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Are you saying old vacumn tube radios would heat up? And that old vacumn tube computers took an army to change out burned out tubes?

I actually walked around inside an old vacuum tube computer, the ANFSQ-7. When I was six, and again when I was nine or ten.

Each one had around 60,000 vacuum tubes. They needed a huge air conditioning plant to keep them cool. When you were inside the machine, the biggest thing you heard was rushing air. I remember being told that if the air conditioning failed, the mainframe room would become uninhabitable in two minutes. In hindsight that seems a bit of an exaggeration, but I don't know. According to Google AI, each ANFSQ-7 consumed 3MW of power, and there were two of them in each installation, one operational, the other on standby.

Each installation (the system was called SAGE) had its own power plant, with four or five big Diesel-powered generators, and a set of counter-flow cooling towers to reject the waste heat.

So they generated the 3MWe necessary to power each of the computers, and in addition the electricity to power the air conditioners to get rid of all the heat. Pretty amazing.

Each one got a kerosene delivery three times a week, IIRC. One of those airport-type fuel trucks.

I actually walked around inside an old vacuum tube computer, the ANFSQ-7. When I was six, and again when I was nine or ten. Each one had around 60,000 vacuum tubes. They needed a huge air conditioning plant to keep them cool. When you were inside the machine, the biggest thing you heard was rushing air. I remember being told that if the air conditioning failed, the mainframe room would become uninhabitable in two minutes. In hindsight that seems a bit of an exaggeration, but I don't know. According to Google AI, each ANFSQ-7 consumed 3MW of power, and there were two of them in each installation, one operational, the other on standby.
Each installation (the system was called SAGE) had its own power plant, with four or five big Diesel-powered generators, and a set of counter-flow cooling towers to reject the waste heat. So they generated the 3MWe necessary to power each of the computers, and in addition the electricity to power the air conditioners to get rid of all the heat. Pretty amazing.

Very cool story - thanks for sharing Tom...