Apple Computer

FIRST EDITION OF THE MANUAL FOR APPLE’S FIRST COMPUTER.

The Apple-1, the first pre-assembled personal computer to come to market, was the debut product of Apple Computer, the company that would grow to become one of the world’s largest. The Steve Wozniak-designed computer was one of the first to integrate video display terminal circuitry into its circuit board: a revolutionary step at a time when most computers used blinking lights and switches as an interface. The Apple-1 with a television screen and keyboard was a computer that was accessible to an audience well beyond hobbyists. The founders, Wozniak and Steve Jobs were friends steeped in the counterculture of the late 1960s and early ‘70s. They exemplified the next generation of Silicon Valley entrepreneurial spirit where government research, psychedelic experience, creative cooperation and an openness to unexplored possibility came together.

This succinct manual, which bears the original 770 Welch Road address – apparently only their answering service since they were still operating out of Steve Jobs’ parents’ home, includes only the basic information to get the computer up and running and a set of schematics. Original co-founder Ronald Wayne’s Apple logo differentiates this from Apple products to follow. He includes the quotation: “Newton ---- “A mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought … alone.” Perhaps the “Think Different” for the 1970s.