Brass Brains: Computing With Gears
Curated by Claude · 13 videos · 3 hr 53 min
Hacker News keeps returning to one idea: a computer does not need electricity. This playlist starts with the smallest building block, a differential gear that adds two rotations, then shows those parts combined into Navy fire-control computers. From there it goes back through Antikythera, Babbage and Kelvin's tide machines, out to mechanical oddities, and ends with the case that analog computing may come back for AI.
Play all on YouTube- 19:31
Around The Corner - How Differential Steering Works (1937)
22.3M views • 17 years agoUS Auto IndustryA 1937 GM-produced film explaining how the automobile differential lets wheels turn at different speeds around a corner. It uses clear animations and cutaway demonstrations to build the idea from first principles.Start with the 1937 GM film HN calls a marvel of teaching: the differential it explains is the adding unit every later machine here relies on.
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Mechanical Computer (All Parts) - Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers
483K views • 15 years agoExcelsior10000A 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.The 1953 Navy training film, the full-length upload HN prefers, shows how shafts, cams and differentials put together solve firing equations; several commenters admit rewatching it many times.
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The Most Powerful Computers You've Never Heard Of
13.7M views • 4 years agoVeritasiumVeritasium traces analog computers from the Antikythera mechanism and Kelvin's tide-predicting machines to fire control and modern analog approaches. It explains how these machines computed continuously rather than digitally.Once the parts make sense, Veritasium supplies the history, from Antikythera to Kelvin's tide-predicting machines.
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Building The World's First Computer - Greeks, Clocks and Rockets - Antikythera Mechanism Episode 1
1.1M views • 9 years agoClickspringThe first episode of Clickspring's series on reproducing the Antikythera Mechanism by hand, laying out the plan and the history. The series follows a machinist building the ancient Greek device with traditional tools and methods.Clickspring's opening episode on rebuilding the oldest known gear computer by hand, using only methods the Greeks could plausibly have had.
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1:01:04Charles Babbage and Difference Enginge No. 2 | Doron Swade | Talks at Google
10K views • 18 years agoTalks at GoogleHistorian Doron Swade tells the story of Charles Babbage's quest to build the Difference Engine and the construction of Difference Engine No. 2 at the Science Museum. The talk covers Babbage's motivation, his machines and Ada Lovelace's insight into the Analytical Engine.Doron Swade, who led the team that finally built Difference Engine No. 2, tells the Babbage story; HN points to the section around minute 36 on Ada Lovelace.
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3:39(1/4) Intro/History: Introducing a 100-year-old mechanical computer
476K views • 11 years agoengineerguyThe first of four short videos from Bill Hammack (engineerguy) introducing and giving the history of a 100-year-old mechanical computer, Michelson's harmonic analyzer. The series goes on to explain Fourier synthesis, analysis and operation of the machine.Bill Hammack's short series on Michelson's harmonic analyzer, which does Fourier analysis with springs and levers, is what HN links whenever Fourier series come up.
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3:05IBM Selectric Typewriter & its digital to analogue converter
1.1M views • 16 years agoengineerguyBill Hammack of engineerguy uses slow motion video to show how the IBM Selectric typewriter works. He focuses on its fully mechanical digital-to-analog converter, which turns key presses into rotation of the type ball.Three minutes of slow motion showing an office typewriter with a fully mechanical digital-to-analog converter inside.
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8:36The 3D-Printed Curta Calculator
2M views • 9 years agoAdam Savage’s TestedAdam Savage shows off his collection of analog calculators, ending with a 3D-printed, scaled reproduction of the Curta mechanical calculator built by Marcus Wu. The video examines the replica and the engineering behind it.The pocket-sized Curta, here as a scaled-up 3D-printed replica, so you can see the stepped drum that the original hides.
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28:52EEVblog #854 - B52 Bomber Automatic Astro Compass Teardown
189K views • 10 years agoEEVblogDave Jones of EEVblog tears down a Kollsman MD-1 Automatic Astro Compass, a mechanical analog computer from a B-52 bomber. It is part of a star-tracker inertial navigation system that computes altitude and azimuth.A teardown of a working Cold War navigation computer, for anyone who wants to see the cams and gears from the Navy film in real hardware.
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4:37Making Money Flow: The MONIAC
120K views • 9 years agoReserve Bank of New ZealandA short demonstration of the MONIAC, Bill Phillips' hydro-mechanical economic computer, at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand museum. It shows how water flows model an economy's money flows.A change of medium: Bill Phillips' machine models a national economy with water flowing through tanks and valves.
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3:34Marble adding machine
2.4M views • 19 years agoMatthiasWandelMatthias Wandel shows his wooden machine that adds binary numbers using marbles. It demonstrates computation with purely mechanical logic.Matthias Wandel's wooden binary adder moves from analog to digital logic, and HN says it inspired at least one commercial marble computer.
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19:22Mechanical circuits: electronics without electricity
8.7M views • 4 years agoSteve MouldSteve Mould shows Spintronics, a set of mechanical components such as resistors, capacitors and transistors linked by chains, that give an intuitive feel for how electrical circuits work.Steve Mould turns the analogy around and builds resistors, capacitors and transistors from chains and sprockets.
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21:42Future Computers Will Be Radically Different (Analog Computing)
13.2M views • 4 years agoVeritasiumVeritasium explains why analog computing may suit AI workloads, covering old analog computers, The Analog Thing and Mythic's analog chips that use flash memory for neural network inference. It argues digital hardware is hitting limits.It ends where HN threads usually end up, with the argument that continuous computation could return for neural-network inference.