I recently watched a documentary on battleships built during the 1930's-1940's. I was fascinated to learn that the fire control computers were 100% mechanical analog devices that considered 10 or more input variables to compute in real time the gun aiming. Does anyone know of any books that discuss mechanical analog computers? Aparently they were superior to electrical devices in the 1930's to 1950's time frame.
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Mechanical Analog Computers 10
- Thread starter butelja
- Start date
Since you probably saw this program on the history channel, I would start my search there.
A search for mechanical analog computers brought up 2 results. Below is a snip-it from the first.
Although the development of digital computers is rooted in the abacus and early mechanical calculating devices, Charles Babbage is credited with the design of the first modern computer, the analytical engine, during the 1830s. American scientist Vannevar Bush built a mechanically operated device, called a differential analyzer, in 1930; it was the first general-purpose analog computer. John Atanassoff constructed the first semielectronic digital computing device in 1939. The first fully automatic calculator was the Mark I, or Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, begun in 1939 at Harvard by Howard Aiken, while the first all-purpose electronic digital computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator), which used thousands of vacuum tubes, was completed in 1946 at the Univ. of Pennsylvania.
You'll probably want to continue your search with Charles Babbage (in 1830 -- WOW!) and his analytical engine or Vannevar Bush (100 years later!) and his differential analyzer.
--Scott
A search for mechanical analog computers brought up 2 results. Below is a snip-it from the first.
Although the development of digital computers is rooted in the abacus and early mechanical calculating devices, Charles Babbage is credited with the design of the first modern computer, the analytical engine, during the 1830s. American scientist Vannevar Bush built a mechanically operated device, called a differential analyzer, in 1930; it was the first general-purpose analog computer. John Atanassoff constructed the first semielectronic digital computing device in 1939. The first fully automatic calculator was the Mark I, or Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, begun in 1939 at Harvard by Howard Aiken, while the first all-purpose electronic digital computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator), which used thousands of vacuum tubes, was completed in 1946 at the Univ. of Pennsylvania.
You'll probably want to continue your search with Charles Babbage (in 1830 -- WOW!) and his analytical engine or Vannevar Bush (100 years later!) and his differential analyzer.
--Scott
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GregLocock
Automotive
The USN's fire control computer was built by a company called Ford, and I am in regular contact with a guy who maintained and used them. If you want to know more than that I suggest you contact Gene Slover on the Battleships vs Battleships discussion forum at
The other analogue computers that I know of were the torpedo controllers, used to program the torpedoes in WW2. They were called TDCs, if you ask on the subs board at the same site then you will learn much.
Cheers
Greg Locock
The other analogue computers that I know of were the torpedo controllers, used to program the torpedoes in WW2. They were called TDCs, if you ask on the subs board at the same site then you will learn much.
Cheers
Greg Locock
swertel -
Just a note about the first electronic digital computer ever built. John Atanassoff actually built the first one in, I believe, the early 50's with a graduate student named Berry at Iowa State University....called, obviously enough, the ABC (Atanassoff Berry Computer). The computer science building in Ames, Iowa has a re-creation of his device on display. It preceeded the ENIAC.
Just a note about the first electronic digital computer ever built. John Atanassoff actually built the first one in, I believe, the early 50's with a graduate student named Berry at Iowa State University....called, obviously enough, the ABC (Atanassoff Berry Computer). The computer science building in Ames, Iowa has a re-creation of his device on display. It preceeded the ENIAC.
GregLocock
Automotive
is a history of Hannibal Ford's analog computers, you will probably find the reference list interesting, and the photos terrifying.
Cheers
Greg Locock
GregLocock
Automotive
Gene's posted the USN's manual for the fire control computers.
Fascinating stuff
Cheers
Greg Locock
Fascinating stuff
Cheers
Greg Locock
Your subject on mechanical computers and the note on Charles Babbage made me remember a few things:
First: Mr. Babbage is well known on methods to dechiper cypher. He worked in the middle of the 1800's.
His story is told by by professor Ole Immanuale Franksen of the Danish Technical University. He retired recently, but his work: Mr. Babbage's Secret, The Tale of a Cypher - and APL, has 315 pages with information on what and how he did. IBM Denmark funded his writings. The book is frem the Strandberg, Birkeroed, Denmark editors.
