CNN.com – Relics of computer history on auction block – Feb 21, 2005 — Christies didn’t make this news generally available to the computer press (from all I can tell) and thus the Silicon Valley rich boys with plenty of money were unaware. This tells me that the auction house is clueless. If I were a seller I’d be pissed.

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Computer geeks who love history have a chance to get their hands on rare documents and technical relics at “The Origins of Cyberspace” sale in New York this week, Christie’s auction house said.

Much of the material on offer might seem dry to the uninitiated but for those in the know, there are some gems.

Lots on offer include an early version of a data storage disc dating from 1951, weighing 5.5 pounds which could only hold about the equivalent of one paragraph of text.

Also on offer is a 1946 business plan for a company to design and build a “multi-purpose rapid computing machine of moderate cost.”

The plan was drawn up by pioneers J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, whose list of possible users of their machine is remarkably prescient, if limited.

via K. Burel