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Original Message
RE: -75 dB
Posted by pictureguy on July 7, 2014 at 12:08:56:
At this late date, I don't know if it was Analogue or Digital but I once visited the Sinclair (petroleum) research labs outside of Chicago. A friend of my dads was a chemist in the hi pressure lab and had some missing digits to prove it.
The computer in question was a vacuum tube model with a huge plugboard as in the EAI brochure.
One of the brain guys my dad knew had written a great circle navigation program for this machine. And it worked! Somewhere in my 'stuff' I may still have the 1/4 MILE of punch tape of the program. Only later (mid/late 70s) could you get a great circle navigation program for the then wacky revolutionary HP handhelds.
I don't know how much floor space the computer took up, but the AC system EASILY was enough for a small apartment building!
The provided link shows a video of a WORKING 'Difference Engine #2' designed but NEVER completed by Charles Babbage. I believe the Vid shows the machine built by the Smithsonian to the original plans. One intent was to make a CORRECT trig table for navigation. Up to that time trig tables were hand copied and computed. Lots of errors crept in which made for problems, as you can imagine. Babbage ALSO designed a printer which I don't think has been built to this day.
An early, but certainly NOT the earliest analogue computer.