Introducing a 100-year-old mechanical computer [video] | Hacker News Reader

Introducing a 100-year-old mechanical computer [video]

youtube.com

80 pointsTechNewb11 comments

YouTube’s ‘engineerguy’ is Bill Hammack who just (31 Oct 2014) published a new book on the machine entitled “Albert Michelson's Harmonic Analyzer: A Visual Tour of a Nineteenth Century Machine that Performs Fourier Analysis” which is available at Amazon and his website (http://www.engineerguy.com/fourier/) — Note: at first I thought this video was solely a means of getting people to buy his book, but if you go to his website he has the whole book available for free download and purchase (as well as some cool posters).

Those not able to see the video, the computer is Albert Michelson's (1852 - 1931) Harmonic Analyzer to perform Fourier Analysis, and is part one of a four part series (staggered upcoming release dates for next three installments). I do wish he'd have all the segments in the series uploaded or at least show a bit more of the mechanical operation as that seemed to be quite ingenious. The clips shown of the mechanical operation either seemed slowed down or altered/shot at an artsy angle which while visually appealing make it hard to appreciate "how it works" overall.

The other vids will detail "how it works." In the next two we show the steps in synthesis and analysis, and the last on its operations details setting for sines or cosines, the pen mechanism, etc. The book also goes over this -- as you note the PDF is free. There is a direct download at the site, also a torrent. Two vids detailing what's in the book likely come out tomorrow and the day after . . . . Bill

Nice one. Look forward to the next videos. For some reason now I really want my very own mechanical computer. The fact I can't get one, just makes me want it more.

print it http://www.chrisfenton.com/the-turbo-entabulator/

A software simulation of this machine could serve as a very nice visual aid for people that are mechanically inclined that try to understand Fourier Analysis. Nice project for a little web app.

One of my co-creators (Bruce) modeled it in Mathematica ... Bill

I'd love to see that worksheet!

A great way to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of these videos (and Bill's production process in general) has been to check in on his vimeo accounts ([1] and [2]).

It's not quite what you're looking for (a simulation of the machine, which would be amazing to see in its own right), but according to this video [3], it looks like they've built a neat webapp for the purpose of having a sort of fourier synthesis playground.

Unfortunately, there's just the demo video, with no link to the site itself, and searching turned up nothing. They may plan to release it later on in the series.

[1] http://vimeo.com/engineerguy/videos

[2] http://vimeo.com/user17826495/videos

[3] http://vimeo.com/101539582

I had forgot about the Sum Some Sines .... that will come out ... it is a program on the processing language that lets you play with adding sines. It isn't a simulation of the machine, but it is fascinating and instructive. We choose not to release it with the machine vids.

A note if you're not aware of it (though you probably are): processing has an offshoot called processing.js [1].

That version can run most processing apps within the browser with no plugins or setup, thus letting interested users just visit a link to use the app.

[1] http://processingjs.org/

That is amazing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com