Second: In 1965 I, as a student organisation representative took over some rooms in the basement of the Institute for Applied Mathematics, to be used for a printing office. These rooms were perfectly suited because a Professor Richard Petersen build a mechanical, differential calculator, with many components in brass. It was heavy and required a reinforced floor.
They finished the construction in ten years time, and left the project, because they began to build the first electronic computer, DASK, which came into operation 1959.
Regards
Carl Christian Lassen, M.Sc.Mech.Eng.
External Associate Professor, Danish Technical University
President C.C. Lassen Consulting Engineers
First: Mr. Babbage is well known on methods to dechiper cypher. He worked in the middle of the 1800's.
His story is told by by professor Ole Immanuale Franksen of the Danish Technical University. He retired recently, but his work: Mr. Babbage's Secret, The Tale of a Cypher - and APL, has 315 pages with information on what and how he did. IBM Denmark funded his writings. The book is frem the Strandberg, Birkeroed, Denmark editors.
Second: In 1965 I, as a student organisation representative took over some rooms in the basement of the Institute for Applied Mathematics, to be used for a printing office. These rooms were perfectly suited because a Professor Richard Petersen build a mechanical, differential calculator, with many components in brass. It was heavy and required a reinforced floor.
They finished the construction in ten years time, and left the project, because they began to build the first electronic computer, DASK, which came into operation 1959.
Regards
Carl Christian Lassen, M.Sc.Mech.Eng.
External Associate Professor, Danish Technical University
President C.C. Lassen Consulting Engineers
steamboat444
Electrical
In the late 1960s, while attending naval OCS I watched an old naval training film on analog fire control computers. It was really fascinating. Have no idea of the title anymore, but it was an animated version of the information provided in the PDF file that someone posted on the Ford computer.
Skogsgurra
Electrical
I know for shure that the Swedish army used analog mechanical computers around 1960. I saw one at work calculating ballistic data for an antiaircraft (40 mm Bofors) gun and it was almost an erotic sensation (that is how we engineers are).
Having struggled with these non-linear differential equations I knew what immense work it was to do one of these calculations (round´s rotation, wind, speed of round, earth's rotation, speed and angles of target and and..)and there it was! The machine that did it in seconds. Impressive.
I remember differential gears, integrator disks, some cams with non-linear functions, servo-motors and selsyns. The result was plotted on a gridded frosted glass that could be photographed and wiped clean after each calculation. I remember no numeric output. There was probably none.
The producer of these machines was (I think)Svenska Aktiebolaget Tradlos Telegrafi (SATT), a subsidiary of Svenska Radiobolaget (SRA), which was the Ericsson radio company. It is possible that the Arenco company was doing most of the mechanical work.
The computer that I write on now has the ability to do the work of hundreds or thousands of those several hundred kilograms heavy mechanical wonders. It is fascinating.
Having struggled with these non-linear differential equations I knew what immense work it was to do one of these calculations (round´s rotation, wind, speed of round, earth's rotation, speed and angles of target and and..)and there it was! The machine that did it in seconds. Impressive.
I remember differential gears, integrator disks, some cams with non-linear functions, servo-motors and selsyns. The result was plotted on a gridded frosted glass that could be photographed and wiped clean after each calculation. I remember no numeric output. There was probably none.
The producer of these machines was (I think)Svenska Aktiebolaget Tradlos Telegrafi (SATT), a subsidiary of Svenska Radiobolaget (SRA), which was the Ericsson radio company. It is possible that the Arenco company was doing most of the mechanical work.
The computer that I write on now has the ability to do the work of hundreds or thousands of those several hundred kilograms heavy mechanical wonders. It is fascinating.
HamishMcTavish
Nuclear
Richard Feynman describes working on analogue computers in one of his biographies if anyone is interested.
No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary - William of Occam
No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary - William of Occam
Try the Scientific American Magazine website.
I was told that until the advent of radar to input the range to target more accurately to the fire control computer it was still "one over and one under and then bang"
Any of the Battleship monuments have a tour of the fire control center and you can see the computer along with its' input systems. This is one case data input had to be accurate the first time.
Didn't Babbage have a female mathematician as an assistant in his work?
Most of the money for the first electronic computers was from the Ordinance Department to help with the computation of artillery tables which were then being calculated with logs.
I was working when the change was made from mechanical desktops to big IBM mainframes.
The mechanical desktops had got to the point that you could extract a square root and have accumulating totals. Another mechanical marvel was the bank tabulating machinery.
