[Leica] Some artifacts at the Computer History Museum #2

[red735i at verizon.net (Frank Filippone)]

Huh?

Trivia.....  The term "computer bug" came from this period.  Caused by
cockroaches that seek out the warmth and food ( insulation) of the electrics
( notice, not electronics).  They caused a bunch of problems back then.  (
And that was before Windows!)

The A/C was sometimes the largest cost.... as the tubes ( what, 7,000?)
generated an enormous amount of heat, that led to failure of the tubes
themselves and the wiring and especially the capacitors.

If you have ever seen one of these monsters you will realize the massiveness
of an installation.  Ease of replacing a tube ( if you were lucky enough to
find the one bad tube in 7,000) was not bad, but you had to find the bad
one, let stuff cool down ( and dissipate the charges of several hundred
volts on various capacitors) before starting the procedure.

Built like tanks is more like it.....

BTW, I learned to use the Analog Devices analog computer as an employee of
the company back in 1973.  They were primarily used by scientists doing work
with multiple polynomial equations, sometimes non-linear.  Patch cords were
used to interconnect the various functions.

Frank Filippone
Red735i at verizon.net


and designed with "ease of maintenance " in mind.