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Veritasium: Light bulbs are linked to the invention of computer
- karmakaze 3y agoMaybe the modern computer. The idea of a digital computer predates the lightbulb by about 100 years including the power of software was already conceived by Babbage and Lovelace.
- viraptor 3y agoThat's really surprising! I never realised those inventions were so close - Babbage's analytical engine came in 1837, the first constant electric light in 1835.
- sidewndr46 3y agoI think it is a misunderstanding to conflate modern computers with "digital". You can build a mechanical, digital computer from many systems like pneumatics for example. Interestingly the first practical electronic computers aren't actually digital, they used tech like op-amps to do computation.
- karmakaze 3y agoBabbage's machine is a programmable one of digital mechanical form. Modern is being used to distinguish electrical ones.
- masklinn 3y ago> You can build a mechanical, digital computer from many systems like pneumatics for example. This is mentioned in the video (kinda), in that the video talks about Stibitz’ Model K, an electromechanical digital adder using relays, followed by various systems culminating in the programmable general-purpose Model V. As the video then explains, ignoring nuisance (noise and vibrations) the problems of mechanical computers are signal propagation, and wear / reliability, they’re awful even compared to vacuum tubes.
- dreamcompiler 3y agoAnalog computers still exist but they are neither general-purpose nor easily programmable. Their big strength is solving differential equations, which they do better than digital computers in some cases. General-purpose reprogrammability is the key advance of modern computers. Although it can be argued that Babbage and Lovelace had this idea in mind, they never built a complete working model.
- Aldipower 3y agoThe first digital _binary_ computer of the world, the Zuse Z1, was built with hand-made metal stripe relays. No tubes involved.
- FredPret 3y agoCan you imagine the noise
- masklinn 3y agoThe video demonstrates relay-based computers about halfway (starting at 8:00)
- wrycoder 3y agoAlmost as bad as a room full of Selectric typewriters.
- mmh0000 3y agoCheck out this series for building a relay computer, the sound is glorious: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5-_rpS40owFzVVuxDF70Tw/videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5-_rpS40owFzVVuxDF70Tw/vid...
- karmakaze 3y agoWithout transistors computers would have been greatly limited in power due to limits of miniaturizing tubes and their power consumption.
- avmich 3y agoWithout transistors it can be hard to imagine the heights vacuum tube technology would reach.
- dreamcompiler 3y agoIndeed. Would have been nice to have that mentioned in the video but it was US centric. Zuse was in Germany. His computer is in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
- trebligdivad 3y agoEdison's observation of the silvering of one side of a DC light bulb was the neat thing I learnt from this video. It's a nicely done video and fully acknowledges earlier mechanical computation.
- wrycoder 3y agoThe darkening most likely wasn’t caused directly by electrons hitting the glass, but by filament atoms sputtered off by electrons accelerated down the magnetic field lines.
- adamredwoods 3y agoSomewhat related, I also enjoyed the book "How We Got to Now" by Steven Johnson. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316142/how-we-got-to-now-by-steven-johnson/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316142/how-we-got-t...