Mechanical Computing

FTL writes "Tim Robinson has built a computer capable of solving polynomial equations -- using Meccano. His difference engine (mirror) uses a similar approach to Babbage's design. He's also created a differential analyzer (mirror) complete with a GUI. Both could be scaled up indefinitely to handle larger problems. 'Computing by steam' is possible."

Comments

Strange

[Anonymous Coward]

Strange. I thought Mechanical Computing was in the past

Re:Strange

[cjellibebi]

It is in the past for state of the art computers, but in the present for geeks playing around with computers that can easily be built. It's always fun to find an alternative method of building a computing device, and building it just for fun. I've seen logic-gates built out of all kinds of things.

Digital computers are more suited being built electronically (small and fast), but in the early days of computers, many were analog. The transition to digital happened around the same time as the transition from mechanical to electronic. Nowardays, analog computing is virtually unheard of, but I think that sometime during the late 80's/early 90's, they had found an application for analog computing in Neural Networks. I can't remember what it was, but the revival in analog computing has failed to materialise, so it must not have been very important.

Beautiful!

[tyroneking]

No really - this is art...

Computing by steam?

[ranger714]

Sounds like what happened to a friend of mine recently who devised his own "Homebrew" watercooling rig for his Athlon64...

The steaming vents on the case gave mute testimony to the utter destruction the water made as it transisioned rapidly from liquid form to gaseous form. Poor devil...

Of course, I could also see something like that from the original "Wild, Wild West" tv show (and not the horrific movie of the same name), or maybe "Brisco County, Jr.".

1835 Called

[Anonymous Coward]

1835 called; they want their revolutionary technological ideas back.

Tinkertoys

[Tablizer]

Don't forget about the Tinkertoy computer

MIT's 1930s differential analyzer

[Anonymous Coward]

Mechanical computers were built and used over 60 years ago to solve differential equations and other analytical type problems. I know MIT and UCLA had pretty good mechanical computers in the WWII era. Check out MIT's famous mechanical differential analyzer for and idea of what was and is and awesome piece of hardware.

Sweet

[Revolution 9]

I always wanted a PC I could shovel coal into.

Next project?

[cjellibebi]

I recon this guy should try to build a machine that uses computational logic gates (NAND, NOR, etc). From that, he can build up things like binary adders and simple flip-flops. Then, add an instruction-decoder, and an arithmetic-logic unit - and viola - a Meccano CPU.

Re:Next project?

[temojen]

I think perhaps a (finite) turing machine would be much easier. It would be simpler due to not needing random access memory.

Re:Next project?

[mark-t]

Approximately one year ago, there was a lot of discussion on the pneumatics newsgroup for lugnet, and some interesting ideas on how to make assorted digital computing elements using LEGO were worked out. AND, OR, XOR, Adders, and even a mechanism for binary-based memory storage were designed.

The costs of purchasing enough LEGO elements to actually make a simple and an even remotely usable computer, however, was well into the thousands of dollars.... kind of hard to justify for something that ultimately, is... well... rather useless.

My first computer

[Registered Coward v2]

was a mechanical rig that used 1 inch soda straws for 1's and blank holes fro zeros. You pulled a crank and it added two numbers. I wish I could remember its name - it was some sort of "science kit." from the 60's.

Re:My first computer

[kfg]

I've been trying to remember the name of that puppy too. I had one and it was fascinating (if you're the sort of kid who also takes apart those old, plastic, push button, gear driven adding machines they used to sell in the grocery stores to see how they worked. Mechanical computers were actually nearly ubiquitous in the 60s).

Anyone with 60s comic books should be able to find an ad for one in the back, right next to the 6 foot long fiberboard submarine.

I never had one of those. I still blame my mommy.

KFG

Re:My first computer

[paul_21954]

my first digital computer was a digicomp 1. it got thrown away. there is a yahoo group dedicated to it and there is a pic and some info here: http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw/j-hist.shtml there used to be a simulation of it on a web page but i can't seem to find that (URL i had is dead).

Obviously it is.

[Valar]

Of course mechanical computation is possible. The easiest example I can think of is division/multiplication. Two gears, the ratio of which is the multiplier. Turn the first gear a number of turns equal to the multiplicand and count the rotations of the second gear.

Re:Next thing to do..

[GridPoint]

Linux probably would a bit too large to fit, but a port of Contiki might be worth waiting for, given their track record... Now if only someone would care to make a mechanical Ethernet NIC and we could build a fully mechanical webserver. You wouldn't be able to stand the noise a slashdotting of that would make!

Reminds me off the great novel by Bruce Sterling

[amarodeeps]

...and William Gibson, called The Difference Engine. I recommend it, it's a fascinating idea, which is basically: what if computer became available much earlier, in the form of mechanical computers--they would take up entire factory buildings, and people would essentially become experts at creating these ornate ivory punchcards (if I remember correctly...). Actually, I should really pick it up and read it again.

May I be the first to say...

[the_twisted_pair]

640 nuts and bolts should be enough for anybody

Serious kudos due here - it's a labour of love.

Re:Rod Logic

[MarcQuadra]

That's actually probably how nanoprocessors will operate, getting electricity to stay where you want it on the scale is a lot harder than using nanotubes with rods suspended in them. Of course, there will be actuators at the 'leads' that are electrical or light-actuated.

Other mechanical computers

[Flyboy Connor]

A.K. Dewdney describes in "The Tinkertoy Computer and Other Machinations" not only the famous Tinkertoy computer, but also how a computer can be constructed entitely from ropes and pulleys. Furthermore, in "The Planiverse" he describes how a computer can be built in a two-dimensional world (quite a feat, I can tell you).

Mechanical PDAs

[scattol]

That's OK, but for the man of the 50's on the go what do you do? You get a CURTA calculator. They were said to be popular with rally drivers for instance.

They are relatively valuable and pretty nifty calculator. You can try to get a feel for it with the simulator. Enjoy!

square roots mechanically

[Alien Being]

My dad was selling those newfangled electronic Friden calculators back in the mid sixties when I was a little kid. Once in a while, he'd bring home one of the old mechanical machines that had been traded in, like this one. I'd love to have one of those babies now.

The Antikathera Mechanism

[bsDaemon]

big deal. This Thing is over 2,000 years old! It's an astronaumical computer and clock thingie. With gears and everything. "boo ya," as the kids say.

Re:Next project? The Analytical Engine!

[WegianWarrior]

Charles Babbage gave up on the differiensial engine because he thought he could build a general purpose mechanical computer - the Analytical Engine! To recreate that device would really rock... if I had the time, money and (last but not least) the knowhow, I might try it myself...

Off course, an Analytical Engine would be way larger than a Difference Engine , since it would have to include a CPU (the 'mill'), a input device (Babbage himself suggested punch cards - an idea which the early electromechanical computers picked up), an output device (Babbage wanted to built a complete, automated printingpress, curveplotter and a bell to alert the operator of errors),and last but not least a 'store' (memory - the one envisoned by Babbage would store 1000 numbers, each 50 digits long). The Analytical Enginge was to be programable - which was it great strenght compared to the Differensial Engine - in a language resembling todays assembler languages. Such a machine would be slow and lowpowered by our standards, but would have been a gigantic leap forward back in the 1830's... shame he never got around to build it.