Oldest serial number (was: Oldest machine (was: Re: Good haul of old pc stuph))

[Richard]

In article <Pine.SUN.4.20.0512201204540.7258-100000 at osfn.org>,
    William Donzelli <aw288 at osfn.org>  writes:

> > For serial numbers in general, it can be handy to track numbers for machine
s 
> > which had very low production runs as a way of estimating how many machines
 
> > were made - as this information isn't often known otherwise.
> 
> This is exactly where the system falls apart - when a manufacturer skips a
> block of numbers in a smaller run, it is not very obvious from looking at
> a small sample distribution.

Yes, but if we had a collective database where everyone registered
their serial numbers, such things would be visible again.
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