It is truly amazing how much technology advances every day. For instance, check out this picture from a 1954 Popular Mechanics magazine:
You can click on the image to make it larger, but the picture says:
Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a “home computer” could look like in the year 2004. However the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented techology to actually work, but 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use.
I laugh every time I hear that last line.
[tags]popular mechanics, fortran, computer, technology, rand, scientific, teletype[/tags]
“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” –Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
Believe it or not, James, that is actually the control room for a 594 class nuclear-powered submarine. The three panels, from left to right are Throttles (the two stainless wheels), reactor operator, and electrical operator. The printer in the front and the TV screen are added in.
I served on this class of submarine for four years, our control panels were virtually exactly like this.
Wayno
Wow – that’s interesting…I would have never guessed that.
Yeah, I sat at the throttleman controls for 12 hours a day (6 on, 6 off) for weeks on end. The center of the throttle wheel has a screw-out cover. The other throttleman and I left notes when bored. I wonder if one of our notes is still there?
Whats up Wayne,
is that actually a control room or is it jsut the control center? From my limited(books and TV) knowledge of submarines, the roofline looks a little high to actually be in the sub itself. Forgive my ignorance here, maybe what that means is there is actually a land based control room for every sub out in the water, or a control rom with multiple submarines “managed”.
Actually now I see what yuo mean and it correlates perfectly with the text. It is superimposed. Crazy that you recognized that like that.
THIS is why blogging is great…
Here is the story
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp
Thanks for the story, Steve! Much appreciated.