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How To Make 96,000lbs of WWII Machinery Into High-Tech Research Platform
coondoggie writes "The US Naval Research Laboratory is taking a 96,000-pound piece of World War II-era machinery and turning it into a test-bed for leading edge communications and radar applications. The equipment was originally known as a three-axis tilting platform designed to simulate the movements of a large ship at sea. It was built by Westinghouse in 1943 as a gun platform requiring only primitive motion in roll, pitch and yaw, according to the Navy Lab. Specifically it was used as a mechanically operated deck with a heavy machine gun director and a machine gun mount installed. Gun crews and director operators could be trained on the platform under conditions that approximated the movements of a vessel at sea."
Well hello there you little ray of sunshine
You need to use measurements people have an intuitive grasp of. Nobody in the US knows how much a kilo "feels like" but 96,000 lb is a readily comprehensible number.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
We were still using predominately virgin steel in the '40s, so the costs for this material by weight was probably not significantly different than for other forms of steel from the manufacturer. As the raw steel smelter was selling right to the government or to the durable-goods manufacturer, whatever their price was, should be fairly close.
Or in other words, whoever smelt it, dealt it...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.