20 Comments

    • It’s real handy they put that thing on wheels. It’s a Harwell Dekatron computer. Oddly enough, I have a Dekatron on my desk right now. They are pretty nifty. They’ve come a long way.

      Prior to vacuum tubes decade counters looked like this:
      https://photos.app.goo.gl/w2P4988V19DZnhuF8
      That one’s in the score board of a 1930’s era pinball machine sitting in my lab.

      The ones in the Harwell are these guys:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeS3xuuRBV4

      The dekatrons are on the bottom. (Basically a vacuum tube that can count from 0-9.) Nixie tubes on top for display…

      Here’s mine:
      https://photos.app.goo.gl/FvSBfygD9PxSME84A

      In the 80’s decade counters looked like this:
      https://www.tinkercad.com/things/95kd7yF1h4E-digital-fundamentals-j-k-decade-counter

      Now I can’t show you a brand new one without an electron microscope.

      • SC law legalizes pinball for youth, ending decades-old prohibition
        South Carolina Daily Gazette via Yahoo | 06/17/2026 | Skylar Laird

        For the first time in nearly 70 years, children and teenagers in South Carolina can legally play pinball.

        A law the governor signed last month removed the arcade game from the list of so-called status offenses outlawed for anyone under the age of 18, following a decade-long effort. The original ban was never enforced, but it remained a source of anxiety for law-abiding business owners, supporters of the bill said.

        Pinball gained popularity during the Great Depression as cheap, accessible entertainment — which critics called unskilled gambling tied to crime. Players released a ball that bounced into holes with different scores. Store owners often offered prizes to winners, and onlookers bet on where the ball might land.

        Some opponents of the game also worried about children skipping school or spending their lunch money to play or make bets.

        In the late 1940s, pinball manufacturers started adding the iconic flippers to the sides of the machines, adding an element of skill.

        Still, many states outlawed the games because of their associations with gambling, including South Carolina, which banned the game for minors in 1959.

        The new version of pinball with flippers grew in popularity throughout the 1960s and ’70s, even with bans in place. A 1974 California Supreme Court decision classified the game as one of skill and not chance, which led to states removing pinball prohibitions.

        South Carolina was the holdout.

        Playing pinball remained illegal for anyone under the age of 18, in the same category of offenses as running away, “loitering in a billiard room” or “gaining admission to a theater by false identification.”

        Legislation to remove pinball from that list has been proposed repeatedly since 2015, with no luck — until this session.

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