Humanity is in a serious pinch for energy as the world population balloons to 9 billion people by 2040.
IBM’s SAGE is a large semi-automated air defense system from the Cold War era. It would analyze radar data in real-time to identify Soviet bombers. And it has built-in cigarette lighters and ashtrays at each console. It is the subject of Puzzle 47. Here you can see about half of the wall of vacuum tubes; the other half could not fit in the frame. Weight: 300 tons Cost: ~$10B This “company-making” sale was made personally by IBM founder Tom Watson, Sr. Built in 1954, deployed in 1958, obsolete by 1960. The last of 27 installations was shut down in 1983 (in Canada). In the final years, to the chagrin of the USAF, replacement vacuum tubes had to be bought from Soviet bloc countries. The software development “employed about 20% of the world’s programmers at the peak of the project. When it was complete, the 250,000 lines of code was the most complex piece of software in existence.” (Computer History Museum details) Update from below: I just met with a former IBM exec who remembers this program well. The debug protocol was poetic. Downtime was common. The diagnostic steps were: 1) Visualize it. With the room lights off, the active tubes could be seen glowing. A dark patch was indicative of a power rail connector problem. 2) Listen to the technology. Each of the SLT logic modules were wired through an OR gate and connected to an audio amp. So, as each logic module fired, it added to the acoustic summation. The engineers would listen to the song of the computer and could often recognize common variations. 3)Whack a Mole. If the acoustic pattern seemed erratic, out comes the rubber hammer. Each of the circuit modules would receive a hammer tap to see if the song remains the same. If it changed, then that indicated a loose connector had just been banged back into place. A fascinating exercise in pattern recognition across the emergent melodies of complex systems...
Assuming the Germans win World War II, how would their missile technology developed in a resulting Cold War with America and Britain? I'm interested in...
Archaeology : Architecture : Art : Cold War : Curiosities : Design : Eccentricities : Ekco : Engineering : Industrial Heritage : Military : Petroliana : Photography : Shed Wonders : Transporter Bridges : Vintage Technology
Soldier of the FuturarmyARMY, November 1956By Lt. Col. Robert B. Rigg, U.S.
Archaeology : Architecture : Art : Cold War : Curiosities : Design : Eccentricities : Ekco : Engineering : Industrial Heritage : Military : Petroliana : Photography : Shed Wonders : Transporter Bridges : Vintage Technology
Archaeology : Architecture : Art : Cold War : Curiosities : Design : Eccentricities : Ekco : Engineering : Industrial Heritage : Military : Petroliana : Photography : Shed Wonders : Transporter Bridges : Vintage Technology
Local emergency officials have said for years that warning sirens are Cold War technology and no longer have a place in storm alerts for most communities.
How cool is that!!! Is the union between a Cold War technology + Modern electronics + A handmade wooden enclosure. Where can you get one? ----> http://kck.st/1SW5eqK
Nixie Shop is an excellent place for buying a gift for your friends or yourself - the nixie clock. Nixie clocks are unique devices built with modern technology and neon tubes from Cold War era.
The advent of rocket technology in 1944 changed the face of warfare and set the stage for the Cold War, defining the second half of the twentieth century.
By the 1950s, the Cold War was in full swing, and the Soviets appeared to have an edge in fighter plane technology. The USSR debuted a new plane, the
“The Cold War was a time where the global superpowers divided the world on all fronts: science, technology but also culture,” explains Hannover-based graphic designer and art director Yevgeniy Anfalov. In his recent book _Rotary. History of the studio for electronic music WDR 1951–1981_ Yevgeniy considers the wider context and rapid progression of arts and culture through the lens of one music studio in West Germany.
Nixie Shop is an excellent place for buying a gift for your friends or yourself - the nixie clock. Nixie clocks are unique devices built with modern technology and neon tubes from Cold War era.
Nixie Shop is an excellent place for buying a gift for your friends or yourself - the nixie clock. Nixie clocks are unique devices built with modern technology and neon tubes from Cold War era.
Nixie Shop is an excellent place for buying a gift for your friends or yourself - the nixie clock. Nixie clocks are unique devices built with modern technology and neon tubes from Cold War era.
Germany is testing out facial-recognition technology at a Berlin train station. The goal is to improve security, but for those who remember the Cold War, it has shades of life under East Germany's notorious secret police, known as the Stasi.
It was a clandestine military post, a mysterious mountain tower, and a secret control room filled with the blips and bleeps of sci fi-worthy technology. During the Cold War, the radar tower atop Mt. U
Exploring Heavily-protected Soviet broadcast bunker. https://bit.ly/Soviet_broadcast_bunker This Sovietish 2-storey/6000 m2 bunker site once were a...
Following Germany's World War Two defeat in 1945, the victorious Allies were keen to gather up as much of their jet and rocket technology and expertise as they could. These wunderwaffe ("wonder-weapon") aircraft and rocket designs would go on to heavily influence western and Soviet aviation and rocketry in the coming years of the Cold War.…
