[GreenKeys] (no subject)

[Don Robert House]

David,

I think you know the answer.  These analog calculators had electrical  
parts but were not general purpose and not electronic.
The gun directing analog computers did their job extremely well and  
very accurately, however I can find no evidence of them being used  
for any other purpose than directing guns.  German battleships also  
had very good analog gun directors but again, I can find no reference  
for any other use.  Early radars could have possibly used a analog  
directing system that would have been similar.

The gun directors on the the Iowa Class Battleships would be about  
the same development period as the MARK I Calculator.  Another  
subject for further reference would be the Navy weapons location at  
Dahlgren, Virginia which has been around for a very long time.  If  
Adm. Grace Hopper was still with us, she could verify this information.

All the best,
Don
K9TTY


On 11 Oct 2007, at 12:55 AM, David Weil wrote:
Hi Don - I am forwarding this message to you since I think you or  
your Greenkeys buddies are better equipped to answer his question. I  
would only offer that the ENIAC and UNIVAC computers were general  
purpose machines while what he is referring to were analog guidance  
systems built to do one purpose, and while they can be considered a  
form of computer, they would not serve a function outside of their  
intended deployment.

Hope all is well with you and the family.

All the best,
David

David Allen <davidallentrucking at msn.com> wrote:
From: "David Allen" <davidallentrucking at msn.com>
To: <dweil at computer-museum.org>
Subject: First computers
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:31:09 -0400

Hi,
Regarding the subject of the first electronic computers, I've found  
that WW2 battleships and other early military uses are rarely  
mentioned.  In searching this subject, I found your site which has  
been the most helpful so far but am unable to find references to the  
information I want.  My question is:
Where would you place computers such as the one that can be viewed  
fully preserved onboard the USS North Carolina in Wilmington, NC in a  
review of the history of computers?
As an admirer of US ingenuity from the WW2 era, I've often wondered  
why ENIAC and UNIVAC from the mid '40s to the late '50s get all the  
press while battleships built ca.1939-40 were equipped with computers  
capable of providing firing solutions for their 16 and 5 inch guns  
and a host of other purposes.  These data entry machines accepted  
input from about 25 manned stations and accounted for every variable  
imaginable to provide accurate gunnery, catapult plane launches, and  
aerial missions calculations.  (A lot of people today don't know it,  
but WW2 aircraft missions in the Pacific were often commanded from  
battleships,  not their base carrier.)  I know a lot of this  
information hasn't filtered out yet and was still "classified top  
secret" until just a few years ago when ships still using some of the  
key components of the old computers were finally retired making many  
of their systems "de-classifiable".  I'm speaking of the USS Missouri  
(Pearl Harbor) and USS Wisconsin (Norfolk) which were both active  
until after the first Gulf War.  One of these ships (can't remember  
which) was upgraded to a modern system in the late '80s and tested  
against the vintage one for accuracy.  The negligible improvement in  
accuracy and the staggering cost of the refit killed the upgrade  
plans for the other ship.  So to say that this type of data  
calculator was retired 50yrs ago is untrue.
I'm sorry if I've bored you.  Thanks a lot for any references you can  
provide.
Yours,
David Allen, Kannapolis, NC
davidallentrucking at msn.com

I learned the above information as it was made available on tours of  
the USS NC and the USS WI/Nautilus Museum.