The World's Largest Computer in 1951

[brewnog]

/
some sort of aerial array?

On the right tracks! Think More.

 

[wolram]

What was the world's first working computer called and who built it.

Abacus or may be the digits on your danny.

 

[brewnog]

Charles Babbage's difference engine has already been brought up in this thread I think, but I don't know what the world's first working computer was, Babbage never built the engine. Joseph Clement made a pretty good stab at it though, he got part of it working in 1832 but funding was cut the year after. The difference engine was finally built in 1991! These the right kind of lines?

 

[wolram]

On the right tracks! Think More.

My ganglia has gone way beyond its CSP, let the young uns do some work

 

[Mk]

What was the world's first working computer called and who built it.

Babbage's difference engine No. 2, finally built in 1991, could hold 7 numbers of 31 decimal digits each and could thus tabulate 7th degree polynomials to that precision. The best machines from Scheutz were able to store 4 numbers with 15 digits each.
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/galleryguide/E2052.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_Engine

 

[Mk]

I'll take my go now, should fill in some time.

At over 330 metres tall, this structure covers around 10,000 square kilometres. What is it?

Is it Basement Sill, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica?

A tongue of mostly large orthopyroxene crystals of a rough aerial extent of 10,000 km$^2$ occupies much of the ~330 m thick Basement Sill, which is the basal sill of the ~4 km thick Ferrar Dolerite sill sequence. The thickness of the tongue and the amount of the sill that it occupies locally is a direct indication of the location of the conduit that fed the Basement Sill during emplacement. The tongue is thickest near the zone of magma ascent (called the feeder zone), which is in the vicinity of Bull Pass where it fills nearly the entire sill. Away from the feeder zone the tongue thins, eventually disappearing, and also rises to maintain a vertically central position in the sill.

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:DXPqzR2ws0kJ:www.agu.org/meetings/fm05/fm05-sessions/fm05_V23A.html+10,000+km+330+m&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3

 

[Mk]

What was the world's first working computer called and who built it.

Defense needs in World War II were the driving force behind the development of the first large electronic computer built in the United States. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), although completed at the end of 1945, after World War II had ended, was initially designed to calculate trajectories of projectiles. Developed by the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering for the Ballistic Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland, it was a general-purpose decimal machine containing 18,000 vacuum tubes. Its design was related to the Differential Analyzer built by Vannevar Bush, except that Bush's mechanical components, such as counters and adders, were replaced by electronic ones.

 

[brewnog]

Nope, it's not Basement Sill. It's a man-made structure.

 

[brewnog]

MK, the Difference Engine wasn't built until 1991, by which time we'd had electronic computers for quite a while!

 

[wolram]

I need another clue Brewy.

 

[brewnog]

Wolram, think more. No wait, think Moor.

 

[wolram]

RAF Fylingdales, an early warning station.

 

[brewnog]

No, but again, I think that was in this thread last year sometime too!

Your first guess was probably best.

 

[matthyaouw]

Some kind of power network?

 

[wolram]

EMELY MOOR.

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/emley/emley-facts.asp#maps

 

[brewnog]

Woop, Wooly wins!

 

[wolram]

Woop, Wooly wins!

I think i came first in the middle and last

I will try and find a good one, if anyone else wants a go, please jump in.

 

[wolram]

death by a heavy old moo, hot stuff.

 

[Mk]

That's the question?

 

[Mk]

If so, how about "Death by Chocolate," fried ice cream, hot fudge?

 

[Art]

Defense needs in World War II were the driving force behind the development of the first large electronic computer built in the United States. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), although completed at the end of 1945, after World War II had ended, was initially designed to calculate trajectories of projectiles. Developed by the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering for the Ballistic Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland, it was a general-purpose decimal machine containing 18,000 vacuum tubes. Its design was related to the Differential Analyzer built by Vannevar Bush, except that Bush's mechanical components, such as counters and adders, were replaced by electronic ones.

Close in regard to the time and motivation -

here's a clue - code breaking.

 

[wolram]

If so, how about "Death by Chocolate," fried ice cream, hot fudge?

I said i would make it harder for you MK.

 

[Mk]

here's a clue - code breaking.

Is it a CIA computer?

 

[Art]

Is it a CIA computer?

Nope, Here's lots of clues - UK gov't - WW2 - Bletchley Park - Enigma.

 

[Mk]

In 1943, the Colossus, the world's first programmable digital electronic computer, was designed at Bletchley Park by Max Newman and his team?

 

[Art]

In 1943, the Colossus, the world's first programmable digital electronic computer, was designed at Bletchley Park by Max Newman and his team?

Right time place and machine. Wrong designer. Colossus was first offered to the MOD at design stage but was rejected as it was thought to be too complicated and the war would be over before it was built. The post office worker who had tried to sell them on the idea was called Tommy Flowers. He went off and built it himself using his own money. He completed it in 10 months and the MOD was so impressed they ordered 10 of them to break the German codes. They were so successful the intelligence officers in Bletchley park were reading the secret German communiques practically in real time. His reward was anonymity for 50 years under the official secrets act and a £1000 award in recognition of his contribution to the war effort (which was slightly less than the amount of personal expenditure he had incurred in constructing it).

 

[Mk]

Yay I win! This is better than the time I put mayonnaise inside all the Easter eggs at the egg hunt!

 

[Zygotic Embryo]

Go ahead, Mk.
Im up for your question :)

 

[Mk]

Well, if you could figure out the first isolator, discoverer, or inventor of banana oil that would be good. I don't know the answer though.

 

[Mk]

I'm still going to be thinking of one...