Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ogicse!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekgen!sail!johno
From: johno@sail.LABS.TEK.COM (John Ollis)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: How do mechanical car-radio preset pushbuttons work??
Message-ID: <9534@sail.LABS.TEK.COM>
Date: 17 May 91 16:31:31 GMT
References: <9105151026.aa18960@PARIS.ICS.UCI.EDU> <1991May17.034530.21765@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Reply-To: johno@sail.LABS.TEK.COM (John Ollis)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.
Lines: 23

>Arn't mechanical computers neat?  There's lots of these things:
>
>- Some things have a row of buttons, but only one is allowed to be in at
>  one time.
>
>- ...electromechanical juke-boxes ...
>
>- ...automatic record changers ...

			etc., etc., etc.

One of the things that fascinated me is the Selectric typewriter.  The keyboard
mechanically produced a 6-bit binary code which is then interpreted by the
type ball positioning mechanism (4 bits to control the roll of the ball and
2 for the tilt).  The only place electricity was used in those things was to
make the motor go around.

And how about mechanical calculators.

I have a lot of respect for the engineers who designed this sort of thing using
that technology.  Electronics makes a lot of things a whole lot easier.

--johno