20 Jul
2024
20 Jul
'24
10:03 p.m.
On 2024-07-20 10:41 p.m., Tony Duell via cctalk wrote:
On Sun, Jul 21, 2024 at 3:08 AM Steve Lewis via
cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Fluid computing, tech of the future.
Or it was in 1968...
What I meant was that in the title of the book
they use "digital computer"
and I wonder if there was ever a book describing a mechanical "analog
computer" - and what they might even look like.
There have been mechanical analogue computers and I have at least one
book describing them on my shelves.
Typically they used disc integrators with an igenious arrangement of
strings and drums as a torque amplifier. These were then coupled by
gearing which had to be set up for each problem (simple gear trains
correspond to fixed gain amplifiers, differential gear trains to
differential amplfiiers, etc).
I doubt you could make one from cardboard, but there was at least one
UK University that made a simple one from Meccano (similar to Erector
Sets across the Pond?). It was on show, not operating, in the London
Science Museum at one time, but I think it's in storage now,
-tony