1951 UNIVAC I - Mercury delay line Memory for computers
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
Uploaded on Dec 22, 2007
Computer History Museum Tour Playlist http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=...
1951 UNIVAC I Mercury delay line Memory Tank. The UNIVAC computer was used to accurately predict the 1952 Election win of Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Results were not immediately reported by Walter Cronkite because they were not believed to be accurate.
Computer History Museum Tour 19
For in depth details see:
UNIVAC I - MAINTENANCE MANUAL
For Use With Univac I Central Computer
Remington Rand Univac
http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/vs-uni...
http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/vs-UNI...
http://cs-exhibitions.uni-klu.ac.at/i...
Mercury was used because the acoustic impedance of mercury is almost exactly the same as that of the piezoelectric quartz crystals; this minimized the energy loss and the echoes when the signal was transmitted from crystal to medium and back again. The high speed of sound in mercury (1450 m/s) meant that the time needed to wait for a pulse to arrive at the receiving end was less than it would have been a slower medium,
More design details are described in the original
US Patent: 2629827
Filing date: Oct 31, 1947
Issue date: Feb 24, 1953
pages 6-8 has more detailed explanation on the delay line.
http://www.google.com/patents/US26298...
Delay line memory overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_li...
TilTul http://tiltul.com LinksYouWantToRemember
-
Category
-
License
Standard YouTube License
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
-
53:26
Computer Pioneers - Pioneer Computers Part 1by Computer History MuseumFeatured
114,562
-
22:40
Man & Computer - IBM 1965by ComputerHistory
92,390 views
-
18:54
Computers of NASA - 1960sby luridplanet
96,050 views
-
1:04
Tim Robinson's Meccano Difference Engine — Maker Faire 2006by Laurence Gonsalves
20,923 views
-
1:22
Minuteman I Missile Guidance Computerby TilTuli
18,878 views
-
4:15
Punching Data on Computer Cards]by UQCentenary
24,358 views
-
1:09
72 MB Hard Drive spinning up...by hk8607
545,214 views
-
1:41
1950's Early mechanical "Direct Access" Drum Memory Storageby TilTuli
11,384 views
-
62
videos
Play all
Computersby Bub7734
-
1:03
Antique Westinghouse Computer System 1952by eltosuper
18,570 views
-
3:06
UNIVAC COMPUTER COMMERCIAL 1950sby captbijou
13,716 views
-
1:13
History of Computersby dan izzo
6,608 views
-
3:09
ENIACby Trevor Strobel
40,445 views
-
1:57
The Internet in 1969by clark7795
1,719,093 views
-
54:11
Computer Pioneers - Pioneer Computers Part 2by ComputerHistory
51,355 views
-
1:12
Classic old computers and machinesby okrajoe's channel
32,199 views
-
27:21
EEVblog #381 - How Do Ultrasonic Delay Lines Work?by EEVblog
29,719 views
-
2:15
ENIAC: The First Computerby UnivPennsylvania
34,052 views
-
1:43
KS10 DECSYSTEM2020 - first power-up in 15 yearsby abaduck
9,759 views
-
1:27
Computer History in 90 Secondsby specialmatrix
34,466 views
-
3:20
XEROX ALTO - First workstation with Windows mouse & networkby TilTuli
21,160 views
- Loading more suggestions...
Uploader Comments (TilTuli)
rachushetty 1 year ago
any one here could you post me the details of why mercury is used? and how does it stores the data??
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
TilTuli 1 year ago
For more details
click on "Show more" to access more technical links to UNIVAC I - MAINTENANCE MANUAL, the US Patent "MEMORY SYSTEM" by John Presper Eekert et al and a general explanation on the selection of Mercury as a medium for the delay line.
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
Top Comments
dragonheadthing 4 years ago
Using mercury to store information as pulses... it's amazing what they came up with in the early days of computers.
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
StereoMike06 4 years ago
Amazing, using analog technology is so much more complicated. Scientist back then really were cutting edge. There was no such thing as programmable chips everything had to have a physical mechanism to carry out a command. Very impressive.
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
All Comments (59)
John Hunt 1 week ago
far more complicated I mean :)
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
John Hunt 1 week ago
How is this more complicated than your PC processor? It's far, far, far less complicated, and far more cutting edge. Don't get me wrong, hats off to the people who came up with this machine but the tech we have now is just as, if not more impressive - it's just we're used to seeing it every day.
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
Jafromobile 5 months ago
My father was the vice president of Sperry-Univac. I lived in Louisville, Ky on a farm until I was 3. I fell in the pool learning to walk. My 4 year old brother saved my life. I wish I had better stories to tell, but for cryin' out loud, I was 3. I wasn't on the R&D team at Univac or anything... I was 3.
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
revcletis 6 months ago
Hg used for liquid DRAM. Sounds like something out of Science Fiction !!! XD
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
MrMjsmith626 9 months ago
Thanks to the Remington Rand Corporation for such a great invention.
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
Neojhun 9 months ago
I love the background laugh at 1:16 where i laughed to. It's when you realize the amount of effort and materials and just sheer awesome engineering to create something in such a simple functionality. Make a gap in time that electrical state can exist. Mind blowing for 1951.
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
Peter Todd 10 months ago
I wonder how audible the process was, and how it sounded
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
neocoders 11 months ago
That is the sexiest memory device ever. Looks like an interplanetary starship.
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
rachushetty 1 year ago
thank you
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube