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