Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2016/02/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]why in gos name would they refuse the money to build a copy when offered?? ric > On Feb 24, 2016, at 8:52 PM, Herbert Kanner <kanner at acm.org> wrote: > > > Over eight years ago, at the instigation of Bill Gates, the Science Museum > in London approached Nathan Myhrvold, former Chief Technology Officer for > Microsoft, for financial help in completing the Babbage Difference Engine. > The Museum had built the larger component, the one that did the actual > arithmetic. The additional financing was to enable them to build the > smaller but very complex component that would print the results on a paper > roll and, most important, create a mold in soft plaster of paris, that > when hardened would enable the creation of a full-page plate, ready to go > into a printing press, by pouring molten type metal into the mold. > > Nathan made the London Museum an offer the just couldn?t refuse. He said > he would finance the building of two copies of the missing part and one > more copy of the original part, saying that he wanted to have that (five > ton) machine in his living room. > > It never got there. Len Shustek, the Chair of the Computer History Museum > (Mountain View, CA) Board of Trustees persuaded him to lend it to us for a > year. Every December 15th we asked for an extension and got (exactly) a > one-year extension. For eight years, I?ve done the lecture part of a > lecturer-demonstration of the machine at exactly 1:00 every Saturday with > rare exceptions. I?ve also been a member of a six-person maintenance group > doing monthly maintenance: mostly lubrication but occasionally solving > problems which at best caused the machine to jam and at worst, broke parts. > > A gentlemen named Tim Robinson has been head of the maintenance group. > Without him, we could not have operated this equipment. He not only had a > deep understanding of this amazing mechanism, even having built a version > out of a Mechano set, but more than once he created a solution to a > problem by making a unique fix over a weekend in his home machine shop. > > This December 15th the blow struck. Nathan said he wanted his machine > back. As far as we knew, it was not going to be in public view, but was > going to sit in a laboratory building that is part of his company: IV > (Intellectual Ventures), known to a lawyer friend of mind as a patent > trolling firm. > > Tim?s initial reaction was to prepare a one-page summary of suggestions > for safely starting the machine without breaking anything. Then he met > Mike, that head of the instrumentation shop of Nathan's laboratory. When > it became clear that Mike was highly competent and very proactive?he > joined our crew in hours of work mothballing the machine and even took > some precautions we had not thought of. Immediately after meeting Mike, > Tim produced a ten-page detailed document on start-up recommendations. I > should mention that Mike was hired away from the University of Washington, > where he was the head of a similar shop. > > I got to talk to Mike for about a half-hour while waiting for the roughly > 300 people to clear out after the last-ever demonstration. I got the > impression that Nathan delves in anything that interests him?ain?t money > nice?and that the patents he collects are licensed out to selected > companies that are doing things in the hoped for public good, e.g. climate > change, internet access in developing countries, etc. > > The day before the mothballing of the machine for shipment, a professional > video crew spent the day filming Tim explaining the machine. I believe > this crew are employees of our Museum though knowing the history of our > CEO, they could have been liberated from PGS. While a number of volunteers > were watching from a distance, I braved a carefully walking on the set > with my M even though the working crew appeared to have a still > photographer using a fearsome looking SLR. I walked with great care not to > get in anyone?s way and to freeze between when the director said ?action? > and when he said ?cut?. I was surprised to find myself tolerated. So I > found out later were the other observers. It was difficult shooting, > partly because of floodlights aimed in all directions. I shot over eighty > frames and finally selected six. I?ve no idea what that other still > photographer got. > > > Tim is fully visible in all but of these shots. He has a beard, a > pony-tail, and is wearing a red shirt. > I also took some shots the next day of the month-balling of the machine, > but haven?t yet looked at them. If any good, I?ll post a few later. > > > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004486.jpg.html > <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004486.jpg.html> > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004502.jpg.html > <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004502.jpg.html> > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004515.jpg.html > <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004515.jpg.html> > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004529.jpg.html > <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004529.jpg.html> > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004527.jpg.html > <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004527.jpg.html> > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004559.jpg.html > <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004559.jpg.html> > > > > Herbert Kanner > kanner at acm.org > > Question Authority and the authorities will question you. > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information