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THE VIDEO SHELF · mechanical analog computers

Mechanical Computer (All Parts) - Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers

A 1953 US Navy training film explaining the basic mechanisms in mechanical fire control computers aboard ships. It shows how gears, differentials and cams solved mathematical problems in permanent mechanical form.

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Why HN readers recommended it

HN commenters repeatedly recommend it as a beautiful, approachable explanation of analog mechanical computation, and many have rewatched it.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel
Excelsior10000
Topic
mechanical analog computers
Format
documentary
Level
intro
HN recommenders in dataset
13
HN mentions in dataset
20
Recommendation years in dataset
2014–2025

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

  • [VIDEO] This is an old military instructional video about fire (artillery) control computers, explaining the mechanical aspects of how they work. It's beautiful in its elegance! I have watched it on multiple occasions just for the sheer beauty of the mechanisms involved. And, yes, of …

    coreyp_1 on Hacker News · 2017-05
    In The Turing Tumble lets you and your kids build real mechanical computers

  • The whole training film on mechanical computers, for navy mechanics I believe: [VIDEO] It illustrates the problems and solutions near perfectly, and I've watched it way too many times.

    boomlinde on Hacker News · 2018-11
    In When mechanical analog computers ruled the waves (2014)

  • I did not see any link to the full training video[0] the clips in this article were taken from. I highly recommend it. It's a fascinating trip into engineering, computing, and the past. [0] [VIDEO]

    Bjartr on Hacker News · 2018-11
    In When mechanical analog computers ruled the waves (2014)

Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.

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