The cleaners found two well-preserved Q1 microprocessor computers, manufactured in 1972, in a storage room at Kingston University in London. The Q1 is a rather obscure PC, with very few surviving copies. Also, the computer was rarely exported from the US, so the discovery of two Q1s in the UK capital came as a shock.

Employees of the Just Clear company discovered computers in a couple of old boxes. The company’s founder, Brendan O’Shea, turned to a computer expert for help. The head of Just Clear was amazed to learn that this model was the world’s first fully integrated desktop computer equipped with a single-chip microprocessor.

Built by the Q1 Corporation, the computer has a built-in orange screen and keyboard, just like the later model, the Q1 Lite. The PC is capable of interacting with printers and hard drives, as well as word processing and data entry control.

The editor of New Atlas points out that this is quite impressive for such an early computer, which owes its capabilities and compact size to the Intel 8008 processor. The device has 16 KB of memory and a maximum clock speed of 800 kHz. However, the processor allows the Q1 to claim the title of the world’s first true microcomputer – it was released two years before the more famous MITS Altair 8800.

“Without Q1 Corporation, there would be no PCs, no Macs, no Apple or Android phones,” said senior lecturer and head of the undergraduate computer science program at Kingston University, Paul Neave, one of the creators of the exhibition. According to him, pioneers in the 1970s and 1980s laid the foundation for modern computers, which have become so ubiquitous in everyday life.

60 different iconic devices are on display, including the Sinclair ZX81, ZX Spectrum, Sinclair QL, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Amstrad, Dragon 32 and more. Found Q1s will be auctioned off or sold privately after the free run ends.