Just Clear, a UK home cleaning company, recently came across two of the world's first desktop computers.
Released with the Intel 8008 processor in December 1972, the Q1 model was manufactured by Q1 Corporation in the United States. With a design resembling a typewriter and a neon orange plasma display, the Q1 marked a significant, though now almost forgotten, milestone in computing history.
The discovery of the pair of old computers was made during a routine house cleaning. At first, not realizing their importance, the company reserved the machines for further research.
A significant finding
After several internet searches turned up little information, Just Clear founder Brendan O'Shea consulted an expert.
“Our teams find all kinds of items while cleaning the chambers daily, some with historical significance. But I never imagined we would find something so crucial to the field of technology and the history of computing,” Brendan said.
“I'm told these models are extremely rare, so finding a pair of them is beyond exciting. The computers were buried under a pile of boxes and we initially thought they were two nice pieces of computing history from the 1990s. 70 that we would perhaps find. We have deleted the data if it is not suitable for reuse and sent it to our e-waste stream. However, after consulting our advisors and conducting research over time, we realized “That, in fact, we had discovered two ultra-rare items, of which there are only three known to exist in the world today.”
The pair of computers was on display at a technology exhibition at Kingston University titled “Creating the Device Everything: Showcasing the Machines That Built the Future.” The exhibition included Atari, Sinclair ZX81, ZX Spectrum, Sinclair QL, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Amstrad, Commodore and first generation Dragon 32, and was curated by Paul Neve and Professor Islam Choudhury.
“Without Q1 Corporation there would be no PC, no Mac, no Apple or Android phones,” Neve said. “Early pioneers in the 1970s and 1980s laid the foundation for today's 'everything' device: the modern computer, which is so ubiquitous in everyday life. We depend on computers for our work, communication, productivity and entertainment, but Without the first pioneers, none of this would exist.”
Just Clear has yet to decide on the future of the two Q1s. They can be auctioned or sold privately.
