🚀 go-pugleaf

> 
> The "computer" was in a pull-out rack mounted in a 19" cabinet.  The
> "boards" were a 18" wide by about 25" high by 2" thick metal frame
> that bolted into the rack.  The circuit boards bolted onto the frame
> and they were all wire-wrap, except of course, the memory.  Memory
> was a 4K core stack.  Have you ever put together those cheap metal
> shelves where none of the holes line up and you have to go through
> all kinds of contortions to make everything fit together?  Guess
> what changing boards was like!
> The input/output device was - you guessed it! A KSR-33 teletype with
> paper tape reader.  We also had a paper tape punch mounted in the cabinet.
> 
> You thought you were worried about nuclear plants before!
Yeah, I know the stuff looks (and is) old, but the key point to remember
is that it runs and it runs forever.  I visited a Nuclear plant last month
and the electrics for the control center and transmission all looked like
something from the mid-60s or mid-70s.  Old, reliable technology.
                         - tom
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Location: Newark, DE, USA                          
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In article <138.UUL1.3#5131@mvac23.UUCP> thomas@mvac23.UUCP (Thomas Lapp) writes:
}> 
}> You thought you were worried about nuclear plants before!
}Yeah, I know the stuff looks (and is) old, but the key point to remember
}is that it runs and it runs forever.  I visited a Nuclear plant last month
}and the electrics for the control center and transmission all looked like
}something from the mid-60s or mid-70s.  Old, reliable technology.

If you have ever worked in a power generating plant and been there during a
thunderstorm or when things start to go wrong you will appreciate WHY they
tend to like "old and clunky". If a relay fails it is usually burned into a
pile of slag, you can see it and replace it. If a "solid state doda" fails
you could be down for a week.

I witnessed (as a coop EE student) 230,000 volts applied to the 110V supply
of an old Tek scope. We were tring to find out why they operators heard
things "zapping" when they opened big switches in the yard (1/2 mi away).
THe fuse put a dent in a 1/4 in steel panel across the room.

Oh yes, the cause turned out to be a resonance effect of the voltage
dividers used for metering so the full 230KV line voltage was getting into
the station and arcing all over! Fortunately all the instruments were
mounted in GROUNDED steel cabinets so no one was hurt. 

THATS the kind of thing that makes you appreciate "old and klunky"!

           *Mike Waters    AA4MW/7  wat...@dover.sps.mot.com *
Fairy Tale, n.:
	A horror story to prepare children for the newspapers.