Now, it turns out that core memories are fairly fussy about their temperature. So in order to control the temperature, the early core memories were in an oil bath in a big tank, through which oil was circulated to maintain the temperature of the things. This technology did not last long because they figured out how to use better cores, and used air cooled memories. The [IBM] 7094 had one. But The [AN/FS]Q-32 used the oil-tank memory and one day it stopped working. When they inspected the innards to find out why, they discovered that one of the cores was sitting fairly close to the outlet from the oil circulator, and the oil circulator caused it to spin. Eventually it succeeded in sawing its way through the copper wire supporting it, and it had fallen into the bottom of the tank.
From: Richard Troth [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 7:07 AM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: bandwidth of a swallow [was: Real core]
Sir Dave the Generous spake:
> You don't seriously expect us to believe that a swallow
> (African or any other kind...) can grasp a 3592 tape cartridge,
> do you? They have no husks, as you know......;-)
Perhaps he's suggesting that cores migrate? (cat herders ... they've seen it all, you know!)
Wait a minute! Supposing two swallows carried a 3592 together? ... simple! They'd just use a strand of 9-track held under the dorsal guiding feathers! Well, why not?
-- R;
