17 Feb
2008
17 Feb
'08
12:04 p.m.
I read the very original post, about whether or not it
would be possible
to make a digital computer with the technology of the early 1900s as
"Send a list member from 2008 back to 1900 and see if they can make a
computer" - perhaps I misunderstood the question.
Do we have any list members who work in IC fabrication :-)
More seriously, there are a couple of books called 'The Voice of the
Crystal' and 'Instruments of Amplficiations' written by a chap who made
(AM) radio receivers using no commercial electronic components (he does
use shop-bought enammeled copper wire). In the second book, he makes a
few triode vlaves and both point-contact and (copper oxide) juction
transistors.
The devices have a pretty poor performance, and a very short lifetime.
But they do work. And I suspect it's possible to do better, even in a lab
of 1900.
If that's the correct premise, then I'd say yes, it's very likely that
someone from 2008 could time-travel back to 1900 and (assuming money,
tools and a workshop, and possibly some assistants) build a working
digital computer.
I'm darn sure it is. If you'll accept 'electromechancial' (relays,
stepping switches, etc), then, although the machine would be large, and
slow, I have no doubt it could be made. In 1900, while the _theory_ of
electricity was not well understood, the practivcal operation of things
like electromagnets seems to have been,
Now to test this, we're going to need a TARDIS and Tony Duell...
You provide the first, I'll provide the second :-)
-tony