Personal HP
Stories
revised Oct. 30, 2005
On this page I share various personal stories of my experiences
with HP. The stories are generally arraigned in
chronological order but there are some overlaps of time. I
wrote all of these in a short time frame and plan to edit and
expand as needed in the near future. In some cases I put
some things to jog my memory when I get back to this.
My first experience with HP test
equipment: I graduated from high school in May of
1972 and immediately went to Bessemer State Technical College to
work on a two-year degree in electronics. I had heard of
the Hewlett-Packard Company but knew little about it. At
school I used various surplus pieces of HP test equipment
including the HP200CD, HP608D, various oscilloscopes including
the HP130CR, HP120AR, and an HP170A. I remember the HP170A
was very heavy and had a calibrated sweep expander down to 20 ns
per division. I was intrigued to use that time resolving
ability to measure the speed of light. I set up experiments
to measure the propagation delay in cables thus confirming the
speed of light after allowing for the propagation factor in the
cables. In the microwave labs I remember some HP equipment
but do not remember model numbers -- it would most likely
have been an HP616. I developed a high appreciation of
the HP equipment noting that it was solid, durable, and worked
exceptionally well. This equipment was obtained through the
surplus market and sometimes needed repairs. I gained
experience making repairs and in the process learned a lot about
how to build solid test equipment.
HP35 scientific calculator: I remember
reading several magazine articles in early 1972 about this new
calculator and dreamed of owning one. At that time the only
calculation equipment I had was a slide rule. But the $395
price tag was an order of magnitude beyond my reach at that
time. In 1974 when I entered Auburn University to work on a
degree in electrical engineering I saw an HP35 that a dorm mate
had. He gave me a number of demonstrations of it and I
continued to dream of owning one. At that time my only
calculation tool was a slide rule. As far as I know I was
the last person at the university to use a slide rule as a
primary calculation instrument. Everyone else had a
calculator. Most of the calculators were made by TI, Casio,
and others as these were relatively cheap. There were very
few HP35 calculators around at that time. I knew I needed a
calculator but could not afford one. Many years later in
2003 I purchased two working HP35 calculators on ebay. It
is interesting to operate these primitive machines and think back
what a marvel they were in 1972. I bought these primarily
to add to my huge collection of HP test equipment but also to
satisfy a yearning to own one I had many years ago.
Time shared basic: My first experience
with a computer was in 1974 when I was at Auburn
University. The engineering school had an HP2000 time
shared BASIC computer system using about a dozen teletype
machines. The computer was an HP2116B. I
learned to program the computer using BASIC and we used existing
programs stored on the computer for doing simulations of
electronic control systems. In 1975 the system was upgraded to an
HP3000 system. The noisy and clunky teletype machines were
replaced with video monitors and the system was much faster.
HP25 scientific programmable calculator: I
was attending Auburn University working on a degree in electrical
engineering. My only calculation equipment was my slide
rule and a four function calculator. I dreamed of owning an
HP calculator but had little money. When I read an
advertisement for the newly announced HP25 in 1975 I knew that
this was going to be my calculator. My father bought me
this calculator for Christmas. I was not familiar with
Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) but I knew that mastering this was
the key to success so I carefully and methodically went through
the manual cover to cover working every example and mastered the
operation. It paid off. Thirty years later I still
punch equations into my various HP RPN calculators without a
moment's thought. RPN is truly the most natural way to
solve problems.
