What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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APRIL 12-18, 2020 WHAT'S UP! 11 Computer Chronology BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette A s millions of Americans sit staring into computer screens — working, video chatting, playing games, buying groceries — there's a new exhibit waiting for the doors to reopen at the Rogers Historical Museum that couldn't be more perfect. It's titled "Personal Computers: Early 1970s to Late 1980s," and it is largely the collection of one man who was born before a microprocessor was a gleam in Dell's eye. Born three months before Pearl Harbor in Flint, Mich., Tony Militch started messing around with electronics when he was in junior high — "back in the '50s before transistors," he clarifies. "I never had a formal class in electronics or computers; it was all self-learned. Electronics was something I just wanted to do." And that interest, he adds, was the catalyst for his career. "Electronics got me into audiology, and audiology kept me in electronics." Audiology is defined as "the branch of science and medicine concerned with the sense of hearing." Militch started with a degree in elementary education, then a master's in deaf education, then a doctorate in audiology in 1971. "In 1971, I also bought my first computer," he says, sounding like someone remembering the first great love of his life. "They called it a 'mini- computer,' but it was like a big box, usually put in an equipment rack, and you could hardly lift it. And that was just the processor — no screens, none of that yet. "Shortly thereafter, microprocessors came about," he continues the story. "I started building those from kits, and as computers got small enough — and cheap enough — I was developing systems to test hearing. I was one of the pioneers in that area." Militch's goal was to work in research and development, and his timing was perfect. He moved into a new field called occupational audiology — testing workers for hearing loss caused by their jobs — and testing multiple people at once was key. "So I had kind of a market," he says modestly. "So in the late '70s and early '80s, I developed the first audiometers to test up to six people at a time. "I'm one of a few people in the country that is a computer engineer and audiologist — there are very few occupational audiologists," he adds. "I've designed circuit boards, I still write software, I'm developing a little team of people scattered throughout the country handing off stuff I do and focusing on research stuff. I've been an expert in the field since the late '70s, and now I'm 78 years old and still don't know how to spell 'retired.'" But Militch has been fighting cancer for some time, and he needed to find a home for his personal collection of vintage computers, some of them so rare they would fit fine in museums like the Smithsonian. Enter the Rogers Historical Museum. "There are some computer museums around the country, but I like the Rogers Historical Museum," says Collection captures continuum of technology An Automatic Send and Receive (ASR) is an electromechanical teleprinter, also called a teletypewriter. This model, manufactured from 1965 to 1976, was designed for office work, but is based on a more rugged unit originally built for the U.S. Navy. It has an internal punch tape reader, seen on the left of the machine, and used specific sized paper with holes punched along the edges. In the late 1970s the Rogers Police Department upgraded their computer system and installed an ASR at the station on Elm Street. (Courtesy Photo/Rogers Historical Museum) FAQ 'Personal Computers: Early 1970s to Late 1980s' WHEN — Scheduled to run through June 27; opening date remains undecided WHERE — Rogers Historical Museum COST — Free INFO — 621-1154 or rogers historicalmuseum.org ROGERS See Computers Page 40