Arkay CT-650 (Computer Trainer Model 650) ~1967

I’m still checking the Swedish Electronic magazines. I first found a 1967 HP 2115A and after research I found a digital museum called The Computer Church (previously earlycomputers.com) with computers from 1830s-1980s, peripherals and publications from 1830s-1980s.

A very interesting early trainer is the Arkay CT-650, company Comspace Corp, designed by Irving Becker.

Most of the photos showing later rebuilds. Switches on b&w photos are round instead of triangled.
On top the core memory (simulated) and the magnetic program drum.
Below the input, arithmetic, control and output unit. 54" long. Price ~$1000.

https://www.evilmadscientist.com/tag/vintage-computing/

The oldest computer (and also interesting) at the Computer Church is a 1922 US Navy analog computer by Ford called Range Keeper Mark VI.
The Computer Church: The .

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I you want any information of pictures, i got one.

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I have one of these too. It was actually at my High School back in the 70’s, and I was SO interested in using it, but they wouldn’t let me. No one there really knew what to do with it, they put it in a storage closet, and then they eventually got rid of it about 1985 or so.

Fast forward 40 years, and it surfaced - and I bought it. Same one from my school back in the day, and now I own it. HaHa. Crazy.

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Quite the reunion, @ToddChamberlain !

Yes! It really is a reunion ~50 years in the making. :pray:
Here’s a pic of my new/old CT-650 friend!
(complete with original dust cover from back in the day too!)

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I am sure I have dust around here before that.
It is too bad one could not automate the switches. and have it under computer
control.
See the wheel of fortune, the PDP 8 segment,
Connections (1978) Complete First Series : James Burke : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

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On the other hand, I appreaciate how thoughtfullyt his was designed as an educational device: the switches clearly communicate the position, they are in, and by the control state of the machine, even at a distance, and the color-coding of the bits should make it easy to talk about them.
(So, instead of “the second bit” – “which one, the scond from the left or from the right?” – “well, from the right”, a teacher may trefer to the “yellow bit” and its path through the logic.)

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