[SIGCIS-Members] Grand Central

Thomas Haigh thaigh at computer.org
Mon Dec 7 07:27:40 PST 2015


I watched the video.  I don't think it's ridiculous to call the device a "computer" but this claim certainly illustrates changes in time in the meaning of "computer."

In early usage, as most on this list must know, a computer was a human performing complicated but repetitive calculations. From the 1940s onward particular kinds of machinery started to be called "automatic computers" because they carried out similar work. Many of them could automatically carry out a program of operations, performing one action after another without human intervention. On the other hand, the term was also applied to things like WWII torpedo computers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo_Data_Computer and other analog devices.

Calling anything prior to WWII  a "computer" is problematic in one sense, as the term was not used at the time. Babbage, for example, planned "engines." On the other hand the Grand Central device seems to have used resistance to figure out where in the track a train was when its alarm sounded, which has parallels with some later electrical analog devices that were called computers. 

What's clear is that this was not a digital computer, an electronic machine, or a programmable device, which is probably what the tour guide intends to convey and certainly what his audience would understand "computer" as meaning. I strongly suspect that the odd story of apple executives visiting regularly  for silent contemplation is a fantasy. 

Still, something must have been the first device to calculate with electricity. Perhaps this was it? Perhaps there were earlier applications in telegraphic networks? That's not a question that the lovers of firsts have paid nearly as much attention to as the question of the first digital computer.

Best wishes,

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: Members [mailto:members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Evan Koblentz
Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2015 12:51 PM
To: joly at punkcast.com; members at lists.sigcis.org
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Grand Central

This "computer" is already widely debunked. It was a period-common electrical (not electronic) signaling system.

On Dec 6, 2015, Joly MacFie <joly at punkcast.com> wrote:
>http://www.jamesmaherphotography.com/photoblog_view_post/1416-what-lies
>-under-grand-central-terminal
>
>"The 102 year old computer system, built by Westinghouse and considered 
>to be the first electric computer.
>​"​
>
>--
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
>--------------------------------------------------------------
>-
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>-
>
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