Allard's Computer Museum Groningen
The Bobcat
Ball Operated Binary Calculator And Tutor
Inventor: Pip Youngman
I lend this very interesting machine from Drs. T. Berends, Director of
School of Informatica Technology Groningen. It tells you exact how a
Binary System, a FlipFlop and a CPU works, so this is the startingpoint
of all computertechnology. That'ss why it is a very great add on for
this collection.
Thanks Trudy for the temporary donation!
The box
Overview
The label on the Bobcat
The Bobcat Instruction Manual
Page:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
The Bobcat Assembly Instructions
Page: 2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Pip Youngman, the
Inventor wrote about it:
The history of the Bobcat is a long and very strange story. First you
must
know that I am now 81 years, That I went briefly to school in the
thirties
and left in 1937 with no qualifications . And then came the war. So
this is
not a story of Universities and big firms but of low life and strange
escapades. In 1960 I was aHippie ( Before the word was invented) in
London's
Soho. A small computer firm had started up, their ambition to make a
machine
that could automate car park charges They hired Mark Dowson to do the
electronics and he asked me to do the Mechanics. That was the time of
the
time of the Mullard "Combi units" ... individual flip flops, and gates
, or
gates,Etc. All transistorised and potted in little oblong units with ten
pins. I built a 8 hole card punch, Mark did the electronics but the
Managing
director ran off with the funds !
Mark left. Two other directors came to the rescue and asked me to stay.
BUT
I had to do the electronics!. After a month of agony wading through the
Mullard bullshit I realised that this was just a rather badly designed
complex realay circuit. I swore that one day I would make something to
take
the mystery out of Electronics !
Jump foreword . That company had gone bankrupt and times had been hard
and
then 1963 found me living in a luxury flat in London's posh Chelsea. I
won't
explain now how that happend and I did not want to explain then. But it
looked if I would have to for at the point Britains "Great Train
Robbery "
happened and the police were searching Chelsea for people paying rent in
old notes. (It wasn't me!) but I had paid in old notes. To explain my
wealth
I decided to pretend that I was an inventor. To make it more realistic I
bought a drawing board and started to draw things. And so I drew up some
ideas for mechanical logic units..... And then forgot all about it.
Jump forward again. In 1966 I was designing advertising gadgets for
3M's. I
was livng a long way from work and so I often stopped off at a friends
flat.
These friends had children , the children had LEGO. Lego then was not
technical but they had started the train , Their leaflet said "You can
even
build a complete train layout in LEGO. "
I said " Balls, I will build a computer ! " Friends kept me to my
promise!
I remeberd the mechanical logic units, and finally built a multiplying
machine in LEGO.
Cambridge Consultants BV haerd of it and backed me to design a non lego
mechanical calculator.
I did so, adding division , addition and subtraction.But fate struck
again
when their master company got into difficulties and all new projects
were
cancelled. I shoved it under my bed and forgot about it. Come 1969 and
times were hard again. Iwas living on a boat in the Thames and working
as a
lorry driver. Then the Open University started. A friend told them of
my toy.
They asked to see it and ther and then decided that they wanted in for
their first technology course. So I gave up my lorry and became a
technician
at the OU ( Latter to become a Scientific Officer, very posh) Of course
the
device had to be completly redesigned for mass production ,and it got
the
name "Bobcat".
A Happy ending you would think. But fate had not finished with the
Bocat for
in 1971 the U.K had severe labour troubles, the three day week and power
shortages followed
EJ Arnolds, may they rot in hell, moulded all the bases with the power
fluctuating. They were thus of very poor quality. Enough were rescued
for
the O.U's needs but it killed the project for the general market. And
so was
the Bobcat born and so it died, But it has always had it's fans amongst
the
cognoscenti and now it is resurected beacuse I am now repairing one for
Essex University and if I can find another set of bases I could do one
for
you.!
Pip
The specs:
Inventor: Pip Youngman
CPU: FlipFlop
Speed: Depends of how fast YOU are!
Inputs: Calculating input and Counting input
Output: Countings and Balls :):)
Date: Unknown
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