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Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]

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Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]

#61

Post by dcminter »

limit499karma wrote: post #54
snakeyjake wrote: post #14

The 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…

I just downloaded (thanks to other commenter below) and would question the "use" part. What is the "peen" end used for? Having read the section on hammers I still don't know. (Just re-skimmed the section and I still don't know.)

Hitting things ;)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peening

I dimly recall making an ashtray (hmmm, not sure that would fly these days) in high school metalwork class by beating out a piece of copper sheet with the peen until it was suitably concave.

Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]

#62

Post by nradov »

retrac wrote: post #47
pmcf wrote: post #24

In 1989 I was a data systems tech on a Destroyer going through some overhaul at the shipyard in Pascagoula Mississippi. Moored right next to us was the battleship Wisconsin. Huge relic from WW2 but still going through modernization. A bunch of us that worked on combat systems got invited for a tour of their fire control systems. Wow. Just wow. All mechanical computers calculating fire control solutions for the big 16…

By the end of WW II American torpedoes were automatically programmed (direction, speed, fusing) before firing. The heavy calculations would be done by the shipboard firing computer while the parameters set would be used by the simple computer on the torpedo (which had inertial guidance). I struggle to imagine how people managed to design such things with just pencils and slide rules.

WW II American torpedoes didn't have inertial guidance. They used gyros for directional control and just ran in a straight line after making a single turn onto the set course. Occasionally the torpedo would get stuck in that turn and run in a circle. Towards the end of the war the Navy also started introducing homing torpedoes, but those didn't use inertial guidance either.

Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]

#63

Post by zerohm »

pmcf wrote: post #24

In 1989 I was a data systems tech on a Destroyer going through some overhaul at the shipyard in Pascagoula Mississippi. Moored right next to us was the battleship Wisconsin. Huge relic from WW2 but still going through modernization. A bunch of us that worked on combat systems got invited for a tour of their fire control systems. Wow. Just wow. All mechanical computers calculating fire control solutions for the big 16…

I had a co-worker at the Navy Yard that said he was an Anti-Aircraft tech during the Korean War. When he said they used 'mechanical computers' I had to stair up into space for a minute to figure out what that meant.

Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]

#64

Post by zerohm »

snakeyjake wrote: post #14

The 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…

I will never pass up an opportunity to use this joke:

Everything is a hammer, unless it's a screwdriver. Then, it's a chisel.

Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]

#65

Post by mrguyorama »

teqsun wrote: post #40
ricktdotorg wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

same goes for being in SoCal and going to visit the USS Iowa in San Pedro. it also has similar mechanical computers, it's a fantastic day spent clambering around the ship. sometimes they do "stay overnight in the bunks" nights, I can highly recommend it!

For anyone along the Northeastern corridor, the USS New Jersey in Camden is another well-preserved Iowa class museum ship.

The Battleship New Jersey has a good youtube channel where the head curator walks you through some things.

https://www.youtube.com/@BattleshipNewJersey

They also sell broken parts of the ship that they fix up as souvenirs, like the entire deck's worth of wooden planking, and for $1000 you can take a tour where the mildly charismatic head curator takes you into the smallest and hardest to reach parts of the ship!

Or fire a 5 inch gun, you know, if that's more your speed.

Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]

#66

Post by mindcrime »

zer00eyz wrote: post #8

This is a great primer on one facet of the Navy and "technology". So much of early computing has some tie back to the navy. It isn't an accident that Grace Hopper was an admiral and not a General. Much of Cray's early work is littered with "Navy" (including his transfer from Europe to the Pacific). It's a fascinating bit of WWII and Post war history that is worth exploring.

On that note: if you read a lot of technology books and/or research papers and you pay attention to the "acknowledgements" section, you'll likely observe that it's quite frequent to find something to this effect in there:

"This research funded in part by a grant from the Naval Research Laboratory, grant number XXX-YYY-ZZZZZZZZZZ".

This aside from similar notices mentioning DARPA, NSF, and other funding bodies.

Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]

#67

Post by _trampeltier »

mdorazio wrote: post #27
snakeyjake wrote: post #14

The 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…

Not just military training videos, older ones in general are often superior to what gets made today. My favorite is probably this one on vehicle differentials: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI

I like this even more.

AT&T Archives: Similiarities of Wave Behavior

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DovunOxlY1k&pp=ygUOYmVsbCBsYWJ...

Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]

#68

Post by SoftTalker »

bluGill wrote: post #50
thesuitonym wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise, an automatic transmission is a hydraulic computer.

50 years ago that was true. Sometime ago though (I don't know when, but I'd guess starting in the 1990s) they changed to electronic computers. Using electronics makes some things simpler and puts the complex parts in standard hardware (a CPU is much more complex but it isn't custom designed for you), or software (easy to change if you get it wrong.

For the fuel injection and ignition (spark) timing yes, but the camshafts to open and close the valves are still driven by a gear, belt or chain. Even variable valve timing is mostly controled by mechanical or hydraulic means, though I'm guessing some electronics may be involved.

Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]

#69

Post by jabl »

mrguyorama wrote: post #65
teqsun wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone along the Northeastern corridor, the USS New Jersey in Camden is another well-preserved Iowa class museum ship.

The Battleship New Jersey has a good youtube channel where the head curator walks you through some things. https://www.youtube.com/@BattleshipNewJersey They also sell broken parts of the ship that they fix up as souvenirs, like the entire deck's worth of wooden planking, and for $1000 you can take a tour where the mildly charismatic head curator takes you into the smallest and hardest to reach parts of the ship! Or f…

> Or fire a 5 inch gun, you know, if that's more your speed.

Depends on what the target is.

Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]

#70

Post by UncleOxidant »

pmcf wrote: post #24

In 1989 I was a data systems tech on a Destroyer going through some overhaul at the shipyard in Pascagoula Mississippi. Moored right next to us was the battleship Wisconsin. Huge relic from WW2 but still going through modernization. A bunch of us that worked on combat systems got invited for a tour of their fire control systems. Wow. Just wow. All mechanical computers calculating fire control solutions for the big 16…

In 1981 I was just out of high school and had a summer job at NUWES - Navel Undersea Warfare and Engineering Station in Keyport, WA. I was in a group that was refurb'ing fire control computers from submarines. They kind of looked like those stand up video game consoles that became popular in arcades soon after - except these cabinets were made of solid aluminum. They were full of gears and resolvers - analog computers. The "display" was all analog. And they were all being replaced with new gears and resolvers. I recall that there was another group nearby that was experimenting with microcomputers - they had some S-100 boxes like IMSAI 8080s.
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