I ended up buying three of these as I was going to convert one to computer control. Last year at the ASVARO swap meet I sold the last one I had which had never been opened :-). The guy who bought it was pretty excited to have it (which is the goal of getting rid of one's junk right?)
They were marvels. The only "practical" way to convert them was to put solenoids on the controls to drive them and it was impractical for any repeatable fine grain control. If I ever get a chance to meet the person behind that design I'd certainly buy them a round of their favorite beverage.