Posted on 05/02/2009 6:23:53 PM PDT by Maelstorm
Yep I agree on that!The old timers had an eye for woman.
Yup. Who says pretty girls can’t be Ubergeeks? Hedy certainly was.
LOL!
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Thanks nralife. Believe it or not, there have been a few other topics about this interesting piece of ancient technology. I've posted most of them above. |
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Nevertheless, the Antikythera Mechanism suggests both the sophistication of Greek science and technology and that generations of potential technical and material progress were forfeited through lack of institutions to carry them forward from one generation to the next.
The university, a creation of the Renaissance, made the preservation, development, and dissemination of knowledge an institutional imperative. Just as important, in the 18th Century, businessmen and investors became willing to fund the development of technology for the sake of profit through sales of new mechanical devices.
Taking a broader view of the matter, due to the limitations of ancient societies, the Antikythera Mechanism was an isolated bit of genius with no progeny and no business case. It took the creation of universities and modern capitalism to make the technological revolution of the modern world.
Tesla was a smart guy, but there were others
In 1936, Zuse made a mechanical calculator called the Z1, the first binary computer. Zuse used it to explore several groundbreaking technologies in calculator development: floating-point arithmetic, high-capacity memory and modules or relays operating on the yes/no principle. Zuse’s ideas, not fully implemented in the Z1, succeeded more with each Z prototype.
In 1939, Zuse completed the Z2, the first fully functioning electro-mechanical computer.
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050298.htm
and in 1937 - Iowa State Colleges John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry begin work on creating the binary-based ABC (Atanasoft-Berry Computer). Considered by most to be the first electronic digital computer. An interesting side note, these fellows were HAM operators. didahdidahdidah.
http://www.computerhope.com/history/190040.htm
And in 1939 George Stibitz completes the Complex Number Calculator capable of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing complex numbers. This device provides a foundation for digital computers.
Then things start to get busy...
This is all Greek history and some contemporary Persians would dispute or negate the Grecians.
. . . or, with an earlier start, we might have terraformed Mars by now.
It was an idea for frequency hopping that Heddy helped come up with. A sort of mechanical disc contraption that worked kinda like the rotating platter in a wind up music box.
Electrical contact would vary according to what pins made contact through holes in the plate as it moved. I suppose the contacts changed inductance or capacitance to effect an automatic change of frequency.
A really great idea, but the problem of synchronization between two setups was what kept it from being practical at the time.
Also, the idea was not useful to get through jamming equipment as the jammers of the day could cover a wide spectrum easily.
Changing frequencies in an attempt to limit a listeners ability to intercept your communications was used in WW1...but it was a poor attempt to do it manually according to a pre arranged pattern. It just befuddled the listener for a short while...just long enough for them to note all the frequencies and have multiple receivers going.
The art of electronic communications and how to encrypt data traffic and also send false data to the enemy first came about in the 1860’s as civil war telegraphers strung many hundreds of miles of enameled wire through the woods and used keys and sounders to communicate. Often the enemy was tapped in and listening so they used simple codes and sent plenty of false traffic. Some of the telegraphers were just boys...some as young as 12.
Something like this:
Reminds me of a program I once saw on the inventions of Hero of Alexandria (1st century BC) http://www.tmth.edu.gr/en/aet/5/55.html
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Hero_of_Alexandria
Or the series Longitude -about the perfection of the maritime clock http://www.amazon.com/Longitude-VHS-Jonathan-Coy/dp/B00004U2K0
Hook it up to the internet and make it hum.
Yes, but Tesla was working decades ahead of these others.
Good Point, She was not destroyed in battle, but in atomic tests.. We had the New Jersey and Missouri in Long Beach.
I saw the analog computers and command center in the USS Massachusetts and it was amazing. The CIC was underneath a 5” thick Armor deck.
“The last combat action for the analog rangekeepers, at least for the US Navy, was in the 1991 Persian Gulf War[13] when the rangekeepers on the Iowa-class battleships directed their last rounds in combat.”
No wonder my parents wouldn't let me have a computer in my bedroom when I wuz a kid.
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