Westport is filled with hidden gems. Haskins Preserve, the pedestrian path on Compo Cove, the miracle auto repair workers at Vautrin and J&J, any dish at Jeera Thai … not everyone knows about those jewels. But everyone should.
Yet perhaps the coolest — and most secret — of all is inaccessible to nearly everyone.
There — in the attic of a private home — Jay Babina runs the Westport Tech Museum.
You can tour it online. And on Facebook.
Because it’s in his parents’ house (Jay is finishing up his first year at Manhattanville College), it’s not open to the public.
But one of the great perks about publishing “06880” is the chance to go where almost no one else can.
I’ve posted twice about Jay’s Westport Tech Museum (click here and here).
I’ve described his astonishing collection of over 500 computers, video games, calculators, cameras, radios and more.
Just a portion of the Westport Tech Museum. (Photo/Jay Babina)
From a Commodore Amiga 1000, Osborne 1, Apple IIe and original Macintosh, to a 1910 Edison light bulb that still shines, and a 1905 crank telephone that still rings, Jay has scoured the world (and eBay) to find rare, important, classic, quirky and historic products.
The other day, I paid my third visit to what may be the most astonishing private museum in America.
Jay — who haunts the internet with the tenacity and instincts of Kojak, Columbo and Jessica Fletcher combined — proudly showed off a host of new acquisitions.
He began with the most beautiful object in his collection: a hand-painted horn from an early Thomas Edison phonograph.
That was impressive enough. But then Jay picked up a wax cylinder — the precursor to “records.”
I was astonished.
But I was even more gobsmacked seconds later, when Jay placed the cylinder on the phonograph — and played it.
Music recorded well over a century ago filled the attic. I could have ended the tour right then, and been thrilled.
But Jay had much more to show.
Decades after the phonograph — as LP records were being replaced by 45s (kids: ask your grandparents) — the transistor revolutionized radio.
Of course, Jay had a transistor radio.
Of course, it was one of the first ever produced.
Of course, he also had a very early transistor. That’s how Jay rolls.
Transistor radio (right); transistor in a plastic cube (left).
Soon, we got into the “modern” era. (Still: Kids, ask your parents.)
Jay recently added the first commercial beeper pager (a 1964 Motorola Pageboy) to his collection.
The first two-way messaging pager was the 1995 Motorola Tango. But — because Jay does not do things half-heartedly — he has it in a pre-release version, when it was called SkyTel. He searched for 5 years, and finally found it on eBay.
Who remembers answering machines? A better question: Who remembers the very first ones — with little tape reels inside?
Jay does. (Even though he was not born for another 3-plus decades.)
His museum now includes the first consumer residential answering machine: the 1971 Phone-Mate 400.
It was complicated. Callers had to be instructed what to do.
It still works. Unfortunately, Jay’s Tech Museum lacks one thing: a landline to plug it into.
The first answering machine included separate tape reels for the outgoing message, and incoming calls.
Then came an early cellphone with camera …
… and one of the first VHS recorders …
… plus another item Jay searched for for years: a Sony Walkman. This 1980 model was the first in the US; it came a year after the device took Japan by storm.
Jay showed me — and explained, in historical detail — an HP35 (the world’s first scientific pocket calculator, the “slide rule killer” that some feared would lead to the decline of math skills across America); a Rocket e-book reader, which retailed for $499 and debuted 9 years before the Kindle, and a PalmPilot, with a whopping 128K of memory.
Of course, Jay also found an original box.
There are plenty of original iPhones floating around.
But who has an original bag (rear in photo below), issued by Apple only to customers ordering on the very first launch date (June 29, 2007)?
Jay Babina, of course.
Every item has a back story. And Jay tells them all well.
Of the Commodore home computer, he describes the company’s price war with Texas Instruments.
Commodore slashed the price from $525 to $49. They lost $300 million in one quarter, and went bankrupt in 1994.
Jay has a Commodore (below) and a TI99. Both have dial-up modems. Both still work.
Jay is fascinated by failure.
In 1995, Nintendo’s Virtual Boy — a 32-bit tabletop console, marketed as the first to display stereoscopic 3D graphics — caused headaches and eye strain. It was a spectacular flop.
His Westport Tech Museum celebrates it all: failures and successes. Innovation and improvement. Products that look silly, and those that are beautiful.
Which brings us to one of the newest items on display in Jay’s attic: David Pogue’s just-published sweeping and mammoth (608 pages) book, “Apple: The First 50 Years.”
(All photos/Dan Woog, unless otherwise noted)
Like Jay, he is obsessed with both the broad arc of technological history, and the countless unique, often overlooked stories that contribute to it.
Pogue spent 2 decades in Westport.
Somehow, he never found his way up to Jay’s attic.
Now — as a regular contributor to “CBS Sunday Morning” — would be a great time for him to check it out.
But if he does, both he and Jay may never come down.
(“06880” often shines a light on remarkable young Westporters. If you enjoy stories like this, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