I was told that until the advent of radar to input the range to target more accurately to the fire control computer it was still "one over and one under and then bang"
Any of the Battleship monuments have a tour of the fire control center and you can see the computer along with its' input systems. This is one case data input had to be accurate the first time.
Didn't Babbage have a female mathematician as an assistant in his work?
Most of the money for the first electronic computers was from the Ordinance Department to help with the computation of artillery tables which were then being calculated with logs.
I was working when the change was made from mechanical desktops to big IBM mainframes.
The mechanical desktops had got to the point that you could extract a square root and have accumulating totals. Another mechanical marvel was the bank tabulating machinery.
SlideRuleEra
Structural
My father gave me a very used hand cranked mechanical desktop calculator (1936 Monroe) when I was in college. I don't remember it as being particularly useful (homework only - too heavy for class at about 25 pounds) even though it is capable of all four functions. Addition, subtraction & multiplication are quite speedy - division is another story. Still have it and it still works well (spray it down internally with WD-40 every couple of years). Long ago my uncle (structural engineer) showed me how to take an accurate square root on it in a matter of seconds - he used Newton's Method, based on a good guess or slide rule output.
Babbage's assistant: Lady Ada Lovelace. Language Ada is named after her.
Funny, I thought Colossus was the first digital computer.
And Manchester Mark One was first stored program computer.
And LEO (Lyon's Electronic Office) was first commercial computer.
And that German chappie had a good go at digital computers using relays during the last global conflict...
Funny, I thought Colossus was the first digital computer.
And Manchester Mark One was first stored program computer.
And LEO (Lyon's Electronic Office) was first commercial computer.
And that German chappie had a good go at digital computers using relays during the last global conflict...
GregLocock
Automotive
It was digital, but used valves and relays. Built by the (British) Post Office - makes sense.
Cheers
Greg Locock
Yes, Colossus was designed by Tommy Flowers of the British General Post Office at Dollis Hill in London, Uk, during the 2nd world War.
It was designed to decode German encrypted transmissions.
It used paper tape to hold the data being decrypted and various types of thermionic valve (vacuum tube) as processing elements.
It was not a general purpose computer as such, but was designed for one specific task.
All details of this machine and others like it were secret until 1974(ish), when a books describing the UK/USA code decyphering activities were published.
Much of the actual machinery and blueprints etc. were destroyed after the war on the orders of Winston Churchill.
A working model of Colossus is being recreated at Bletchley Park in the UK.
It was designed to decode German encrypted transmissions.
It used paper tape to hold the data being decrypted and various types of thermionic valve (vacuum tube) as processing elements.
It was not a general purpose computer as such, but was designed for one specific task.
All details of this machine and others like it were secret until 1974(ish), when a books describing the UK/USA code decyphering activities were published.
Much of the actual machinery and blueprints etc. were destroyed after the war on the orders of Winston Churchill.
A working model of Colossus is being recreated at Bletchley Park in the UK.
DataHunter
Electrical
Evaluation on aids of computation could be divided in three levels.
Era-1) Early devices which manipulated by hand include abacus B.C.3000, Napier’s bones, the slide rule A.C. 1600. Then mechanical Calculators - Pascal’s calculator A.C.1642, Jacquard’s loom 1801,Babbage’s difference engine (A.C.1822), Programmable machines Babbage’s analytical engine (1834), Hollerith’s punch card equipment (A.C.1890).
Era-2) Covers years 1920-1950: Atanasoff Barry Computer-ABC, 1942, Electromechanical MARK-I, 1944, First full-scale electronic computer ENIAC (1946), and Stored program computers UNIVAC (1951), first commercial computer IBM 650, 1954. First integrated circuit computer is operated on (1958), then main frames (1965). Minicomputer 1963. First personal computer 1977,
Era-3) Microprocessor age starts after 1980. The Pentium and multimedia technology came out in 1993. The World Wide Web and Internet browsers appeared in 1994.
The computer age begins Mark-I computer in 1944. Then the evaluation of computers classified by technological generations: First generation 1951-58 the vacuum tube, second generation 1959-64 the transistor, the third generation 1965-70 the Integrated Circuit, the forth generation 1971- Present, the micro-processor (1971) And Minicomputers (1975), Microcomputer (1981). Personal Computer age and network Mobil communication is sated.
Computer technology started as computing machine including the invention of transistors and development of integrated circuits, the establishment of communication satellites, and advance in optic technology. To day, desktop-size has more computing power than the room-size machines of the 1940s and can exchange Information quickly via global communication systems.