HP302A wave analyzer: First some
background information. I had used a wave analyzer (a.k.a.
tuned voltmeter) while at Auburn University while I was working
on a degree in electrical engineering. For those not
familiar with this, a tuned voltmeter (or wave analyzer as HP
called them) measures signal amplitude around a very narrow band
pass. The center frequency is manually tuned. This is
essentially a manually tuned spectrum analyzer. I am 99.9%
sure the instrument we used in a laboratory exercise for a
class relating to Fourier series (decomposing a complex waveform
into its component parts) was an HP302A. It was around 1977 and
we had been given an assignment to calculate the Fourier series
for a half wave rectified sine wave. The instructor set up
the equipment and asked us what amplitude should the instrument
indicate at the fundamental. I only had to multiply the
sine wave amplitude he gave us by the factor that I had pre
worked using my HP25 calculator. He tuned the instrument to
the fundamental frequency and my answer was confirmed by the
meter indication. He then asked us for the amplitude of the
second harmonic. Again I had the answer with a quick
calculation on my HP 25. This continued with the third
harmonic. Then the instructor asked the class, "Are
you going to let Ken do all the work? Somebody else give me
an answer." In 2000 I bought and restored and HP302A
for my collection. It is a joy to use.
HP80 financial calculator: Even though my
father was an economist he had a great appreciation of the
technical quality of the Hewlett Packard company. I never
knew how in his position that he could know enough to have the
high respect that he had. He purchased an HP80 shortly
after it became available and used it a lot for over 25 years
before I inherited it. It still works perfectly to this
day. In the 1980s he gave serious consideration to an HP
computer system for his office but had to go with another company
that bid a lower price.
HP Journals: When I began my first
engineering job in February, 1979, my boss informed me that
reading the HP Journal was required. My boss had a very
high appreciation of HP and always marveled at the very clever
solutions HP engineers found to difficult problems. He
loaned me numerous recent issues and I read them all and realized
that this was an excellent publication. I really liked the
discussion of the pros and cons of various approaches before HP
engineers settled on the final approach. I have always been
a strong believer that the key to engineering is mathematics so
the mathematical discussions were very interesting. The
picture and brief bio of the engineers involved with each
instrument added the final touch. I could easily picture
myself doing the same kind of work and seriously considered
sending HP my resume a few years later. I began a
subscription to the HP Journal. Years later when my then
boss was nearing retirement he asked if I wanted to take over his
collection of HP Journals. He knew that I cared and would
appreciate them. He could not bear to throw these treasures
in the trash. I of course said yes. There were many issues
from 1950 up until the mid 1980s although there were significant
gaps of missing issues. Reading the vintage issues was very
interesting and I read and re read many of them. Years
later these would guide me in building a collection of vintage HP
instruments.
Beginning around 2002 I searched on ebay for HP Journals and was
able to obtain a complete collection from the inception in 1949
up until the early 1990s. A few issues are photocopies but
the bulk are originals. I also have most issues up to the
last one in Nov. 1998. Some are printouts from the archives
on the HP website. There are only about a half dozen issues
(mainly in the 1991 to 1993 time frame) I do not have at present
and it is just a matter of time before I find those.
HP41C scientific programmable calculator:
Early in 1979 when I was now working as an electrical engineer,
an HP instrument sales person stopped by the company. I
asked him if he knew anything about whether HP was going to
introduce a new calculator as it had been a while since a major
calculator had been introduced. I was now
prepared to purchase a top of the line unit. He told me to
wait for a few months and that I would be very pleased.
Sure enough, later that year the HP41C was announced and I
immediately placed a direct order with HP to purchase one.
Once again, demand far exceeded the ability of HP to supply them
and I received numerous notices that shipping would be delayed,
delayed again, and delayed again. I was finally beginning
to see HP41Cs in stores and decided that the fastest way to
obtain one would be to cancel the order with HP and buy one
locally. So I checked the cancel order box on the most
recent delayed shipment post card I had received and mailed it to
HP. About a week later I received a phone call from
HP. The lady told me that the computer had scheduled the
shipment of the HP41C to me for next week and that
there was no way they could stop the
computer. (I still remember that well as it
was scary. The phrase, "... there was no way they
could stop the computer," kept ringing in my mind. It
reminded me of some science fiction movies where a computer ran
amok.) She said that I could simply mark "refused" on
the package and that HP would pay for return shipment. I
responded that I would definitely keep it as that is what I
wanted and had been waiting for. Shortly afterwards the
calculator and three memory modules arrived. I spent many
hours mastering the calculator's many functions. The
programming ability was better than anything I had ever seen and
I wrote many programs for doing numerical analysis. This
calculator was really my first computer. I even
wrote what would later be called a spreadsheet for it
to do comparitive economic analysis. Very clunky by
today's standards but it did the job. At that time this
was powerful -- I had no other way of doing it.
