Love the DHARMA Initiative feel of it!
Excellent, particularly the differential computing aspect. Thanks for posting this.
Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
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Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#12I've seen a few of these old instructional videos. In addition to the content itself, I'm always very amazed by the fact they can produce these videos without computers!
The difficulty of editing in the pre-computer days may have helped, in that they probably went to a great deal of effort to fully plan out the content instead of YOLO'ing "we'll fix it in post".
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#13Thought it was very interesting to see the precursors of modern computers and how they achieved the various mathematical functions mechanically
And fascinating too that, unlike digital computers where operations take clock cycles, calculations in an analog computer are effectively instantaneous.
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#14The US Navy's old training materials are fantastic for learning about various technologies.
I think their masterpiece is "Basic Hand Tools" a handbook written in plain English that describes the use of practically every hand tool ever invented.
"Basic Hand Tools" on the hammer:
>Whoever conceived the idea of cracking a nut with a rock unknowingly invented a tool. When a later genius tied a stick to the rock, he invented the first hammer. There have been a lot of improvements since that humble beginning.
The modern version "Tools and Their Uses" also covers machine tools but is less fun.
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#15The US Navy's old training materials are fantastic for learning about various technologies. I think their masterpiece is "Basic Hand Tools" a handbook written in plain English that describes the use of practically every hand tool ever invented. "Basic Hand Tools" on the hammer: >Whoever conceived the idea of cracking a nut with a rock unknowingly invented a tool. When a later genius tied a stick to the rock, he inven…
Do you happen to have a link to the "Basic Hand Tools" version?
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#16This made me think of engines as computers- the crank shaft connected to the timing belt goes up to the camshafts to instantly calculate the positions of the valves.
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#17The US Navy's old training materials are fantastic for learning about various technologies. I think their masterpiece is "Basic Hand Tools" a handbook written in plain English that describes the use of practically every hand tool ever invented. "Basic Hand Tools" on the hammer: >Whoever conceived the idea of cracking a nut with a rock unknowingly invented a tool. When a later genius tied a stick to the rock, he inven…
Do you happen to have a link to the "Basic Hand Tools" version?
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#18Thought it was very interesting to see the precursors of modern computers and how they achieved the various mathematical functions mechanically
And fascinating too that, unlike digital computers where operations take clock cycles, calculations in an analog computer are effectively instantaneous.
Backlash means there is delay in analog computers that is generally worse than in digital. However the calculations you perform on analog computers are generally much simpler and so you don't notice the lag.
edit: I should point out that some calculations that are trivial on analog computers and difficult on digital and so analog may have less lag on some specific calculations. However in general it is safe to say digital is faster overall even though in the real world you will find many examples where analog is faster.
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#19I absolutely adore this series of videos! Analog/mechanical computing is a fascinating field that is often ignored. Also the pedagogical style of these videos is fantastic, simple, to the point, with no unnecessary distractions. It's hard to find this level of quality in the current 'click and subscribe' universe! Happy to see this pop on HN :)
Another archaic technology is magnetic amplifiers. These were more used in Germany (in the Kriegsmarine and also in the V-2), but got some more play in the US immediately after the war, before being largely supplanted by transistors.
The idea here was to use magnetic saturation to modulate the behavior of a transformer, allowing a small control current to modulate larger AC currents.
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#20This made me think of engines as computers- the crank shaft connected to the timing belt goes up to the camshafts to instantly calculate the positions of the valves.
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