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I love pneumatic logic! I’ve gone to sleep many nights thinking about pneumatic logic gates, and they are still used today on pneumatic equipment powered by win
by emersonrsantos 6y ago
I love pneumatic logic! I’ve gone to sleep many nights thinking about pneumatic logic gates, and they are still used today on pneumatic equipment powered by wind, like a lot of pipe organs in Europe made in the 1800’s where there was no electricity to turn on and off the pipes.
Here’s an example of such apparatus: https://www.woodofhuddersfield.com/uploads/1/1/2/3/11238427/tubes_orig.jpg https://www.woodofhuddersfield.com/uploads/1/1/2/3/11238427/...
- Animats 6y agoYes, some pipe organs had enormous switching systems. They didn't do all that much; they just switched the keyboard to pipe rank connections. Physically, they were huge, like multiple upright pianos. Some needed compressed air for power; others were entirely electrical. They had no direct function in producing sound. All this was separate from the actuators for the pipes.
- emersonrsantos 6y agoExactly, what produced the sound was pipes (and is, in a non-electrical or electronic organ) using the same air that feed the pipes by the bellows. It replaced mechanical track action, keyboard coupling, register switching and even had memory to ‘remember’ a register presets or register sets.
- LiquidSky 6y agoThat’s really neat! Could you provide some resources on this topic for learning more?
- emersonrsantos 6y agoThere’s not much open literature around it, but one of the inventors was an engineer called Charles Barker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barker_lever https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barker_lever This document has some designs and more details: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21204/21204-h/21204-h.htm http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21204/21204-h/21204-h.htm , chapter III.
- LiquidSky 6y agoThanks!