I added a card reader and the thermal printer to make a complete
system. The thermal printer has a very amusing story --
this really happened as unbelievable as it sounds -- I have not
embellished anything. I had wanted a thermal printer but
the $350 price tag was just too steep for me. I had ordered
some extra magnetic cards for the card reader from an electronics
store in California. When the package arrived it was
unusually large and heavy considering that the items I ordered
were all feather weight. I opened the package and there
was the HP thermal printer I had wanted. I
checked the invoice and it was not listed. I was charged
only for the magnetic cards and a few other small items I had
ordered. Also, I had not received the magnetic cards I had
ordered. In checking over some other things I found out
that there was only one digit difference in that stores numbering
system between the magnetic cards and the thermal printer.
Obviously, they had made a mistake. My thought was to call
them and offer to buy the thermal printer at a discount since it
would cost them time and money to have it returned. I called and
the first person I talked to quickly informed me that they had a
no return policy. I told him that a mistake had been made
and that I wanted to purchase the unit at a fair discount.
He then told me that they do not make mistakes -- that if I
ordered something then that is what I received. This
conversation was going nowhere. Finally, he transferred me
to the stock room and I talked to the stock room manager.
Once again I explained the situation and his response was that he
was very sorry for the mistake and since I did not receive the
printer then he would send me one right away -- now I am about to
have two printers! At this point I just about did not know
what to say as I could not believe the total stupidity of this
phone conversation -- this was supposed to be real simple.
I quickly told him no, no, no. I explained again and this
time he understood and responded that he would send someone to
pick it up. Again, I am just shocked -- he is in California
and I am in Alabama. We could make no further progress so
he transferred me to another manager. This person finally
had at least some intelligence. I explained the situation
to her and she agreed that it was a good idea for me to purchase
the unit at a discount. She said that she would have to
discuss this with another manager and call me back. Just
when I think that things are finally getting better, they get
worse. About an hour later she called me back and offered a
$10 discount. Again, I just can not believe what I am
hearing on the phone. I told her that return shipping would
be more than that and that the discount was going to have to be
more substantial. After some discussion she agreed to give
me a $100 discount. So, I bought the printer for about $200
considering their discount price and the further discount I
received. I probably could have just kept the printer and
not made the phone call and they would never have figured it
out. But I am a fundamentally honest person who lives by
the motto,
The secret to sleeping well at night
is to have during the day, done everyone right.
In around 1980, I called the HP calculator technical support
number to ask some question concerning the HP41. The HP
employee I talked to was very helpful and provided the
information I needed. Then he had a question for me.
He asked if I was having any trouble purchasing batteries for the
HP41. He continued by telling me that he had received
numerous phone calls from people who could not find the batteries
in local stores and he had no idea what to tell them. I
told him that the batteries used in the HP41 were camera
batteries and were readily available in any store that had a
camera section. The batteries would not be found in the
regular battery section. He thanked me for this
information. I thought it was interesting that here I was
providing information to HP about their product. I have
always thought that HP had made a mistake in the design of the
HP41 by using N cells (a small special cell for cameras) instead
of the more practical AA or AAA cells. Perhaps N cells are
better able to the peak load current for the optional card
reader. Perhaps someone in marketing had specified the size
of the calculator such that the more practical cells would not
fit -- never let marketing do engineering.
I am writing this in 2005 and the HP41C calculator still works
perfectly after nearly 26 years of service and I continue to use
it and even program it on occasion. I long ago quit using
the card reader, printer, and other accessories as personal
computers taken over those tasks. But I still have these
items in my collection and may get them to work again for old
time's sake. I recently purchased an HP41C on ebay just
so I could have one at home and at my office without having to
carry one back and forth.
