The World's Largest Computer in 1951

[zoobyshoe]

Brewnog and Gokul both incorrect. It is something you both have already heard of, I'm sure, but didn't know this detail.

 

[brewnog]

Nope, I'm not going to get it without another hint!

 

[Gokul43201]

Me neither...though I'm certain there was something that sat in a pool of mercury in the Bay Area.

 

[zoobyshoe]

The point of the complex mercury bearing was to obviate the fact of how sensitive the device was to any vibration.

 

[brewnog]

Brewnog and Gokul both incorrect. It is something you both have already heard of, I'm sure, but didn't know this detail.

Ohh, but look!


The 200 tonne Dunn Solar Telescope at Sacramento Peak is suspended from a container holding ten tons of mercury, which acts as a bearing. This allows the telescope to be easily rotated during research.

Do I win?

 

[dextercioby]

Michelson-Morley interferometer...?

Daniel.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Hmmmmmmm...good research, but does this telescope fit the rest of the description: "...mounted on a block of concrete that floated in a cylindrical, brick enclosed trough of mercury"?

Here's another clue: this was a measuring apparatus.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Michelson-Morley interferometer...?

Daniel.

Whooops! We have a winner!

Your turn.

 

[brewnog]

Michelson-Morley interferometer...?

Daniel.

Gah, and I'd have got that if I'd thought the block was concrete instead of marble! Honest!

 

[dextercioby]

I'm a theorist,i can't possibly recollect too many experiments.So i'll ask an embarassingly simple question.You can google it,if u don't know the answer.

"Revolutionized chemistry".An object.And who's responsible for "revolutioning chemistry"?

Daniel.

 

[brewnog]

"Revolutionized chemistry".And who's responsible for "revolutioning chemistry"?

Dmitri Mendeleev?

 

[dextercioby]

Nope.Keep trying.

Daniel.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Humphrey Davy?

 

[dextercioby]

Nope.Yes,it's fair to ask the year,too.Approximately,of course.

Daniel.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Nope.Yes,it's fair to ask the year,too.Approximately,of course.

No it's not. All we can do is guess, answer, or ask for another clue.

Was it Faraday?

 

[dextercioby]

I'm really sorry to say,but Faraday was not a chemist.

Clue.There's no chemical laboratory in the world without this thing.

Daniel.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Bunsen and his burner

 

[brewnog]

Mr Bunsen?

Edit: Aww, pipped to the post. (Assuming that's the right answer!)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Go ahead Brewnog, I can't stick around right now anyway.

 

[dextercioby]

Good try.Not what i had in mind.It can't get any more elemenatry than that.

The difficult,possibly googling part would be to come up with a name and an approximate year.

Daniel.

 

[brewnog]

1924, the invention of Pyrex?

 

[dextercioby]

It's not a chemical substance,but an object,INSTRUMENT,if u prefer.

No more clues.

Daniel.

 

[brewnog]

Buchner filter?
Leiblich condenser?

 

[dextercioby]

The only relevant hint I've given is "revolutionized chemistry".

Daniel.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I'm really sorry to say,but Faraday was not a chemist.

Michael Faraday's Contributions to Electricity and Chemistry
Address:http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/scientst/faraday.html

 

[dextercioby]

He was a physicist.It's like saying Hilbert was a physicist,just because Hilbert spaces are crucial in physics and the Hilbert action for the gravitational field is essential in GR.

Electrolysis came after "chemistry was revolutionized".

Need i say that this is not a technical question,so it can be answered by virtually anyone...?

Daniel.

 

[brewnog]

The Centrifuge, invented by Benjamin Robins in the 18th century?

Only chem-pun I can think of around "revolutionized"...

 

[zoobyshoe]

He was a physicist.It's like saying Hilbert was a physicist,just because Hilbert spaces are crucial in physics and the Hilbert action for the gravitational field is essential in GR.

Electrolysis came after "chemistry was revolutionized".

Daniel.

Excluding Faraday as the correct answer on the basis he wasn't a chemist, rather than because it isn't the answer your looking for, is snooty and gratitously picayune, since electrochemistry did revolutionise chemistry.

 

[honestrosewater]

The Periodic Table of Elements, Dmitri Ivancritch Mendeléeff, 1864?? Edit: Oops, already guessed.

 

[dextercioby]

Nope,i excluded Faraday,simply because it was not a revolution. in the sense putting a *************** in a chemistry lab was.

Mendeleev's first published Table of Elements was in 1869.

Daniel.