[email protected] wrote: I must read your suggested book on pipe organs - but I wonder if they were the most mechanically complex 'things' of the 18th and 19th century? Two things spring to mind in terms of very complex mechanical objects: The Mechanical Turk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk
I have no idea how many parts were in the Turk, but remember, most of its impressive clockwork machinery didn't do anything. The machinery was present merely to deceive viewers about the chess master hidden inside the machine. And Babbage's Difference (and later Analytical) Engine. But Babbage's engine was never built (except for small test portions) until the reconstruction in modern times. Anyway, Wikipedia claims that Babbage's full machine would have contained 25,000 parts. The Macy's Wannamaker organ (which is early 20th century, but there were other large organs in the 19th century) has 28,765 pipes, not counting the zillions of other moving parts necessary to make them work. A more plausible contender against the pipe organ for the "most complex machine in number of working parts" during its particular era might be the Jaquard loom. But I'll stand by my belief that from the 17th century through the early 20th century, pipe organs were probably the machines with the most moving parts. Also, keep in mind we had very complicated mechanical computers even after the invention of the transistor for military application and ballistics computations throughout the 1930's, 1940's, and early 1950's. I'm pretty sure that these machines were outclassed in that period by electromechanical telephone switching implementations (which had also outclassed organs). These were huge collections of crossbars, relays, and stepper switches. Small portions of these impressive machines are preserved in museums. There used to be a working crossbar switch on display at the Boston Museum of Science -- no idea if it is still there. _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
