Make: Online � Fascinating 1953 Navy Film Series on Mechanical Computers

Make: Online � Fascinating 1953 Navy Film Series on Mechanical ComputersBefore there were elec tron ic com put ers, there were mechan i cal com put ers, and one of the most impor tant uses of these was in direct ing gun fire on sur­face war ships. Mechan i cal fire con trol com put ers took inputs from manned instru ments that visu al ly tracked enemy ships, and also con sid ered vari­ables such as wind speed and direc tion, the fir ing ship’s head ing and veloc i­ty, etc. That infor ma tion—com plete ly in the form of phys i cal dis place ments of mechan i cal move ments—was cranked through a com plex train of shafts, gears, cams, and dif fer en tials that com put ed the opti mal fir ing solu tion, and auto mat i cal ly aimed the guns accord ing ly.