K.C. has the oldest piece of computer hardware I’ve ever seen–a modem from 1964-5, complete with finely crafted wooden case. It’s got a good 20 years on me, and it still works. The story goes like this:
Background: This modem was given to me ~1989 by the widow of a retired (IBM?) engineer. Computerhistory.org has a Model B dated 1965, and I’ve seen a ~1967 Model C written up in a magazine. (Interestingly, incorrectly identified as being only 110 baud.)
Even better than seeing it in a museum, I decide to hook the trusty Model A up and make it talk to something. After some trial and error, I manage to get it to talk to a terminal server at work and use it to connect to a linux box. It’s ALIVE! So, 45 years after it’s creation, this antique modem gets to send data to and from the modern Internet.
He describes the Model A and actually gets the thing to work in this video.
K.C. also ran a Q&A on his site, which you can read here.