I am looking for a computer construction article from my youth. The
project contained several flip-flops to form a counter. Each
flip-flop was on a single board and constructed from two TO-3 power
transistors, one of which drove an incandescent lamp. The counter was
driven by a rotary phone dial. The circuit added numbers dialed
on the rotary dial. To subtract, you had to do ten's complement or
some such. The output was read in binary from the incandescent lights.
I thought the article was in Popular Electronics from the mid-1950's or
early 1960's, but some time with a microfiche machine hasn't turned
up the article. I did find a similar article in the November 1966
Electronics Illustrated (http://www.dos4ever.com/ring/ELIL.pdf);
however, this circuit uses neon blubs to form the counter.
A similar device is shown in a picture at The Obsolete Computer Museum
site on top of a TRS-80: http://www.radar58.com/Computer/pcs.jpg
I'm interested in the article for its historical significance since
it is one of the earliest computer projects I know of. Any help
locating the article would be appreciated.
project contained several flip-flops to form a counter. Each
flip-flop was on a single board and constructed from two TO-3 power
transistors, one of which drove an incandescent lamp. The counter was
driven by a rotary phone dial. The circuit added numbers dialed
on the rotary dial. To subtract, you had to do ten's complement or
some such. The output was read in binary from the incandescent lights.
I thought the article was in Popular Electronics from the mid-1950's or
early 1960's, but some time with a microfiche machine hasn't turned
up the article. I did find a similar article in the November 1966
Electronics Illustrated (http://www.dos4ever.com/ring/ELIL.pdf);
however, this circuit uses neon blubs to form the counter.
A similar device is shown in a picture at The Obsolete Computer Museum
site on top of a TRS-80: http://www.radar58.com/Computer/pcs.jpg
I'm interested in the article for its historical significance since
it is one of the earliest computer projects I know of. Any help
locating the article would be appreciated.
