Recent web browsing found these two photos on CNET.com, part of an interesting set of images from the stone age of high-tech. The image above is the type of memory used in the first computer that I handled directly (an IBM 1130). This is central core storage - each of the little black objects is a magnetically chargeable donut strung at the intersection of two conducting wires. It stored either a zero or a one, depending on the charge. The entire computer had 16K of core storage, and it occupied a floor-standing unit that was counter-height and two or three feet square. By contrast a standard 3.5” floppy disk held 800K or 1440K and fit in my shirt-pocket.

The image below is reported to be of the first Apple computer, the Apple 1, in its fully assembled state.