Does anyone know what these are?

[mr_raptor_1]

I recently was given these antique Elliott Minilogs as my Grandfather found them and did not want them any more. I believe that they are some sort of logic gates for old computers but I could not find out much about them. Also, does anyone know what their value is as I thought about selling them on Ebay but decided against it just in case they were valuable or rare.

[Jurrunio]

Reddit is the better place to identify old stuff tbh

[Zando_]

Some sort of Logic Bricks? This looks like an older/less polished version: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/15537/Elliott-Automation-Driver-board-from-the-Arch-1000-Computer/

(seperate source, I literally just googled Elliot Minilog)

 

Wikipedia on the company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Brothers_(computer_company)

Also: http://blog.abodit.com/2010/03/elliott-803-early-computer/




Could defo be worth something to anyone who has access to one of the computers these went to, pretty sure spare parts would be very difficult to find. 

[TrigrH]

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Dhk9wHXfQMkC&pg=PA355&lpg=PA355&dq=Minilog+Elements+%26+their+Application&source=bl&ots=JTACNKh1Xd&sig=ACfU3U37L50uPwAg5Y-4NVyQ1lplOutdxA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjc_Y3n1NnnAhU_yDgGHW5HBVMQ6AEwC3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Minilog Elements %26 their Application&f=false

[Zando_]

Oho there's a Wikipedia page for the computer itself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_803

Can clearly see the minilogs lol:

EDIT: OH:

211 were made, apparently only 2 full ones still exist tho. If you reach out to the museums who have them who knows, they may be interested. Defo don't throw them away or dump them on eBay. 

[.Apex.]

I'd say they would be worth a lot to someone so keep them just in case, you know never if opportunity arises, these were extremely expensive back in the day and very rare.

"Over 200 Elliott 803 computers were delivered to customers, at a unit price of about £29,000 in 1960 (roughly equivalent to £673,000 in 2019)"

[.Apex.]

15 minutes ago, _Syn_ said:

I'd say they would be worth a lot to someone so keep them just in case, you know never if opportunity arises, these were extremely expensive back in the day and very rare.

"Two complete Elliott 803 computers survive. One is owned by the Science Museum (London) but it is not on display to the public. The second is owned by The National Museum of Computing (TNMoC) at Bletchley Park, is fully functional, and can regularly be seen in operation by visitors to that museum."

 

They're being operated in Museums, hell they'd probably need replacements at some point, or they already do since they're this rare, no clue how you would approach something like this, this wouldn't be the place to find an answer for such a thing

 

Along with other Elliott 803 users if you scroll down in the wikipedia page

[billhall]

I know these minilogs very well. They were logic gates made up with OC44 transistors encapsulated. I used them a lot about 55ish years ago. They ran on -12 volts (pnp transistors, germanium) and a +12 volt input bias via a high value resistor to ensure they turned off for a logic 0 input. They worked well and quite complex systems could be made although they took up lots of space and many pcb's. Happy days!  If only Arduino had been about then. They will be rare and I doubt there will still be any systems running now. Some of the systems that I made had to be updated after many years of use due to not being able to find any replacement Minilogs. Where were you 50 years ago when I needed some?