Reverse engineering using an HP3000
computer: This is an interesting story that I am
very proud of. The only connection of HP to the story is
that an HP3000 computer was used for the extensive
calculations. In 1983 I was working as engineering manager
at PBR Electronics in Athens, Alabama. I had been an
engineering co-op there while attending Auburn University in the
1970s. One difficult job that I inherited from the previous
engineers who had retired was finding a solution to building a
magnetic amplifier subsystem for the HAWK (Homing All the Way
Killer) anti-aircraft missile. For those not familiar with
them, a magnetic amplifier to vary the saturation level in an
iron core thus varying the conduction of alternating current
(typically 400 Hz). Magnetic amplifiers are extremely
robust and if not destroyed outright, will continue to operate
after a nuclear blast. Raytheon had always built these
previously but this work had now been set aside for small
business. The problem was that the drawings were incomplete
and critical resistor values were missing. I called the
project office at the Missile Command and talked to an engineer
who confirmed that the government did not have this information
and gave me a contact at Raytheon. I knew that Raytheon was
not happy with us getting the contract and would probably not be
helpful. But for the record I had to call and sure enough
was basically told to go jump in a lake. So here we were
stuck with a government contract to make something for which
there were no complete drawings available. I thought for a
while and realized that there was a HAWK training facility at Red
Stone Arsenal and they would very likely have one of these
amplifier units. With access to this I could make external
resistance measurements on the potted amplifier assemblies that
would make it possible to deduce the correct resistor
values. I called the Missile Command and explained this to
the contract specialist. He agreed and arraigned for us to
visit the facility. I took our best ohmmeter and made every
permutation of resistance measurements I could. The
magnetic cores and resistor networks were encased in a black
potting material so direct measurements of the resistor
values was not possible. I wrote a program in HP BASIC
to search every possible combination of resistors for the network
until a close match was found to my external measurements.
Our company computer was an HP3000. Interestingly, the
resulting data sets had a Gaussian distribution with the maximum
value being the most probable resistor value for each set.
We used this data for each resistor value in the network and
built a prototype which worked exactly to the specification it
had to meet. Thus, we went to production. As this was
being wrapped up I returned to my previous employer in Birmingham
so my fellow engineer and friend, Julio (known affectionately as
the wild man from El Salvador), inherited my work.
Some weeks later he called me to ask a question and to tell
me a funny story. He told me that none of the production
units worked at all. When he traced the prototype I built
he discovered a discrepancy between how I wired the system and
the schematic diagram the production units were built to. I
had crossed the windings of one of the transformers. The
production units worked fine if that same winding was
crossed. How did I know to cross that winding? I had
not realized that I had done that but told him that I knew how
magnetic amplifiers were connected and probably subconsciously
corrected the error that was on the schematic. The funny
story he told me was that Raytheon found out that PBR was having
great success in building these units and had also won a contract
to build some. They had not built any of these in many
years and the original people were all gone. They too ran
into the same problem with not knowing what the correct resistor
values for the network were. Raytheon called PBR to inquire
about this and the president of PBR told them that for $50,000 he
would tell them. They did not pay and were not informed of
the resistor values (and also of the wiring error on their
schematic) that had been designed by their engineers may years
previously.
An example of a simple HP solution to a difficult
problem: Around 1995 I was working on a design of
a new flame ionization detector (FID) for my employer. For
those not familiar with this, an FID is used to measure for the
presence of certain chemicals that have been separated in time
using gas chromotography (GC). Certain chemicals if present
will show up at a specific time in the GC cycle. The
chemicals are detected by burning the effluent from a GC column
in a hydrogen flame and using an electrically biased pickup
to instrument ions released in the burning process.
