Last sunday, Danny and I went on a little field trip- to the Computer History Museum. (his idea, obviously)
Danny was enthralled, excited, and giddy- and even I had fun! Taking photos of all the little mechanical and, uh, other parts- of machines I will never understand.
Like this one. The Babbage Difference Engine #2. It was designed in 1849. It tabulates polynomial math problems. (I think those are the ones with the x's and y's. Hehehe.) Anyways. It's pretty much a 5 ton calculator. Only 2 exist, one here, and one in London.
This is where the crank goes, each crank generates an answer.
View from the front- columns and columns of numbers.
View from the back- DNA looking "tabs" that put simply- "carry the one".
We viewed a demonstration on how the machine works- and at the time I had a massive headache, so everything the guy was saying was not only going completely over my head, but hurting it as well. I have no capacity for the learning of any kind of math in my brain. Start talking math, and my brain stalls. Good thing I didn't pick a career in it. (in high school for like a week I wanted to be a biologist.)
A display of some genius dude's desk. Looks kinda like mine does sometimes, except with fabric, felt, rulers and thread.
A typewriter to input info into a computer. Whoa.
So. Many. Things... to pay attention to.
Haha. This is the Honeywell Kitchen Computer. (with built in cutting board!) Made in 1969, it was for sale at Nieman Marcus- for $10,000. It could store recipes. None were sold. Yet it was the first time a computer was marketed for regular people. So it's in the museum.
Can you imagine having this in your kitchen? And only using it as a recipe box? Again, haha.
This machine was used to automate the census reading process. It's strange- I look at it and it looks so sci-fi to me. Is that backwards or what?
This is a Univac. I asked Danny to give me a "normal people" description, and he replied with "It's a Univac." Your welcome.
This was used in WW2 to drop bombs.
I loved the details, the circuitry, the wires. So many wires!
This belongs to the Apollo.
Danny says this is a network cable. But I think of it more as a flower, just beginning to bloom.
The IBM 360. Control panel.
Core Memory. Tiny wires in a loom.
Inner workings that makes stuff...go.
The IBM 360. The part that stores info. The part that's so small now you can hold it in your hand and call your mom with it and then check your FB page and maybe order some shoes.
Hard Disk(s). Huge brown platters.
From far away these look like teeny tiny buildings very neatly planned out.
These were my favorite knobs.
This is part of a computer called Cray. There are like hundreds of these, stacked on top of each other. It looks like some sort of a sci-fi chia pet.
The computer part of a "Brain Surgery Machine"
70's color palette.
The first Atari. Finally something I recognize!
I loved it when it was my turn on the gameboy...even though I was terrible at it! I loved the Mario game for it- I could always get as far as the water world, and then die and have to start all over again. Of course, then it was my brother's turn.
We were there for a whopping 3 hours! Time flew by, I already want to go back to take more photos. It was a great date for us! We're such geeks!
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