The Thomson (also known as Lord Kelvin of degrees K fame) tide predicting machine takes us back to the late 1800s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide-predictin

The Thomson (also known as Lord Kelvin of degrees K fame) tide predicting machine takes us back to the late 1800s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide-predicting_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide-predicting_machine One implementation of it was a notable part of WWII: > They came to be regarded as of military strategic importance during World War I, and again during the Second World War, when the US No.2 Tide Predicting Machine, described below, was classified, along with the data that it produced, and used to predict tides for the D-Day Normandy landings and all the island landings in the Pacific War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide-Predicting_Machine_No._2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide-Predicting_Machine_No._2 From Veritasium : The Most Powerful Computers You've Never Heard Of - the tide calculator plays a prominent part of the video. https://youtu.be/IgF3OX8nT0w https://youtu.be/IgF3OX8nT0w (the next video is also in the same topic - Future Computers Will Be Radically Different https://youtu.be/GVsUOuSjvcg https://youtu.be/GVsUOuSjvcg and that gets into more modern implementations and uses - https://the-analog-thing.org https://the-analog-thing.org is the device shown in the video).