English: This apparatus is the control system (left) and output display (right) of a device that translated 20 words of Russian into English. In operation, a word of up to 6 characters was dialed into 6 series-connected potentiometers on an input panel (not shown). The control system then automatically sequenced through 20 trimmer resistors, each programmed with a unique resistance representing 1 of 20 words. When the sum of the resistances of the input potentiometers matched the trimmer resistance being sampled, the needle of a milliamp meter was nulled at 0. A small aluminum foil flag cemented to the meter needle then blocked light emitted by a flashlight bulb from arriving at a small solar cell cemented on the face of the meter. The absence of signal from the solar cell switched off a transistor that activated the scanning motor that sampled the trimmers in turn. (The motor was a modified electric music box mechanism.) The translated word was then indicated by 1 of 20 red lights on the output panel. This system was essentially a crude but programmable and functional hybrid analog/digital machine. In 1984 Dr. Uta C. Merzbach, formerly curator of the Division of Mathematics at the Smithsonian Institution, visited my home to inspect my collection of MITS memorabilia that she wanted to acquire for the Smithsonian. During the visit, she expressed interest in the language translator as an early example of hobby computing. She asked if it could also be acquired, and I agreed.