One of the six remaining functional Apple I computers is up for sale in an auction we can only describe as drool-worthy. In addition to the Apple I, which is expected to bring between US$260,000-$400,000, there is a working Apple Lisa, a working Altair 8800, a Pascaline calculator built by Blaise Pascal, and not one, but two Enigmas.
The auction is being held on May 25th, 2013, by Auction Team Breker in Cologne, Germany, the same house that sold an Apple I for $640,000 in December of 2012.
Apple I for Auction
(Click the image for a larger version)
As shown in the image above, this Apple I comes with a third party keyboard, a third party monitor, a third party cassette player, and the original manual that includes the Newton-themed original logo. Also, it works. There are approximately 50 known Apple I units still in existence, but there are only six known to work.
You can see more in a YouTube video posted by the auction house for this unit. Note that there is no sound.
But wait, there's more. This technology-themed auction also include a working Lisa, the first GUI computer sold by Apple, and the project that frustrated the late Steve Jobs enough to want to develop the Macintosh, a computer that would blow it out of the water.
Apple Lisa
(Click the image for a larger version)
If that's not enough, how about an Altair 8800? That's the device that inspired Bill gates and Paul Allen to create the original BASIC programming language, the product that launched Microsoft.
The Altair 8800 (You can tell it's a computer because of the font)
Our second favorite item in this auction has to be the Pascaline. Started in 1642 by Blaise Pascal (fun fact, this writer learned the PASCAL programming language in 1983 on an Apple II), this was the first mechanical calculator on the planet.
Pascaline
There also two Enigmas (two different models), 18th and 19th century automatons, an 1885 Edison Mimeograph (!!), and more than a hundred other items. Click through to the auction announcement for more.