24 Nov
2008
24 Nov
'08
5:30 p.m.
(My brain wants to say it was "how to build a
working digital
computer", but I could be wrong there). I wonder if anyone ever
actually built one that worked? :-)
Your brain is not leading you astray. That's the book. Here's the PDF version:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/paperClipComputer/HowToBuildAWorkingDigitalCom…
24 Nov
24 Nov
6:05 p.m.
On 24 Nov 2008 at 17:30, William Blair wrote:
Wow, that player-piano style drum unit caused a dormant neuron to
twitch. Wasn't there a commercial "educational computer" that was
the spitting image of this thing, but all in a single big long unit?
Pretty much about the same time period as the Heathkit analog
computer, maybe?
Cheers,
Chuck
(My brain
wants to say it was "how to build a working digital
computer", but I could be wrong there). I wonder if anyone ever
actually built one that worked? :-)
Your brain is not leading you astray. That's the book. Here's the PDF version:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/paperClipComputer/HowToBuildAWorkingDigitalCom…
25 Nov
25 Nov
6:28 a.m.
William Blair wrote:
That claim of some drums operating at 75,000rpm has to be a typo... I can
believe 7500 - but 75,000? Ouch!
(My brain
wants to say it was "how to build a working digital
computer", but I could be wrong there). I wonder if anyone ever
actually built one that worked? :-)
Your brain is not leading you astray. That's the book. Here's the PDF version:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/paperClipComputer/HowToBuildAWorkingDigitalCom…
8:47 a.m.
On 25 Nov 2008 at 8:28, Jules Richardson wrote:
That claim of some drums operating at 75,000rpm has to
be a typo... I can
believe 7500 - but 75,000? Ouch!
Reminds me of a story that I heard from Neil Lincoln about a very
high speed drum that Jim Thornton and his crew at CDC were working on
for the STAR. It's been many years, but ISTR that the drum was being
spun at very high speeds in vacuo on magnetic bearings or some such
wild thing. Neil said it was easy to see when a head would crash
even without the "ping" microphones because the observation window
would suddenly grow opaque...
Another gizmo thought up by Thornton for the STAR was the "SCROLL"
drum. Instead of spinning the media, heads were mounted on a
cylinder and the cylinder spun. A long strip of "tape" as wide as
the drum wrapped the drum about 3/4 of the way around and was moved
to select a new "frame" on the tape, somewhat similar to the way a
head in a VHS VCR works.
It didn't work so well either. Both units were described in the
boilerplate for at least two proposals, however.
Cheers,
Chuck
2 Dec
2 Dec
10:35 p.m.
On Nov 25, 2008, at 9:28 AM, Jules Richardson wrote:
That claim of some drums operating at 75,000rpm has to be a typo...
I can believe 7500 - but 75,000? Ouch!
Yeah really...if that were to break loose, it'd probably go
through a wall.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
(My brain wants to say it was "how to build a
working digital
computer", but I could be wrong there). I wonder if anyone ever
actually built one that worked? :-)
Your brain is not leading you astray.
That's the book. Here's
the PDF version:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/paperClipComputer/
HowToBuildAWorkingDigitalComputer_Jun67.pdf 
3 Dec
3 Dec
12:09 p.m.
> That claim of some drums operating at 75,000rpm
has to be a typo...
> I can believe 7500 - but 75,000? Ouch!
On Wed, 3 Dec 2008, Dave McGuire wrote:
Yeah really...if that were to break loose, it'd
probably go
through a wall.
I would guess several very thick walls.
A "transmission girdle" (for containing loose flywheels) would be
inadequate.
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