#139) The Making of an LGP-30 Emulator Kit

Thanks to Libravet Tony Cappellini who provided the following news story:

While attending the Vintage Computer Festival - West (sponsored by the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA), Tony met Oscar Vermuelen from Switzerland. Oscar has a couple websites dedicated to vintage computers, including a couple emulation kits he designed and now offers for sale. One emulator kit is for the Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) PDP-8.

Recently, Oscar undertook the task of emulating the Librascope LGP-30. Currently, he is putting together a kit for a small replica which will run on the tiny but affordable Raspberry Pi hobby computer.

Here are two of Oscar’s blog posts describing his LGP-30 progress so far this year:

February 21, 2016 Blog Post "Making a LGP-30" (click here)

June 3, 2016 Blog Post "Using the SIMH LGP-30 emulator" (click here)

To further his understanding, Oscar would like to exchange information with anyone from Librascope or anyone else that is familiar with the LGP-30. He can easily be reached using the Contact section on either of his two websites:. If you are reading this post in an e-mail, you may also leave a comment beneath this post on the blog's website (click here).

"Obsolescence Guaranteed" Blog Home Page (click here)

"Vintage Computers" Home Page (click here)

#134) Librascope Commemorative Coin Found

You might think we've published all the interesting Librascope memories available, but occasionally something new shows up. For example ...

Last week we received an Email from a fellow who had been going through his father's possessions recently and came across a General Precision/Librascope collector's coin commemorating the Company's early "desk sized" general purpose computers. He later provided photographs of the coin, and added that he was unaware of how his father, who never worked at Librascope, acquired it.

According to Wikipedia, Charles Babbage (1791 - 1871) is best remembered for originating the concept of a programmable computer. Elsewhere, Wikipedia states that "the Librascope LGP-30 may well be considered the first personal computer". Thus, Charles Babbage was certainly an honorable selection for the Librascope commemoration coin.

The 740 lb. "desk sized" LGP-30, with 113 vacuum tubes and a drum memory, was introduced in 1956 for $47,000. Then in 1963 the less expensive fully transistorized LGP-21 was released. The RPC-4000 was a more powerful transistorized successor to the LGP-30. Note, the LGP-30 would cost nearly half-a-million dollars in today's dollars!

Two short LGP-30 videos (#5 and #9) may be viewed on the Librascope Memories website by clicking here.

#130) Some New Additions to the Librascope Memories Website

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone! Seems like 2015 flew by.

Today, some new photos and a YouTube video were added to the ever growing Librascope Memories website. Their captions are listed below under the section in which they appear.

Photo Album - Advertisements (56) (click here)

• LGP-30 - 1959c

Photo Album - Products (47) (click here)

• LGP-30 Triple Flip Flop Board
• L-2010 - c1961
• Trackball Product Line

Photo Album - Places (22) (click here)

• Librascope Singer Instrumentation - Marina Del Rey
• Librascope Singer Instrumentation - Marina Del Rey (Full)
• For a short story about Singer Instrumentation, click here.

Photo Album - People (56) (click here)

• Carl Sorensen and Don Barton (rear) with their wives at the 1960 Librascope Christmas Party.

Librascope Videos (9) (click here)

• #9) Librascope LGP-30 Computer History - Vintage Vacuum Tube Circuit Boards (click here).

Again, Happy New Year!

Carl

#129) Short Librascope LGP-30 Video Posted on YouTube

Mark Greenia, founder of the Computer History Archive Project (a not-for-profit research activity), recently posted a new video on the history of the LGP-30 and its recently discovered vintage vacuum tube circuit boards. Note, the video graciously gives partial credit to the Librascope Memories website.

Click here to see the 5 minute video.

Mr. Greenia, an active computer historian, has collected and generously donated many significant vintage computer items to various institutions. He has also published many other historical computer videos on YouTube, and in the early 2000's he authored a multimedia collection and a book on the history of computing.

The multimedia History of Computing collection, with full text and videos, is now online for viewing (click here). Regrettably, due to licensing problems at the time, Librascope’s contributions were not included, and it is not possible to add them now.

#118) Three "New" Librascope Videos Are Now On YouTube

Following are three new Librascope videos that I recently posted on YouTube. The first two were filmed in 1997, but have never been published before. The first video is of a very humorous roast of Sam Ward, who served as Librascope President shortly after Lockheed Martin acquired Librascope. The second video is a film of my "surprise" retirement luncheon. I wasn't roasted, but the speakers were very entertaining. The third film is a video slideshow of the Libravets who were honored for their 15+ years of service during the 1980's. The Libravet's photos were copied from the 1980's Librazettes. Finally, I have included a previously published German video of the LGP-30 in operation.

To view these four videos, simply click on the links provided below. Your Comments are welcome.

Sam Ward's Librascope Farewell Ceremony Roast - 1997

http://youtu.be/Z726Z9YXBXg?t=0s

Carl Sorensen hosts a "roast" of Sam Ward, Librascope President and Carl's boss, in recognition of Sam's departure for an opportunity with SAIC in San Diego. Speakers (in order) were Carl Sorensen, Tom Taggart (Manassas, VA), Randy Klebe, Steve Lebit, Tom Cuda, Steve Wallace, Sam Ward, and Bob Lang.

The ceremony ends with the presentation of some "special" gifts.

Retirement Ceremony for Carl Sorensen, a Libravet since 1958.

http://youtu.be/7OV3NJs1bQs?t=6s

On September 15, 1997, a luncheon ceremony was held honoring Carl Sorensen's retirement from Librascope Division, Lockheed Martin. Speakers, in order of appearance, were Craig Gifford (Librascope President), Tom Cuda (Engineering), Ed Arnold (Business Development), Jim Brantley (Union), Ray Hand (Information Systems), Steve Lebit (HR Benefits), and Carl Sorensen (Operations and Resource Management).

Libravets Honored During the 1980’s

http://youtu.be/IQtlOsCQ9AA?t=0s

A Video Slideshow of the Libravets Who Were Honored For Their Years of Librascope Service During the 1980’s.

Note, if you see an advertisement near the bottom of the screen, you can remove it by simply clicking on the X in the upper right hand corner of the ad. The copyrighted background music required this advertisement.

Warming Up The LGP-30

http://youtu.be/7WaYYNUCWMY?t=0s

The LGP 30 is a computer made of valves, diodes and a drum memory. This machine is from 1958. It is located at the museum of the computer science faculty of the University of Stuttgart, Germany. The computer is in a fully functional state.

In this clip, the machine is shown starting up and doing some work, just to get a feeling for what that kind of machine looked and felt like.

#21) An Interesting LGP-30 Web-Site

John Gustafson recently discovered a web-site which documents some widely unknown early (1956-60) Librascope history related to the LGP-30 computer (which he worked on when he first came to Librascope in 1955). According to the web-site, an LGP-30 was the computer used by Ed Lorenz in discovering the Butterfly Effect which founded the science of Chaos (aka Chaos Theory). Here's the LGP-30 link, which includes or links to other Librascope related memorabilia:

http://hst250.history.msu.edu/wiki-online/index.php/LGP-30

You'll also be amazed to read of the LGP-30's contribution to so many early programming languges.