🚀 go-pugleaf

Subject: Re: old computers 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers

I, too, had a DIGI-COMP I and desperately wanted a DIGI-COMP II, but by
the time I had saved up enough nickels, it was discontinued.  The thread
of discussion in this newsgroup has made me realize I still want one!
So if anyone is willing to part with either model, please contact me...
 
On the topic of old computers (emphasis more on "old" than "computers"),
I have a "NUCLEAR BOMB EFFECTS COMPUTER" dated 1962 (revised edition,
no less!), which was packaged with the book "The Effects of Nuclear
Weapons."  I don't have the book handy, but I believe it was published
by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).  I got it from my father, who
was a civil engineer certified in the design of fallout shelters
(remember when every public building had one?).

The computer is a plastic 5" diameter variation on a circular slide rule,
with a dazzling assortment of overlays and windows and charts.  Starting
with range and yield, you can calculate everything you ever wanted to
know about those detonations coming soon to a nuclear theater near you,
including:  optimum burst height, fireball radius (avg), duration,
velocity, percentage of thermal energy emitted over time, crater size
for various soil compositions, radiation exposure (and probable human
effect), and more, along with handy lookup tables such as "Glass-Missile
Data for Penetration of 1-cm Soft Tissue."

Not exactly a general purpose computer, but then again, it was probably
faster to use, and certainly a lot smaller, than digital computers
of the time...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Herzog           "Badges?  We ain't got no badges. We don't need no
her...@sun.com          badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"
...!sun!herzog                                  - Treasure of the Sierra Madre