[GreenKeys] WWII-Era "Computers"

[don at thedjbrothers.com]

To be more specific, WWII "computers" were mechanical or electrical, based
on wheels of spinning contacts or racks of relays. None of the successful
ones used vacuum tubes (which would make them "electronic"). The closest
that any of them came to "general purpose" was the use of
telephone-switchboard-style patch cords to link different components--and
this is to say that they did not come close at all. They were analog
machines built to solve very specific problems, as Don suggests below.

It is remarkable how much was accomplished in that era using primitive
mechanical and electrical technologies--relays, gears, Teletype paper tape,
and IBM card sorters. Pictures and good descriptions of some of the most
sophisticated gear used at Bletchley Park and Arlington Hall are found in
the book BATTLE OF WITS by Stephen Budiansky. Actually, the book spends most
of it's time on details of machine-assisted cryptography during the
war--ENIGMA is discussed in detail, as are the BOMBEs, COLOSSUS and many of
the others that were tried with poor results. But the details of some of the
machines used, how they were applied and the cryptographic solutions they
were designed to implement are very engaging for anyone interested in either
cryptography or crypto machines. I have a hard back copy for sale for $5
plus $2.50 media mailing if anyone wants it. It's 400+ pages and has some
pretty good story-telling interspersed with all the crypto-babble.

-Don Merz



Don Merz
www.Ovation-Images.com
412-735-4959
 
www.TheDJbrothers.com
412-344-0956
 

-----Original Message-----
From: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Robert House
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 7:00 PM
To: Greenkeys
Subject: [GreenKeys] (no subject)

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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