I think this kind of stuff is both cool and educational. I wonder how loud a computer made out of mechanical relays is when running?
Welcome to the first in a series of articles describing the creation of a computing engine called The Heath Robinson Rube Goldberg (HRRG) Multifarious Technology Computer. This machine will be built using a variety of implementation technologies, including (but not limited to) relays, vacuum tubes, transistors, and simple integrated circuits — also mechanical, magnetic, pneumatic, and fluidic logic — and possibly some even more esoteric technologies.
In case you were wondering, this contraption (affectionately known as “The Beast”) is named after British cartoonist and illustrator William Heath Robinson (1872-1944) and his American counterpart Reuben Lucius Goldberg (1883-1970). Robinson and Goldberg were both famous for creating illustrations of machines that were intended to perform relatively simple tasks, but whose implementations were incredibly complex such that they performed their tasks in exceedingly convoluted and indirect ways.
I remember putting together a Digi-Comp One back in High School. This kind of project would be a great way to teach kids about the concepts and basics of computing.
If I didn’t come to this site for the debate I’d still comes for the links!
This was done over as hundred years ago by the government. The 1890 census was done on a mechanical computer, giving counts of people in different categories.
Thats neat!
A whole lot of clicking going on!
I maintained what was essentially a computer made up of relays for a few years. It filled a large room (5000 sq feet) and had over 1 million relay contacts (don’t remember how many relays). I was one of the few people that knew the system inside / out and I could trouble shoot it over the phone.
When it was busy the noise level was measured at a peak of 78db. A good bit of that noise was the battery charger (48 Volts) and some blower motors.
The equipment was used during the Cold War to control communications to the 4 main Strategic Air Command bases.
This was replaced by a box the size of a refrigerator a few years before the Cold War ended.
2,
Do you know there are still people who shoot with black powder muzzle loaders? Anacronism is cool.
Reminds me of the giant computor in the old Hammer Films flick , circa 1956, about radioactive mud from space that was eating Scotland. Damn, my mind just went blank on the name. 🙂
Hey I had one of these! Got it in 5th grad for xmas. There was a game you could play with the readout and you programmed it by placing the purple straws you can see in the picture on different parts of the horizontal planes. You “ran” it by pumping a plastic tab on the right side in and out.
Yup. Using tools like that is what gives you a deeper feel for the tech behind all this stuff.
Anybody here remember…. I think it was called the Geniac? It was a kit sold in small ads in the back of Scientific American, back in the mid-1950s, the object being to set up logic gates using battery-powered relays. I got one for my birthday and played with it for years, trying to do this and that with it. I thought it was cool because it combined a computer with an actual soldering iron that was responsible for more than a few burns on the small homework desk in my room.
Alix:
Rumor has it you was seen with a female astronunt 🙂
Hammer Films flick , circa 1956, about radioactive mud from space that was eating Scotland.
“>Would that be The Quatermass Experiment?. It’s the first one I thought of. 1955 if so…
Plenty of others. I always wanted to take the old ‘exploding computers’ from old SciFi Movies and use them to create a TV commercial for a repair/sales biz.
J/P=?
Loud – what about RF noise?
Does it meet Class B?
you can probably receive this thing 1/4 mile away
and nothing else!
I once made a crystal radio out of aluminum foil, wax paper and a natural galena crystal. I would be cool to try to do this with the rawest of materials.
RBG
12,
The plastic computer would have zero RF issues.
Then there was my 4K RAM Ohio Scientific “Superboard” computer of the mid 80’s (Circa the Sinclair Z-whatever.) I still have it. I remember the feeling of complete and utter power when I upgraded to 8K.
Also, I would be even more cool in 13 if I could spell “It” as in “It would be cool…”
RBG
#11…John Paradox….it was ***X The Unknown***…I had to go look at my films….lol
Whats funny is that last night I watched one from 1950 called ***Destination Moon*** and they had a shot of the same computor in it. As near as I can figure it must have been built about 1948.