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
  • #876
The lake bed is called "Racetrack Playa".
 
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  • #877
This one should be easy:

Though Edison and Bell thought they had it covered, the only versions that ever thrived were based on this third person's efforts.
 
  • #878
Record player? Joe Victrola?
 
  • #879
Not "Joe Victrola", no.
 
  • #880
zoobyshoe said:
Not "Joe Victrola", no.
Ralph Carmichael Alphonso Victor, and his little dog?

Sorry, man... I have no idea who followed up on that. (How old is Phil Specter again?)
 
  • #881
Johnson?

Berliner?
 
  • #882
Ivan Seeking said:
Johnson?

Berliner?
One of these is correct, yes.
 
  • #883
zoobyshoe said:
One of these is correct, yes.


:smile: Tight ass.
 
  • #884
Okay, Berliner.
 
  • #885
Ivan Seeking said:
Okay, Berliner.
Well, you could post a link to google and say "It's somebody in here, right?"

Yes, Emile Berliner

Your turn.
 
  • #886
Well, you could post a link to google and say "It's somebody in here, right?"

:biggrin: It seemed that what hit the market was a merger of both technologies, so I really couldn't be sure.

Okay, next question:
Since there was a place with none, the librarian knew that this was the key.
 
  • #887
Errmm... sure...
 
  • #888
high noon.
 
  • #889
I'm guessing that was a hint?
 
  • #890
Mk said:
I'm guessing that was a hint?
Correct! Your turn. :biggrin:
 
  • #891
That's an interesting clue. :bugeye:
I'll just throw out some free-association and see if I hit on something
Librarian: books, card catalogs, shelves, quiet
Key: clock, lock, door, solution to puzzle, skeleton, tumblers
High noon: clock, grandfather clock, Westerns, cowboy, shoot out, hands, time, chime

Maybe this will help someone else. I can't solve a clue yet because I haven't had time to think up a new one of my own. :smile: (At least with Ivan's clue, there's no risk of that happening anytime soon anyway.)
 
  • #892
Eratosthenes measurement of the circumfrence of the earth!
 
  • #893
Man, to show you how screwed up I am over this, the only thing that I can think of at all is Franklin running that lightning bolt to an empty Leyden jar. I know that ain't right. First thought was something about a sundial, and that makes no sense at all.
 
  • #894
Shadows, light, dark. Lots of stuff comes to mind, none of it pointing toward a possible solution.

Zooby, please tell me that's a wild guess there and you didn't figure out that cryptic clue already!
 
  • #895
It's absolutely the right answer. I'm just waiting for confirmation.
 
  • #896
zoobyshoe said:
It's absolutely the right answer. I'm just waiting for confirmation.
:rolleyes: Care to explain it while we're waiting?
 
  • #897
Moonbear said:
:rolleyes: Care to explain it while we're waiting?
I know what he's talking about, and I'm afraid that he's probably right. :frown:
 
  • #898
You throw a librarian down a well at high noon in a certain city in Egypt or something, and if he sees his shadow then the Earth is such and such a diameter.
 
  • #899
zoobyshoe said:
You throw a librarian down a well at high noon in a certain city in Egypt or something, and if he sees his shadow then the Earth is such and such a diameter.

:bugeye: I'm going to have to google more about that one! (This has been a highly educational thread so far; I've learned about lots of obscure trivia I never knew I was missing before. :biggrin:)
 
  • #900
Well, Ivan has been distracted, so, in the faith I'm right here my clue:

a slippery mishap
 
  • #901
Moonbear said:
:bugeye: I'm going to have to google more about that one!
The guy stuck a couple of sticks (hence the name) into the ground a measured distance apart, then compared the shadow lengths to work out the curvature of the Earth.
 
  • #902
Okay, looked it up. Phew, no librarians had to get thrown down wells! :smile:

Eratosthenes, a Greek geographer (about 276 to 194 B.C.), made a surprisingly accurate estimate of the Earth's circumference. In the great library in Alexandria he read that a deep vertical well near Syene, in southern Egypt, was entirely lit up by the sun at noon once a year. Eratosthenes reasoned that at this time the sun must be directly overhead, with its rays shining directly into the well. In Alexandria, almost due north of Syene, he knew that the sun was not directly overhead at noon on the same day because a vertical object cast a shadow. Eratosthenes could now measure the circumference of the Earth (sorry Columbus) by making two assumptions - that the Earth is round and that the sun's rays are essentially parallel.
http://www.youth.net/eratosthenes/welcome.html

(Shh...don't tell all those fans of Columbus that people already knew the Earth was round long before his time!)
 
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  • #903
Moonbear said:
Okay, looked it up. Phew, no librarians had to get thrown down wells! :smile:
I'm not sure if I want to know what you've been talking about :rolleyes:
 
  • #904
zoobyshoe said:
Well, Ivan has been distracted, so, in the faith I'm right here my clue:

a slippery mishap

Teflon? (+10 chars)
 
  • #905
I killed franzbear! you guys didn't! nyah nyah nyah-nyah-nyah! I killed franzino!
 
  • #906
Moonbear said:
Okay, looked it up.
Okay, so I missed a couple of details... :redface: (Working from memory here.)
 
  • #907
Moonbear said:
Teflon? (+10 chars)
Either that, or he knew Sylvia too.
 
  • #908
yomamma said:
I killed franzbear! you guys didn't! nyah nyah nyah-nyah-nyah! I killed franzino!
Wrong thread. :smile:
 
  • #909
Moonbear said:
Teflon? (+10 chars)
Too easy, I guess. Yep, teflon.
 
  • #910
Moonbear said:
Wrong thread. :smile:
:rolleyes: :shy: :redface:
 

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