30 Oct
2013
30 Oct
'13
8:49 p.m.
On 10/29/2013 1:07 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
On 2013 Oct 28, at 7:01 PM, Josh Dersch wrote:
Sure, that'd be very interesting to look at. When I get some time I
want to figure out how this thing works...
Thanks,
Josh
Grabbed this as it triggered both my
"interesting numerical display
device" and "old computer" reflexes:
http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/misc/univac.jpg
It's labeled on the back (roughly, as things don't line up
particularly well):
Magtrol, Inc.
DYNAMOMETER HDE-500
MODEL HD-705
SERIAL NO 511B341
TACHOMETER 811E342
MODEL
SERIAL NO
And riveted to the back is a placard reading "SER 2U02-2"
Inside it's completely tube-based, no solid state electronics at
all. Not counting the Dekatrons, there are 9 tubes in this thing,
one branded "UNIVAC" on the base, the rest appear to be RCA. It
looks like it contains an electronic tachometer of some sort. I
can't seem to find a date code on anything. Any ideas on what this
might have been used for, and how it would relate to UNIVAC?
I can provide more pictures later if anyone's interested, once I get
a chance to disassemble it a bit...
Very cute. Between 'dynamometer', 'torque adjust', and 'Magtrol'
I was
going to guess something to do with calibrating the mechanics of the
tape drives.
The dekatrons are likely the display for the tachometer function.
Photomultiplier tubes were sometimes used as the tachometer sensor for
such counters.
I can provide schematics of a couple of dekatron counters to give an
idea of how dekatrons were used in-circuit, if of interest.