The pickup has to be biased at some voltage relative to the
flame thus requiring the electrometer to operate at a large
offset from ground. This requires expensive isolation
amplifiers to remove the offset. I was considering ways to
eliminate the isolation amplifier but everything I tried clearly
failed on paper as any electronics I could conceive of would not
have the required ultra high isolation resistance (generally in
the 10^14 ohm range). I encountered an HP5890 GC that had
an FID detector installed. With much curiosity I took the
cover off to see how HP did their FID electronics. The
exact moment the cover was removed I saw immediately how HP did
it. They had used the exact approach that I had figured out
but had a very clever implementation that very simply solved the
ultra high isolation resistance problem that had eluded me.
I kept looking at what HP had done with amazement and
disappointment that I had not figured that out. It should
have been obvious to me as I had wound that very kind of
transformer that HP used to solve the problem. This is just
one of countless examples of how HP engineering transformed
seemingly unsolvable problems into simple and cost effective
solutions. Anytime I encounter a challenging engineering
problem I ask myself the question, "How would an HP engineer
do this?" And I find the solution and people think I
am a genius. There is more to the HP Way than just
management.
How myself and company beat HP in an instrument
competition: This is an interesting story of how
I used my knowledge of the HP way of engineering to develop
a device that enabled the company I work for to triumph over HP
in an instrument competition.
First a little background. The company I work for sells
specialized instruments for measuring trace amounts of chemical
warfare agents. HP tried to sell its gas chromatograh
systems into this market but was having limited success. I
think the main problem was that this market sector was just too
small for HP to justify the expense of pursuing it with
zeal. There was no doubt in my mind that HP had superior
systems, electronics, and software. However, those were not
optimized for this special market like our clunky equipment
was. The equipment that the company I work for makes is
very clunky and would have HP engineers rolling in the floor with
laughter. However, our equipment does address the
specific needs of the market.
This was in the summer of 1999. The government arranged
for a long test to see how our instrument, HP's instrument,
and another company's instrument (they dropped out of the
competition) would work measuring trace amounts of three
different chemical agents simultaneously over many weeks.
This is a very difficult task for any instrument because
optimizations for one chemical agent make the instrument less
sensitive to the others. The instrument would have to be
very sensitive to all three simultaneously. Our in-house
tests showed that on good days we could meet the specification
but we had little margin for less than perfect days.
The problem was compounded by having to locate the equipment at
one place and run long lines of heated Teflon tubing to transport
an air sample to the instrument from another location.
Further, one of the chemicals could not be transported down the
lines and had to first undergo a chemical conversion to create a
derivative chemical that would transport. But one of the
other chemical agents was not compatible with this derivative
process and would have to be transported via a separate
line. So, two lines were required to transport the three
chemical agents. This is just the beginning of the
problem. These two lines had to converge into the sample
inlet of our instrument and precise sample flow for each line had
to be maintained so that a specific volume of air was sampled
through each line in a specified time. Otherwise there
would be no way to calibrate the instrument. The usual way
to accomplish this would be to use a flow controller in each
line to regulate flow. However this will not work
because the chemicals will tend to stick to the flow controller
inner surfaces thus spoiling any hope of chemical
calibration. We did use a single flow controller on the
outlet of our instrument to the vacuum pump which pulled the air
sample (the desired chemicals are captured by our instrument and
do not appear in the outlet). The problem was how to
regulate precise sample flow in two separate lines with varying
restrictions with a single flow controller downstream of where
the lines converged. Think about this for a while -- there
is no way to do it.
This was a critical problem to solve if we were to have any
chance in this competition. Fundamentally it was
impossible. I put on my HP thinking cap and in the classic
HP engineering style transformed an impossible problem into a
simple solution. I realized that we could put a heated
valve (heated so chemicals would not stick to the surface) in
each line and operate each line one at a time repeatedly during
the period of time our instrument collected air samples.
