[GreenKeys] (no subject)

[Bob Camp]

Hi

A lot of those plotting "computers" were fully mechanical devices.  
There are still autopilots flying planes today based on the same  
principles. The drive power is electric, but the rest of it is a  
bunch of fancy gears and very precisely cut cams ...

Bob

On Oct 11, 2007, at 6:59 PM, Don Robert House wrote:

> 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.
>
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