Chanced upon this very interesting trivia in the Wired article on the new book by Chris Anderson (FREE):
Honeywell Kitchen Computer Advertisement
“Honeywell Kitchen Computer, priced at $10,600″
…
“the Kitchen Computer was aimed at housewives and featured integrated counter space. Those housewives would, however, require a programming course (included in the price), since the only way to enter data was with binary toggle switches, and the machine’s only display was binary lights. Needless to say, not a single Kitchen Computer is recorded as having sold.”
The text of the advertisement read (source: Wikipedia):
“Her souffles are supreme, her meal planning a challenge? She’s what the Honeywell people had in mind when they devised our Kitchen Computer. She’ll learn to program it with a cross-reference to her favorite recipes by N-M’s own Helen Corbitt. Then by simply pushing a few buttons obtain a complete menu organized around the entree. And if she pales at reckoning her lunch tabs, she can program it to balance the family checkbook. 84A 10,600.00 complete with two week programming course. 84B Fed with Corbitt data: the original Helen Corbitt cookbook with over 1,000 recipes $100 (.75) 84C Her Potluck, 375 of our famed Zodiac restaurant’s best kept secret recipes 3.95 (.75) Corbitt Epicure 84D Her Labaird Apron, one-size, ours alone by Clairdon House, multi-pastel provencial cotton 26.00 (.90) Trophy Room”
Hmmmm …
I have seen this at the Computer History Museum here – the tour guide spent quite some time on this one highlighting the very fact that none of these units were ever sold :)
LOL! What a useless shitcomputer. It doen’t even have a text display. Hilarious: http://valerieaurora.org/kitchen.html and http://bit.ly/8TcuZ7 …
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