The World's Largest Computer in 1951

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In summary, the ENIAC was a massive machine weighing 30 tons, occupying 1,000 square feet of floor space, and containing over 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 6,000 switches, and 18,000 vacuum tubes. It required 150 kilowatts of power to run, which was enough to light a small town. The final machine was less powerful than a $5 pocket calculator. The Russian Ekranoplan, also known as the Caspian Sea Monster, was a ground effect vehicle that could travel over 400 km/h and weighed 540 tons fully loaded. It was used as a high-speed military transport and could transport over 100 tonnes of cargo. The
  • #36
1.4 meters in diameter, 2.5 tones. In 1930 it set records 9 miles from Nonesuch.

Njorl
 
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  • #37
a diving bell?
 
  • #38
more than a half mile below the ocean's surface at Nonesuch Island near ... Barton and
Beebe, in their diving bell, reached a depth of 3,028 feet yesterday, August ...
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my best guess.
 
  • #39
Evo said:
It is currently in use today, I am attaching a picture of the original.

Like Herman used to say, "darn darn darn darn darn darn darn!"

I knew that! I forgot about the acid.
 
  • #40
wolram said:
more than a half mile below the ocean's surface at Nonesuch Island near ... Barton and
Beebe, in their diving bell, reached a depth of 3,028 feet yesterday, August ...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
my best guess.


Yup. The Bathysphere to be precise. It is one of my favorite words to say.
 
  • #41
wolram said:
field programmable gates arrays.
invented by G BELL, to turn sound waves into a varying current.
ooh, almost, not a FGPA though. You probably have at least one of these in your house.
 
  • #42
I thought this was answered. It's a telephone.
 
  • #43
Ivan Seeking said:
I thought this was answered. It's a telephone.
Yes, I was looking for telephone specifically. You and Wolram can share the honor.
 
  • #44
who's next, if you find this stimulating, give me a what was, is ,it.
 
  • #45
I love this stuff. When Tsu and I first played trivial pursuit we were both completely addicted until we had finally memorized about half of the cards.

The parts list includes a transmitter and receiver, a stylus for each, and two large pendulums.
 
  • #46
Njorl said:
...Bathysphere... It is one of my favorite words to say.

Do you say this alot...while alone...in the dark?
 
  • #47
Ivan Seeking said:
The parts list includes a transmitter and receiver, a stylus for each, and two large pendulums.
Alxander Bain's proto "fax" machine?
 
  • #48
Not quite what I had chosen but definitely close enough. I assume they were basically the same. Instead I chose the 1860 model of Giovanni Caselli's Pantelegraph - which sent the first facsimile between Paris and Lyon.

http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/FAX_HIST.html

according to this, Bain's actually made a telegraph, not a fax machine, but I really know nothing about it. Maybe you or someone else can clear this up...I must get back to work. :frown:



A fax machine from the year 1865

The idea of putting the achievements of telegraphy to good use in order to transmit photographs as well as printed texts and drawings dates back to the 1850's. The Pantelegraph conceived by the abbot, Giovanni Caselli, was a system of sending and receiving images over long distances by means of electrochemistry.

The stylus of the transmitter scanning an original document by moving across its parallel lines sent messages by telegraph to a receiver. The stylus of the receiver moving across a chemically-treated sheet of paper reproduced the document according to the signals received. Transmitter and receiver were syncronized by two large pendulums swinging in sync with each other. On 16th February, 1865 the Pantelegraph was introduced into service for the Paris and Lyons and the Paris and Le Havre on to the Marseille Railways. It was phased out in 1870. The machine on display in the Museum is a working model that was built for the 1932 Chicago Exhibition.

http://www.museoscienza.org/english/radio/telefax.html
 
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  • #49
wolram said:
who's next, if you find this stimulating, give me a what was, is ,it.
Wolram, this is a great thread. I love learning stuff this way. :smile:
 
  • #50
Introduced in 1954. It measures 5 x 3 x 1 1/4 inches, weighs 12 ounces, and contains four germanium transistors.
 
  • #51
'transistor radio' - Regent?
 
  • #52
brass cylinder (approx), 6' in diameter, 8 'feet'
 
  • #53
Nereid said:
'transistor radio' - Regent?
YES! You even got the maker correct!
 
  • #54
Nereid said:
brass cylinder (approx), 6' in diameter, 8 'feet'

Okay a wild one here but it makes sense in a cryptic way.

The church of the ascension?
 
  • #55
Nereid said:
brass cylinder (approx), 6' in diameter, 8 'feet'
Hint: ~100 AD
 
  • #56
roman water clock?
 
  • #57
Nereid said:
brass cylinder (approx), 6' in diameter, 8 'feet'
Hint(2): the purpose is well known, but details of the internal mechanism are, unfortunately, not.
 
  • #58
Antikythera Mechanism? its the only thing with internal mechanism i can
think of.
 
  • #59
Nereid said:
brass cylinder (approx), 6' in diameter, 8 'feet'
Hint(3): The 'feet' were (likely) receptacles shaped like frogs with open mouths.
 
  • #60
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  • #61
...The RAT?
 
  • #62
Ivan Seeking said:
...The RAT?
Yep.
Rock Abrasion Tool, which can also make http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040414a.html :biggrin:
 
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  • #63
This food product was created by a chef in a fit of spite when a customer complained that his current version was too thick and soggy. Saratoga Springs, NY. Statistics say that today the average american now consumes six pounds of the "spite" version a year.

What was it?
 
  • #64
What is the potato chip?
 
  • #65
pancakes ?
 
  • #66
Lorider said:
What is the potato chip?
This is the correct food product. However, I must deduct .2 of a point for phrasing your answer in the form of a question. You have been watching Jeopardy too much.
 
  • #67
wolram said:
pancakes ?
Crepes would have been a better guess, if you were going to follow this train of logic. In any event, I was curious to see if you or Nereid were going to answer with "crisps" which is, I think, what potato chips are called in England: very thinly sliced potatos, deep fried in oil, heavily salted. Chef George Crum thought the customer who complained about the thickness and sogginess of his deep fried potatos would balk at his maliciously extreme fullfillment of his wishes. Instead, the customer loved them. It became a popular item on the menu. Other restaurants adopted the recipe. Potato chips became the rage, and still are.

Edit to add: This was at Moon's Lake House Resort, Saratoga Springs, NY, in 1853. The P chip is 151 years old!
 
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  • #68
I may not know too much of the scientific stuff, but I know the stuff I stuff my face with. But I digress, actually I liked the Jeopardy feel, where the answer is given and the question has to be figured out. This has been probably the coolest thread I have seen at this site.
 
  • #69
your correct ZOOBY, i eat crisp butties, great when no ones bothered to
buy groceries.
your turn LORIDER
 
  • #70
shall we give a time limit for last correct poster to reply with new WHAT WAS IS IT?
 

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