3 ms·
I love mechanical computers like these. The engineering is amazing, and bugs are not considered a fact of life in these systems. One thing I often wonder abou
by betterunix2 8y ago
I love mechanical computers like these. The engineering is amazing, and bugs are not considered a fact of life in these systems. One thing I often wonder about is how many mechanical computers/state machines are still in operation and why.
- jeffwass 8y agoYou might like this video about the US Navy fire control computer. Mechanical yet also programmable. Eg with cam-based calculation modules like 1/x or differential gearings to perform addition : https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gwf5mAlI7Ug https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gwf5mAlI7Ug
- bacon_waffle 8y agoThanks for the link! I had meant to look these up after watching videos of some Hamming lectures (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30) where he mentions using "gun directors" for various problems.
- ttflee 8y agoCheck this out. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MONIAC https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MONIAC
- pgreenwood 8y agoThe Globus IMP mechanical navigation computer was used in every manned Russian space mission from 1961 to 2002. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_Spacecraft_%22Globus%22_IMP_navigation_instrument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_Spacecraft_%22Globus%2...