2019-11-24 - Hardware archeology - Mechanical computing | |
mechanisms | |
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A long, long time ago - possibly more than a decade - I stumbled | |
across an old manual on mechanical computers, which were used | |
for fire control systems back in the forties. | |
I changed my laptop at least twice since, and even if I | |
*probably* still have that file, I have no idea where that might | |
be. | |
Today, I found it again, almost by accident, when clicking on a | |
Wikipedia link gave me the magic words I needed for Google to | |
find it again: it was /Basic Fire Control Mechanisms/, OP 1140, | |
from 1944, and it's available online from at least two | |
locations. | |
I can barely wrap my head around the basic components described | |
in Section 2, and they are of course impressively impractical, | |
but also fascinating. Need to implement the trigonometric | |
functions in hardware? Just cut the right groove into a cam! | |
And don't worry if your computer is starting to look like a | |
dieselpunk torture devices, those are just multipliers and | |
integrators! | |
Basic Fire Control Mechanisms - Maritime Park Association | |
Basic Fire Control Mechanisms - Historic Naval Ships Association Archive | |