Claude Kagan's Burroughs B205

Most recent revision date of this page, Sept 11 2020. Copyright 2020 Herb Johnson except for content where copyright is held by the authors. Claude Kagan was a 20th century computing pioneer and WWII veteran, with quite an interesting personal story. He was my neighbor and colleague for the last several years of his life. See the details of his history and legacy on my memorial Web page. - Herb

Introduction

On Sept 10 2020, Mike Loewen posted in a Vintage Computer Federation email list:

>>   [On eBay], The Burroughs B205 tape drive in South Carolina has been reduced to $500:
>>      This was originally part of Claude Kagan's B205 system. - Mike Loewen

The Ebay listing for Sept 10 2020 says:

VINTAGE BURROUGHS B205 CORPORATION ELECTRODATA COMPUTER DATA TAPE DRIVE
Starting bid: US $500.00 
[ 0 bids ] as of Sept 10 
Shipping:Free Local Pickup 
Wedgefield, South Carolina

Description: VINTAGE BURROUGHS B205 CORPORATION ELECTRODATA COMPUTER DATA TAPE DRIVE. 
this is not working sold as is for parts or repair
glass is broken in door
comes as shown, with 1 side panel
there are very few of these left
do not know if all parts are here
comes only with what is pictured
I have 2 units, but this auction is for 1 unit
thanks for looking
this is pickup or buyer arranges all shipping including loading
I am NOT able to help load

I learned from discussion with Mike, the listing is by (or on behalf of) Sharon Brewer, the widow of Stan Brewer, who obtained them from Claude Kagan many years ago. She told Mike, she's "trying to find a home for the 2 tape drives". Mike or I will be glad to forward to her, any serious interest. Bring your own truck and forklift. The tape drive is labled, "Electrodata, Magnetic tape storage unit, model 52800".

So, here' the background that Mike gave me, about Stan Brewer and his reflections on Claude Kagan. - Regards, Herb Johnson

Mike relates Stan's correspondence about Claude Kagan and his B-205

On Thu, 10 Sep 2020, Herb Johnson wrote to Mike:

Mike, was this literally part of Claude's computer? If so, what do you know of how it was separated from it? I maintain a memorial Web page to Claude and I'd like to add this story - if there is one, with your permission, etc. . Regards, Herb

Mike Loewen responds:

I had been in contact with the owner, Stan Brewer, for many years. He told me that Claude had given him two of the B205 tape drives, along with the Flexowriter from the B205 system. Sadly, Stan passed away on March 6, 2019. I've included the relevant portions of some of our email for you to use. - Mike Loewen

Date: Fri, 04 Dec 2009  
From: Stan Brewer  
To: Mike Loewen  
Subject: Re: Oh no! RESISTORS burns down

Mike - I had just talked to Claude a couple of days ago. I saw some articles on the Internet stating that the Flexowriter had been destroyed too. That is not true, Claude gave me the B-205's Flexowriter at the same time that he gave me two of the B-205 Tape Drives. - Stan

Date: Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:41:49 -0500
From: Stan Brewer  
To: [Yahoo group B205]

Subject: Re: [B205] Re: The Barn has burned

Yes, Claude is quite a guy. He certainly did a lot for and with the RESISTORS. I still say their story would make a good movie (at least for us geeks).

One of our members purchased one of the two B-205 Consoles and a Tape Drive from Claude. Shortly later, and without knowledge of that, I discovered the barn. Claude gave me two more of the B-205 tape drives and the Flexowriter, that was used in part of the boot up procedure. The other Console had been donated to the Boston Computer Museum. [That] was transferred to a west coast Computer Museum, when the Boston Museum went out of business.

Not only were there Computer and Automation related items in the barn, but Claude showed me a 1860's Slide Projector, that was run from 3 kerosene lamps(to minimize flicker). He also had slides for the projector from the Civil War. - Stan

Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:54:05 -0400
From: Stan Brewer  
To: [Mike Loewen]
Subject: Re: Stan Brewer Intro.

Jim London got the console from Claude's B-205, then later he sold it. :(

I was thinking about the RESISTORS tv movie being the "bored troubled youth get tured around" story, so that it would have general appeal. And of course all the hardware for us computer geeks. - Stan

[I believe Jim London was a SciFi prop collector. - Mike]

Mike shared with me some 2008 photos, likely of the tape drives Stan acquired at the time.- Herb
One of the two drives
Interior of the bottom
Interior of the top
more of the bottom interior

Here's photos from the for-sale, apparently at Stan's location, with permission
look at some relays and tubes
side look with the panels off
broken glass but that's repairable

Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011  
From: Stan Brewer  
To: [Yahoo group B205]
Subject: [B205] The Barn's B-205 console.

Yes it was. Now with the barn burned down, I guess I can tell the story. Claude was running out of room in the barn and wanted to make sure the console was in good shape. (You would not believe how packed it was in there.) So he got a neighbor to store it for him. The neighbor rented one of those mini storage buildings and they put the console in there. Now with the computer gone, I guess he has no more use for the console. I'll check with a friend and get the neighbors name and phone number is you would like. - Stan

In a message dated 3/13/2011 Stan Brewer writes:

Claude told me that the only time they could fire up their B-205 in the barn was in mid winter, and even then they had to open the windows to let the heat out. He was the only residential power customer in New Jersey with 3 phase 240V power.

If any of you don't know the story of the R.E.S.I.S.T.O.R.S. I would suggest searching and reading about them. Lots of those high school kids went on to greatness. One even started a little company called CISCO. It still amazes me how much apathy they showed towards saving the B-205. - Stan

Date: Wed, 20 May 2015  
From: "Stan Brewer" 
To: [Yahoo group B205]
Subject: Re: [B205] Claude Kagan's B205

Thanks Mike [Loewen] for that great picture. I have the two B-205 Tape Drives on the right. Claude kept the one remaining drive so that the machine would be bootable. The B-205 read a paper tape to load a driver for the Magnetic Tape drives and continued to boot from them. I am so glad the PDP-8 was rescued! I know it was Claude's wishes that his collections be preserved. The B-205 he had, had two Consoles. A LIS fan got one of the consoles and one of the tape drives. The other console went to the Computer Museum in Boston. When it went under, the console was transfered to the Computer [History] Museum at Moffet in California.

{Herb's note: the PDP-8 ended up with the Vintage Computer Federation where it was restored by David Gesswein in 2015. See my Kagan Web page for more info. The photo was cribbed from Gesswein's Web site and is a 1970ish photo with Peter Eichenberger. Dave's showed the newly restored PDP-8 at the VCF-East 10 event. ]