The Antikythera is 1000 years older than any other known mechanical calculator, dating from circa 100 BC. It is believed to be a Greek analog computer for astronomical measurements.
amazing analog computers
The history of computers is not all digital, from the humble slide rule to hydraulic models of the economy there is a rich history of both electronic and mechanical analog computers. Here are some of our favorite examples.
These computers have certain advantages over their symbolic counterparts. They measure continuous variables in parallel and therefore their accuracy is limited only by the granularity with which their results are read and their speed is not limited by sequential operations.
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The Polish AKAT 1 with this great looking terminal, was a modified version of other existing computers, it is rumored to have been used as a synth on Beatles recordings.
So secret was the Norden bombsight that it was in many ways the US version of the German Enigma machine. While the cracking the Enigma machine helped create the modern computer, the Norden was a computer itself, a mechanical bomb trajectory computer.
It was carried on and off planes, before and after missions, by armed guard, and it is said that airmen were to shoot the machine with a pistol, if they crash landed in enemy territory.
This compuer was never actually flown, but nicely puts the Apollo program computing resources in historical context. NASA computers have to be reliable and use throughly debugged hardware, in designs that progress more slowly than computer hardware updates. The Hubble launched with 386 chips, and Shuttle astronauts resorted to taking up laptops to supplement the aging on board systems.
This bulky analog computer, shown, is on board the USS Pampanito. It is the Mark III Torpedo Data Computer which was the standard model on board American submarines in WWII.
The mechanical nature of early differential analyzers, makes them an ideal object to build hugely elaborate erector set models that actually do something that partcularly appeals to erector set modelers .
A product of the Berkeley Division of Beckman Instruments, Inc., this analog computer system was loaded on an American Airlines DC-6A Airfreighter at SFO, grouped in 29 metal cabinets, six feet high and spanning a width of nearly 60 feet.
The Applied Dynamics is perhaps not a particularly remarkable example of an analog computer, however this is a very nice publicity shot, from Doug Coward’s fantastic online Analog Computer Museum.
Although this shows, a fabulous looking Comdyna LPG-20, Comdyna are more famous for the Comdyna-6.
The Comdyna-6 was, amazingly, still produced by Comdyna 36 years after launch, in 2004, and is popular as a laboratory control system.
Along with the AKAT -1 this may have been the computer that provided the early synth sounds for the Beatles on Sgt Pepper.
One of six such machines built by GE, this was installed at UCLA in 1947. It is reminiscent of the ginat machine built by Vannevar Bush at MIT in the 30s.
The Heathkit EC-1, was introduced in 1960 in assembled or kit form, primarily for Universities. As the price of vacuum tubes came down, it was the first affordable computer and became a classic.
This device was sold as a "compact analog computer". It has a particular build style that is unique.
Hitachi made a wide variety of analog and analog-digital hybrid computers. This image of the 505e, is included as it is a good example of what became a particular, standard, look and feel for analog computers.
Built in the early 70’s, the German Dornier was a high precision machine for scientific use, costing around $50,000. Note the Nixie Tube digital display.
Hans Kuhn built a number of highly innovative analog computers at the University of Marburg, to analyze the chemical models. These systems replaced the earlier mechanical models held together by springs, with fluctuating voltages representing forces.
This amazing hydraulic computer was created by a New Zealander, Bill Phillips, while a student at the London School of Economics, in 1949. It was an elaborate piece of home built plumbing that modeled the national economy.
