The World's Largest Computer in 1951

[Ivan Seeking]

Known to happen but never observed, it seems that like water, the wind can move rocks.

 

[Danger]

Known to happen but never observed, it seems that like water, the wind can move rocks.

That really doesn't rhyme very well.

 

[Danger]

Oh man... I got to go check out some other stuff. Maybe it'll come to me when I'm not paying attention to it.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Got it!
Death Valley Moving Rocks
Address:http://www.billandcori.com/deathvalley/dv_moving_rocks.htm

I should have been able to put it together from the psalm clue, because "Death Valley" was one of the things that occurred to me, but I didn't. I had read about the moving rocks a long time ago and forgotten about them.

 

[Danger]

Got it!
Death Valley Moving Rocks

It's a good thing I checked back when I saw your post show up, rather than waste any more time on it. I've never heard of those things, so I certainly never would have gotten it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The lake bed is called "Racetrack Playa".

 

[zoobyshoe]

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.

 

[Danger]

Record player? Joe Victrola?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Not "Joe Victrola", no.

 

[Danger]

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?)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Johnson?

Berliner?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Johnson?

Berliner?

One of these is correct, yes.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

One of these is correct, yes.

Tight ass.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Okay, Berliner.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Okay, Berliner.

Well, you could post a link to google and say "It's somebody in here, right?"

Yes, Emile Berliner

Your turn.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Well, you could post a link to google and say "It's somebody in here, right?"

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.

 

[Mk]

Errmm... sure...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

high noon.

 

[Mk]

I'm guessing that was a hint?

 

[Danger]

I'm guessing that was a hint?

Correct! Your turn.

 

[Moonbear]

That's an interesting clue.
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. (At least with Ivan's clue, there's no risk of that happening anytime soon anyway.)

 

[zoobyshoe]

Eratosthenes measurement of the circumfrence of the earth!

 

[Danger]

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.

 

[Moonbear]

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!

 

[zoobyshoe]

It's absolutely the right answer. I'm just waiting for confirmation.

 

[Moonbear]

It's absolutely the right answer. I'm just waiting for confirmation.

Care to explain it while we're waiting?

 

[Danger]

Care to explain it while we're waiting?

I know what he's talking about, and I'm afraid that he's probably right.

 

[zoobyshoe]

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.

 

[Moonbear]

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.

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. )

 

[zoobyshoe]

Well, Ivan has been distracted, so, in the faith I'm right here my clue:

a slippery mishap