Page 55 - Mediterraneo e dintorni - 2-2020

ing and industrial design point of view
stimulates the interest of prestigious
subjects in the sector. “The Museum of
Computing Instruments in Pisa and the
L’Isrtituo E. Fermi di Bibbiena, dove è custodito l’ELEA 9003
‘Leonardo da Vinci’ Museum of Science
and Technology in Milan have already
come forward.” Mauro Ballabeni, a
former employee of Olivetti and mem-
ber of the promoting committee of the
association that is about to be born, says
so. «In both cases, if we moved the ma-
chinery from Bibbiena we would put a
corpse on display. You could tell what it
did, but don’t show what it does. “ “We
know very well that if you take it away,
you destroy it,” echoes Wladimir. “The
hundreds of cables and welded connec-
tions have hardened and there would be
the risk of multiple breakages impossible
to repair, for some delicate components
there are no longer even the skills to fix
them”. To remedy usury, teamwork
is needed of all those willing to take the
field to keep Elea 9003 alive, first of all
the school and the Municipality. In ad-
dition to preserving the supercomput-
er and making it known to the general
public, the urgency concerns the study
and dissemination of technical-practical
knowledge to make it work. The experts
who participated in its design and or-
dinary maintenance have passed the
80 years and Zaniewski sees the need
to gather their knowledge in extinction
as a priority. There is a need for a cus-
todial network that allows to finance the
codification of these notions, their trans-
mission and diffusion. “Who makes me
do it?” Asks Wladimir. “I would be too
sorry not to give Elea an opportunity,
because I am sure that once there was no
chance to save him we would talk about
it as yet another Italian lost opportunity
that we regretted.”

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