Computer machinery improved as modern computers by the use of microelectronics. Microelectronics made them law cost, high speed, and small in size. So computers may roughly classified by size and computing capacity: Mainframe computers have greater computing capacity then do personal computers.
They are varying in size and capability. Supercomputers are most powerful computers that are used for special cases as space research activities. Workstation has power between mid size mainframe and PC. Personal Computers go into different categories as Desktop, Laptop or Notebook, or Hand size-Palm Computer. Communication and computer Networks: At the mid of 1975 the major changing in computer usage was Communication be come network systems which link machines and people with companies and countries. After 1980’s PC be come as a network terminal. The computer networks are evaluated as Local Area Networks (LAN) and Wide Area Networks (WAN).
Era-1) Early devices which manipulated by hand include abacus B.C.3000, Napier’s bones, the slide rule A.C. 1600. Then mechanical Calculators - Pascal’s calculator A.C.1642, Jacquard’s loom 1801,Babbage’s difference engine (A.C.1822), Programmable machines Babbage’s analytical engine (1834), Hollerith’s punch card equipment (A.C.1890).
Era-2) Covers years 1920-1950: Atanasoff Barry Computer-ABC, 1942, Electromechanical MARK-I, 1944, First full-scale electronic computer ENIAC (1946), and Stored program computers UNIVAC (1951), first commercial computer IBM 650, 1954. First integrated circuit computer is operated on (1958), then main frames (1965). Minicomputer 1963. First personal computer 1977,
Era-3) Microprocessor age starts after 1980. The Pentium and multimedia technology came out in 1993. The World Wide Web and Internet browsers appeared in 1994.
The computer age begins Mark-I computer in 1944. Then the evaluation of computers classified by technological generations: First generation 1951-58 the vacuum tube, second generation 1959-64 the transistor, the third generation 1965-70 the Integrated Circuit, the forth generation 1971- Present, the micro-processor (1971) And Minicomputers (1975), Microcomputer (1981). Personal Computer age and network Mobil communication is sated.
Computer technology started as computing machine including the invention of transistors and development of integrated circuits, the establishment of communication satellites, and advance in optic technology. To day, desktop-size has more computing power than the room-size machines of the 1940s and can exchange Information quickly via global communication systems.
Computer machinery improved as modern computers by the use of microelectronics. Microelectronics made them law cost, high speed, and small in size. So computers may roughly classified by size and computing capacity: Mainframe computers have greater computing capacity then do personal computers.
They are varying in size and capability. Supercomputers are most powerful computers that are used for special cases as space research activities. Workstation has power between mid size mainframe and PC. Personal Computers go into different categories as Desktop, Laptop or Notebook, or Hand size-Palm Computer. Communication and computer Networks: At the mid of 1975 the major changing in computer usage was Communication be come network systems which link machines and people with companies and countries. After 1980’s PC be come as a network terminal. The computer networks are evaluated as Local Area Networks (LAN) and Wide Area Networks (WAN).
butelja,
During my time in the RAF, as an Instrument Technician (NAV), I worked with two electro-mechanical analogue computing devices. One type was a bombsight calculator (MkXIV and T2), the other was A.D.R.I.S (Automatic Dead Reckoning Indication System) that was pneumatic/mechanical in nature. There were several airborne devices of this type used in the 1950 - 1970 period by the RAF. I think the USAF used to use a K7 bombing system that was similar to H2S with a couple of differences? Ground Position Indicators (GPI Mk1 to Mk7) were 'all gears and cogs! Does anyone else remember these airborne devices? One day I want to be able to gain access to the UK Dept of Defence records and write a book describing the design and research that went into such devices.
Regards
During my time in the RAF, as an Instrument Technician (NAV), I worked with two electro-mechanical analogue computing devices. One type was a bombsight calculator (MkXIV and T2), the other was A.D.R.I.S (Automatic Dead Reckoning Indication System) that was pneumatic/mechanical in nature. There were several airborne devices of this type used in the 1950 - 1970 period by the RAF. I think the USAF used to use a K7 bombing system that was similar to H2S with a couple of differences? Ground Position Indicators (GPI Mk1 to Mk7) were 'all gears and cogs! Does anyone else remember these airborne devices? One day I want to be able to gain access to the UK Dept of Defence records and write a book describing the design and research that went into such devices.
Regards
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