Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
2 Collection
A primary aim of the Museum is to acquire original artifacts associated with the
development of Monash University's use of computer technology for both administra-
tive and teaching purposes. The collection has a wide variety of calculating and com-
puting material that reflects the changing technology used by staff and students over
the last forty years.
The University was given its charter to start a new institution in 1958 and the ac-
quisition of computing equipment was given an early priority. After long considera-
tion by a special committee, the University ordered a Ferranti Sirius computer from
the English company Ferranti Ltd. It was shipped from England and installed by No-
vember 1962. Further investigations revealed that were actually four different Sirius
computers at the current campuses of Monash at different times over the 1960s. These
four computers were located at different sites in 1962 with two Sirius computers at
the Melbourne Computer Centre operated by Ferranti Ltd, one at the Clayton campus
of Monash University, and one at a commercial research operation run by ICIANZ,
now called ORICA, at Ascot Vale. Through loan, donation and sales all four were
located at some point at Monash University. One of these machines managed to sur-
vive in storage at the Clayton campus and was transferred to the Museum at the Caul-
field campus in 2005. It is now a major exhibit in the permanent display. The
MMoCH Ferranti Sirius is displayed in a dedicated showcase and includes the 1000
word CPU and an additional 3000 word memory cabinet along with a suite of I/O
(input/output) equipment. Further information on the history of the Ferranti Sirius at
Monash University is available from an article by Barbara Ainsworth [4] accessed
from the Museum website [3].
The Ferranti Sirius was one of the larger items found around the campuses of
Monash for the Collection but other interesting items appeared out of storage. An
early calculating machine called The Millionaire had been housed in the Maths De-
partment and was donated to the Museum. The Millionaire was based on a design
created by the Frenchman Leon Bollee and patented in Germany in the early 1890s by
Otto Steiger. The design was further improved by Hans W.Egli in Switzerland, and
was manufactured in Zurich from 1893. All machines were given an individual identi-
fying number. They are built mainly of cast iron and brass and weigh about 33 kilo-
grams. Although once commonly used for mechanical multiplication in business,
there are now about only 22 examples remaining in Australia. The machine in the
MMoCH collection is numbered 913 and was probably produced during the period
1898-1900. For further reading on the Millionaire see John Wolff's Web Museum [5].
Others items in the collection reflect the teaching role of the university. This in-
cludes an example of the computer system which was used in the MONECS project.
In the late 1970s a school could only afford one computer, so how could 30 children
run a program with only one card punch machine and a one hour lesson period? The
answer was provided by an ingenious system developed by Monash University. The
class would write their programs on mark sense cards, and each deck could be run on
the MONECS computer in a few seconds. That way, every student had a chance to
run a program in a one hour lesson. The MONECS (Monash Educational Computer
System) scheme was a project administered by the Monash Computing Centre and
developed by Professor Cliff Bellamy and his associates as a teaching tool for
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