Thus, the flow through each line would be precisely regulated by
the sample flow controller for a specific time and our instrument
could collect all three chemicals with precision. The key
was that by alternating the valves at a sufficient rate and
proportion, a precise effective simultaneous flow could be
achieved in each line. I proposed this concept and our
chemists worked out the specific details. The device worked
great and gave us the competitive edge we needed. We
actually got a patent on this device (6,640,654, Variable Split
Sampler for Air Monitoring). The difficulty and extreme
torture in the patent was translating the operation into the
required legalese. That was much more difficult than making
the device work. The biggest disappointment was that the
formal drawings of the device fell through a crack and the
drawings in the patent are very ugly hand sketches.
I think HP addressed the problem by using a dual instrument so
that no convergence of samples was required. We could have
used two instruments but that would have made the total cost
prohibitive. Our device gave us a significant cost
advantage. Our technical advantage came from a
specialized detector known as a PFPD (pulsed flame photometric
detector). We acquired a license from the inventor in
Israel to manufacture this detector and it features both
high sensitivity and selectivity. It is an extension
of the traditional FPD (flame photometric detector) and works by
repeated explosions using hydrogen of the effluent from the GC
(gas-chromatograph) column. Different chemicals burn at
different times in the explosion and a high speed data
acquisition system with time slicing can be used to further
separate chemicals that would otherwise be simultaneously
detected in the traditional FPD that HP used. With
more technically advanced electronics and software signal
processing, HP had better sensitivity than our normal FPD
instrument. However, the PFPD detector had the sensitivity
and with additional chemical selectivity was more immune to false
alarms than a pure FPD could ever be no matter how
good. This was our technilogical edge. I designed the
electronics and wrote the embedded firmware for our
PFPD and it has seen good sales by our parent company.
Although HP did well in this contest considering the difficult
challenge, our system performed better and had cost
advantages. Our many years of experience in this specialized
sector paid off. In fairness to the small group of
individuals at HP who I know worked very hard on this contest,
our victory was really due to the fact that this market sector is
just a bit small for HP to justify the resources that would
enable them to capture it. We would for sure have lost the
contest both technically and on cost if we had been up against HP
at its best. As of this writing in 2005, Agilent is still a
competitor but the company I work for continues to maintain the
majority share of the market.
HP141S Oscilloscope: This was my very
first piece of HP test equipment. This piece had been
retired from service at the company where I work and was on its
way to the land fill in late 1999 because it did not work
properly. I could not bear to see such a fine instrument
end in such a brutal way so I asked to take it. The problem
it had was an intermittency in the horizontal sweep. I took
it home and cleaned it up to look just like new in my shop.
I acquired manuals for the scope and tried to locate the
problem. As I worked on the scope more and more looking for
the problem the problem occurrence became more rare. I
finally traced the problem to a dirty contact on the plug-in
horizontal time base unit.
The collection starts: It was early in the
year, 2000, and I was very proud to have and use the HP141S scope
and thought that I ought to have more old HP equipment. I
studied my collection (then very incomplete) of HP Journals and
read articles about vintage equipment I wanted to own. The
HP8405A Vector Voltmeter really caught my attention and I
discovered a brand new one still sealed in the box at Fair Radio
Sales for about $300. I quickly bought that. I liked
wave analyzers and needed one for some work I was doing so I
bought an HP302A and HP310A wave analyzer from Fair Radio
Sales. Both needed some repair and adjustment as well as a
serious cleaning to remove an accumulation of cigarette
tar. Most of the precision capacitors in the HP310A were
open so I had to rebuild the correct capacitance with a
combination of capacitors in my shop. After a lot of
enjoyable effort both units worked like new. Next I added
an HP334 Distortion Analyzer. I bought an HP500A frequency
meter with a low serial number (around 140) and restored it to
brand new condition. Over the next year and a half the
collection slowly grew with acquisitions purchased at electronic
flea markets. In the fall of 2001 I joined ebay and found
numerous treasures that I could not find anywhere else. At
first my interest was to collect a number of vintage pieces that
I could restore and use in my work. Around 2002 I began to
entertain thoughts that I should have a museum as well.
