**Reader discretion advised: due to the graphic nature of this content**
At the IBM facility, you had skids with cardboard bins (a big open top box) about three feet high. In it you would place various items. Interface cards and motherboards in one. Cables in another. CRTs in a third, keyboards in a fourth and so on. Skids would come in wrapped in cellophane piled high with equipment. You would take each item off the incoming skid and separate it into it's main components. Screws would be flying as you dismantled each item and ripped out the interface cards that were easy to remove. I used to have a knack for spinning flat keyboards like the model M's into the keyboard bin to get the most key caps to fly off while still getting the keyboard into the bin. The heavier keyboards were thrown and arched into the bins because they were too heavy to spin. For those, I would try to see how high I could go so that the crashing sound was optimal. These would have been terminal keyboards.
It was a little game I played to make things interesting because it was mind-numbing work. Nothing was placed gently because things like interface cards would eventually be melted down for the precious metals. The only exception was CRTs. These were heavy and could explode. Those were placed in layers. We didn't actually do more than separate the incoming equipment and place them in the various bins. I imagine these got carted off to the niche recyclers that could break each item down further.
One time we had a brand new IBM 9370 mainframe come in because it fell over in the truck while being delivered. It looked to be in great shape but was scrapped because of the possible damage. The cost of this machine would have been in the 6 or 7 figure range. I did manage to "liberate" an internal vacuum cleaner that was part of that mainframe. I guess it was used to dust the interior occasionally? I don't know. I put a socket on it and used it when vacuuming my car.
Nothing was to leave the facility out the front door but being a poor student on a summer job, some of the old timers did let me leave with one computer. I was very grateful and used it as my home computer for school work for years after that. Wish I still had it but I did buy an IBM PC AT in the last little while to make up for my disposing of it several years ago.
At that time, it wad all junk and nobody even considered there being any value in it. It's funny that I write this on my IBM Model M SSK keyboard right now
My original one was the best I ever used and was the only thing I kept to this day.
, ahh well , one day
like much else in the room. It sort of reminds me of the 3277 display terminal Model 1, which has a 5" screen, but this one looks even flatter.
