Apparently the Navy also used mechanical 'computers' on old battleships to calculate firing solutions. Sailors would adjust cranks and shafts to set the input

Apparently the Navy also used mechanical 'computers' on old battleships to calculate firing solutions. Sailors would adjust cranks and shafts to set the input values, and those inputs were connected to cams which were machined in the shape of solutions to the equations that needed to be solved. You can watch an old training video about it from the '50s: https://youtu.be/s1i-dnAH9Y4 https://youtu.be/s1i-dnAH9Y4