🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <132...@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> her...@dogwalk.Sun.COM (Brian Herzog) writes:
>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).  

For those who may be interested, the current edition can be obtained from
the Department of The Army as DA Pamphlet 50-3, dated March 1977.  It is a
rather massive "pamphlet" <653 pages>, and contains such breathtaking
chapters as "Air Blast Phenomena in Air and Surface Bursts" and "Shock
Effects of Surface and Subsurface Bursts".  It is also chock full of
gorgeous equations for those of you who like that kind of thing.

>
>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."
>

This has also been revised <in 1977>....a remarkable "whiz wheel". My
favorite item is the "Man-Velocity Range Data at 10 Ft. of Travel",
which lets you computer just how fast an average body will be hurtling
through the air when hit by the shock wave of the blast you have selected.
I shudder to think how this particular category came to be useful enough
to include in the calculator........

>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...
>

Hey, after a little practice, you can get pretty darn fast with this
monster.....I used to REALLY confuse some of my friends with some
quick calculations while they were still hacking through the equations.


Wes Morgan
Former 12E <let's see how many netters know what *that* means>

-- 
  The opinions expressed above are not those of UKECC unless so noted.
Wes Morgan                 \       {rutgers,rayssd,uunet}!ukma!ukecc!morgan
University of Kentucky      \   or mor...@engr.uky.edu
Engineering Computing Center \  or morgan%engr.uky.edu@UKMA.BITNET