Thus, I began accumulating numerous vintage pieces. My goal
is to restore everything to like new cosmetic and functional
condition. I do not have a good count of the individual
pieces of equipment but I estimate that it is well over 200.
How two competitors became friends: This
is the story of how two people who had been ebay foes became
close friends once they realized they were on the same
team. The story begins in 2003 when I found very stiff
competition in bidding on ebay for some vintage HP items.
Sometimes I won, sometimes he won. No doubt the seller was
a big winner as the price for an item went very high. In
the fall of 2003 I won an HP200I oscillator from Mr.Vanek in New
York. I mentioned my hpmuseum website and Mr. Vanek liked
it very much. Soon thereafter he had a vintage HP610B
UHF oscillator for auction. I bid a very good price
thinking that I would probably be the only bidder or if anyone
else bid it would not be much. At the last second my now
friend, Marc Mislanghe (who retired from HP France), placed the
winning bid. Mr. Vanek had been rooting for me to win and
emailed me that he was surprised that someone would beat me at
the last second. He asked if I knew the fellow that beat
me. I responded that we had been in a number of bidding
wars but there were no hard feelings about loosing. Mr.
Vanek responded that he was impressed that I did not hold any
hard feelings and also told me that I should contact Marc because
Marc was a collector of vintage HP items too. So I sent
Marc a brief email and gave him a link to my hpmuseum web
site. Marc was very impressed and we immediately became
very good international friends. We exchanged items that we
had duplicates of but that the other needed. Marc explained
that his goal was both a physical and virtual HP Museum.
That is the same goal I have. Marc sent me a huge package
of HP Journals that I was missing and I sent Marc a variety of
items he was missing. Marc also sent me an extra copy of
the "Wrapping it Up" issue of the HP employee magazine
called Measure. I read that issue cover to cover twice
reliving HP history for my self. In some cases where Marc
wanted an item on ebay and the seller would not ship to France, I
won the item for him and shipped it myself. We coordinate
our bidding on ebay so that we never bid against each
other. We work out in advance who will win the item.
In the spring of 2004 I Americanized the English in a fantastic
PowerPoint presentation Marc had created outlining his plan for a
museum. Marc honored me with a telephone call to thank
me for my efforts. Marc has sent me pictures of his work on
a real museum and plans for his virtual museum. I can tell
everyone now that this will be a fantastic web site when it is
up. I will promptly post a link to it. Marc is
typical of every HP employee I have encountered. He has a
strong belief in the founding HP principles and a high respect
for the company.
Relations with HP employees: I have had
several inquiries from HP employees concerning the restoration of
vintage HP oscillators and other HP equipment they won on
ebay. Generally, they first found me via ebay and then I
refer them to my web site. All were very impressed with the
site. As my web site gains popularity I will probably
receive a lot more inquiries. What strikes me about every
current or former HP employee I have encountered is a very strong
belief and dedication to the company unlike any other company I
have ever known. HP is not just employment, it is a way of
life -- again, the HP Way is more than just about
management. The employees I have worked with were quite
interested in the history of the company and felt that they
should own some of the history. I am always glad to provide
historical and technical information.
Although I have never worked for HP I feel as though I have the
HP spirit. In the early 1980s I almost sent HP my
resume. Perhaps I should have. Interestingly, every
company I have worked for clearly showed some effort at mimicking
The HP Way (with varying degrees of success or not) and used HP
equipment so I have never been far from HP. Even
my basement shop is full of HP equipment. HP is
omnipresent. There is hardly anyone anywhere in the civilized
world that is not fairly close to some piece of HP/Agilent
equipment whether it is a computer, printer, or test
equipment. While I am restoring a vintage HP oscillator I
almost feel that Bill is watching over me with joy.
Links to other web pages on this site
http://www.kennethkuhn.com/hpmuseum This link takes you to
the main HP Museum page.
http://www.kennethkuhn.com This link takes you to
the main page of my personal web site where you can access a
variety of information.