " front view (almost) Maintenance documentation. No bumps, Some mechanical parts like axles are covered with brown silk like rust. Obviously these parts where never plated with nickel or chrome.
28. My house, still under construction, but thanks to Hittachi, now I have the time to do all things planed

Re. Just a few questions
1. The garages are separated by wall. Because no window or vent opening is there, no car exhaust could enter
2. The paints are in good condition. I didn't see any peeling
3. Yes, the corroded silvery contacts are in the punched card handling equipment. ALL PCB cards have cold contacts (when I was young, I bought some as scrap to dissect them)

Heinz