Apparently, this place has been featured on "Mythbusters", but I can't seem to find the episode. It's full of surplus left over (and still coming in) from the very heavy research done at the atomic laboratory that Los Alamos was founded on. The Black Hole is in an old grocery store, and there's thousands of square feet of storage space, and it's floor to ceiling.
These photos will be in chronological order, and i'll do my best to recall what I saw.
As you walk up, the "store" is on the right, and what I can only guess was the parking lot of the grocery store is on the left. There's stuff outside too, most of the larger equipment that wouldn't fit inside. File cabinets, equipment racks, larger computers.
My first "What the F" moment of many. Where else do you just see bowling balls stacked?
You come to realize that not all of this came from the atomic laboratory, but it still comes from military surplus, or donations. Just stuff people don't want anymore, but someone else probably does.
The phrase "Everything but the kitchen sink"? This should give you an idea of what the place has. Not just one, but dozens of kitchen sinks."
I wanted to walk around the outside first, because I know going inside I will just spend hours looking at everything. There's a rough organization, but you can't just "window shop", you need to dig in and see what's buried underneath something new. Even though the weather out here is nice *every* day, it does rain, and none of these things outside are covered, and they will (and do) get rained on.
They just look like printers on a pallet, but it's the sticker on the front that makes them special. It reads "X-DIVISION PROPERTY - P.O. Box 1663 - LOS ALAMOS, NM 87545". The X-Division is the Applied Physics division of Los Alamos, responsible for the tactical application of nuclear physics (Weapons). The P.O. Box i'll explain lower. These printers came out in 1981, so while they're not WWII era, they're still pretty cool.
When atomic physics was becoming the big thing, universities and physicists around the country were having trouble communicating because of the distance. A request to the President requested space where research and development could take place and bring all of these researchers together. The empty, good-weather-year-round spot a few miles northwest of Santa Fe was selected, and named "Los Alamos". Due to the secret nature of the project, all mail coming in was to be addressed to "P.O. Box 1663, Santa Fe, NM". Los Alamos didn't exist. Anyone born at Los Alamos had that P.O. Box on their birth certificate. Drivers licenses had the P.O. Box on it, and numbers were used instead of names.
I know it's a Wang Labs terminal, one without a number pad which is interesting, but i know nothing else.
Plenty of computer racks, half-size and full-size. Some have cooling built-in, the Compaq ones were neat.
At first I thought this was a Mac 128k, but I doubt any of those would be found in a junkyard. It was a Mac SE, came out about three years after the original Macintosh. Still in decent condition, had no idea if it still ran.
Old hard drive, this probably held a few hundred kilobytes. I didn't check the capacity.
What appears to be an original manual from the first version of FileMaker (database app for Mac and Windows). I don't see a version number on it, so I think it's from 1.0
Looks like a Personal LaserWriter LS or NTR. So cool to see these things again
Down one of the main aisles. Shelving on the left, and mini-aisles on the right.
At the end of that same aisle, which turned right into a larger mini-aisle. Lots of flow-control stuff here.
Fluid and flow control valves. Look to be in almost-new condition.
Video switchers, effects generators and character generators. I would have loved to pick one of these up just to play with. So little time.
VCR, anyone?
Another "No idea what this is" but it looks damn important.
What look like frames for video arrays. Or diagnostic tools.
One of many shelves of books, catalogs, encyclopedias and manuals.
Motors, anyone?
I have no idea. Just...stuff...looks like relays.
They call it the Black Hole because everything goes in, and nothing comes out. I'd love to go back again, but I have no idea when, or what I would buy, or how I would get it home. Or who would take me that wouldn't be bored out of their mind.
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