MetaFilter posts tagged with analog and computer

The Typewriter at the Gates of Dawn

Wordshore — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:25:16 -0800

The BBC reports that the last typewriter to be built in the UK (according to its manufacturers) has been donated to London's Science Museum. "Brother said it had stopped making typewriters because demand had fallen to 30 a day, with most of those being sold in the US." From less than five years ago, another BBC news story: "The Japanese multinational Brother sold 12,000 electronic typewriters last year in the UK..." The first typewriter was patented (but not commercially manufactured) in 1714. Though many other mechanical typing devices were invented thereafter, the Sholes and Glidden typewriter (developed between 1866 and 1874) was the first commercially successful model, and the one which gave us the world 'typewriter'. Though in decline, the typewriter industry is not - contrary to recent reports - completely over. As recently as last year, one manufacturer was producing machines for the US prison system. New Brother typewriters are still for sale on Amazon. And Mom and Pop and independent stores, from Oregon to Massachusetts, are still around. The Flickr Writing Machines group contains many pictures of typewriters.

The sky is 'Purest Blue'

LastOfHisKind — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:42:23 -0800

Those of us who enjoy old-school chemical photography often need to calculate f-stop and exposure times. Of course you can use a ginormous table but there exists a solution from a more elegant age in which the sky can be purest blue above a very narrow old street. Marvel at Kaufmann's Posographe, a wonder of the analog age.

Antikythera 2.0

Burhanistan — Thu, 20 May 2010 08:25:13 -0800

Welcome to the Analog Computer Museum and History Center - a collection of pictures, diagrams, and historical snippets of pre-GUI devices of the 20th century.

Analog Fire Control

mikepaco — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:58:47 -0800

u.s navy vintage fire control computers : An intriguing look at the mechanical workings of the computers of World War 2.

300 baud of awesome in a wooden box

loquacious — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:47:03 -0800

This is what 300 baud looks like online today.

Skip to page 12 for some real fun. Philbrick must have owned stock in a battery factory.

metasonix — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 00:19:01 -0800

In 1937-38, computer pioneer George Philbrick worked for the Foxboro Co. as an analyst. He had the radical idea of building an electronic analog computer to simulate the behaviour of hydraulic industrial equipment, so Foxboro customers could experiment with control systems without needing a pipe wrench. One of the world's first analog computers was ignominiously ferried around the U.S. in the back seat of Philbrick's car. Ironically, Philbrick didn't give his "Automatic Process Analyzer" a properly techy, pretentious nickname. He dubbed his one-eyed monster Polyphemus. (PDF) (prev)

Don't bother looking at Wikipedia for an article about George Philbrick.

metasonix — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 01:57:38 -0800

It has always been difficult to look up any information on the pioneers of computing. Even today, in the Internet age, one has trouble finding much about early computers--even on the ultimate computer network.

Consider the late George A. Philbrick. He was one of the titanic figures in electronic computing in the 1950s--mainly because of the company he founded, which was a major manufacturer (and pioneer) of the operational amplifier, at a time when an "op-amp" was made of vacuum tubes. Op-amps were used to build analog computers, which were widely used to simulate physical processes in the days when digital computers were either non-existent, or too slow and costly, for many kinds of simulation and process-control work. Op-amps, in chip form, are still widely used in electronics. Yet, despite his unquestioned status as a major pioneer of electronics, there was almost nothing on the Internet about Philbrick or his company.

Until 2005--when Joe Sousa decided to put up a website dedicated to Philbrick's legacy. Behold The Philbrick Archive.