Serial #216 (John2)

John Blankenbaker never sold this computer - he kept it in his attic along with 2 others until he heard about Boston's The Computer Museum contest to find early personal computers.  He was not actively following the computer news, so only heard about this through his friend Montgomery Phister.  He needed to find a working computer, so went through his attic and got this one.  The other two were his prototype, and a non-working one.  So he shipped this off to Boston.

This has a label with the serial number 216 on the back, which suggests it was his last computer he made out of the run of 50 (he started serial numbers at 167) however internal examination shows it was actually one of the very first he made, a "Revision A" printed circuit board, made soon after the prototype.  And while his production machines usually also had the serial number stamped on the printed circuit board, this one didn't have anything stamped on the circuit board.  This definitely wasn't his last computer.  John just applied his last serial number sticker on the back of this machine before mailing it to Boston.

This computer stayed at The Computer Museum in Boston until they folded around 2000, and then it was sent to The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, before they even had their museum ready.  It was photographed with handles in a publication from Boston's museum in 1986, but the handles somehow got lost by the time it got to California.  Reproduction handles were added in 2022.

Through the generosity of the Computer History Museum, they sent several professional high resolution photos for use on this web site.  I especially thank Aurora Tucker who put up with many questions and requests.