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Tech Model Railroad Club Founded
In building 20 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), two men by the names of John Moore and Walter Marvin held the very first meeting of the "Tech Model Railroad Club." -
Peter Samson's Freshman Year at MIT
His first year being at the institution. The year that lead to it all. (Levy 1). -
EAM Room Discovered
Samson found the EAM room in building 26. EAM stands for Electronic Accounting Machinery. This room had many machines that basically were computers. (Levy 1) -
Samson Attended Freshman Midway
Freshman Midway was an event held on campus by all the different campus organization that MIT had. The one that caught Samson's eye, of course, was TMRC. -
First Encounter With Switchboards
The first time Samson came across switch boards is when he went into that room in building twenty and saw how all the wires crisscrossed under the tracks. At that moment, he decided he was going to not only figure out how they worked, but how he could recreate it himself.
https://www.wired.com/2014/11/the-tech-model-railroad-club/ -
Peter Samson Joined TMRC
In 1959, not only did Peter Samson join TMRC, he brought it to life. -
The PDP-1 and TX-0 come into play
Around this time people have only begun to hear about computers, let alone have them in their presence. TMRC and Samson first got their hands on these machines during this year.
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Obtaining Key To Clubroom
Members of the TMRC had to spend at least 40 hours working on the railroad before being granted a key to the clubroom. Samson had "joined on a Friday and by Monday he had a key" (Levy 1). He was determined and driven. -
TMRC Established Two Groups
In the club, there was two more specified groups that came to be over time. One group being the one that focused on the replica and historical aspects to the railroad, while the other group focused on the switch boards and functions of the train/railroad. These two groups were better established during this time. -
Term "Hack" & Other Vocab Came to Life
Terms were created by Samson and TMRC like "munged" equipment which means "mashed until no good" or "cruft" which means "garbage." Ultimately terms like that lead to the term "hack" which we use to this very day. Samson and the club defined hack as a project undertaken or a product built not solely to fulfill some constructive goal, but with some wild pleasure taken in mere involvement" (Levy 1). -
First Programming Course Offered
In spring, the freshman were offered MIT's very first course in programming. It was taught by John McCarthy who helped create a program on the IBM 704 (the huge computer at MIT). He was one of the few people who had hands on experience and knowledge on computers (Levy 1). -
TMRC & Samson Program TX-0 to Play Music
By using the bit technology, the TMRC and Samson found a way to program the TX-0 to play music based of the bits that the computer was programmed to recognize. They called it the "bit bach" program referring to Johann Sebastian Bach, whom of which music was played (Levy 1). -
TX-0 Was Introduced & TMRC Grew Interested
The TX-0 did not require the cards like the IBM-74. This fascinated the Tech Model Railroad Club and they began to hang around the machine at night when no one was watching. They were referred to as the "TX-0 hackers" because they changed their schedules and lifestyles around to spend as much time as possible with the new computer. -
Hacking the TX-0
Samson came up with ways to hack the TX-0 language system by converting Arabic numbers to Roman Numerals. Although not entirely for a greater purpose, the hard work and task accomplished was admirable. https://www.wired.com/2014/11/the-tech-model-railroad-club/ -
"Hacking Culture" Dated
Hacking culture dated to the year 1961, in which MIT got their first PDP-1. This system was worked on by TMRC and their club was known to be the ones who started "hacking culture" because they were the first "hackers." http://catb.org/esr/writings/hacker-history/hacker-history-3.html -
TMRC Became Center of MIT's AI Program
Leading into the early 1980's, the TMRC started and was the "nucleus" to MIT's growing Artificial Intelligence Program; Also known as "AI."
