The Stone Age Electronic Calculator Released

[deadlymuskox]

I am trying to figure out how to create a manual to build an electronic calculator in a wilderness situation as one nomadic person. this may include smelting ore, building tools, soldering, make copper wire, creating magnets, building generators, building semiconductors etc. In order to develop a real working model. Of coarse some of these things might not be needed in the new design but the only way to find out is for those who are willing to collaborate to make it happen. The possibility of the working model will not be known unless someone else has weighed out all the possibilities involved in remaking an electronic calculator, so please don't turn this into a discussion about whether or not it is possible. Questions and comments about the feasibility of the project will just slow down the process of actually finding out if it is possible. It is just a matter of enough people contributing their knowledge to the project. I think the only way to weigh out these possibilities is either one person with a lot of time or a group of people who believe that this type of project if fun and at the same time informative and important. I have made a small mindmap to assist in the development which is not the perfect form for creating a manual but as problems within the system are found they will be edited and revamped to improve work flow.
As well as a support page to place new content. www.stonecalculate.com

I hope to see you their.

p.s. an abacus is not electrical, and a mechanical computer is not either.

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Moved to "Highly Technical" Forum
RebateMonger - AnandTech Moderator
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[mpilchfamily]

Stop the Spam!

 

[deadlymuskox]

oh come on like this is even close to spam?!! This is completely non commercial and is only for those who are interested to participate.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Well at the very lest its in the wrong seciton. This would be a perfect topic for the Highly Technical section.

Sure a wilderness calc can be made. Electronic calc... doubt it. Mechanical in the same since of the 1950's calculators sure.

Not that you would need a calc in a servival/wilderness situation. Placeing knotches is sticks would probably be sufficient for your needs in a wilderness situation.

 

[deadlymuskox]

Ok well lets put it there then. I don't have a problem with putting it in another place.


"Sure a wilderness calc can be made. Electronic calc... doubt it. Mechanical in the same since of the 1950's calculators sure.
Not that you would need a calc in a servival/wilderness situation. Placeing knotches is sticks would probably be sufficient for your needs in a wilderness situation."

Ok great you disagree but with what i never said anything about needing a calculator in the woods. As well I spelled out in the first statement that you DON'T KNOW. If you did than there wouldn't be anything for me to do would there?

 

[mpilchfamily]

OK then lets think of the display. You might be able to catch some fire flies right? We can go about using them a couple of ways. We can either use them to just flash a number of times to indicate there value. If we wanted to make some sort of digital display we would need 7 bugs per diget. Shouldn't take too much to stimulate them to light up. Just a matter of if they can sustain being on constantly or if they are limited to flashing. Either way they probably won't last very long and will need to be changed often.

But i guess the first consideration should be power. Then all other parts can be made to conform around the power source. Should be easy enough to get the power. A very basic battery is just a copper plate and a zinc plate. But a cloth or paper towel soaked in salt water between them and you have voltage. The more plates you stack up the more power you get. I'm pretty sure an acid of some sort would possibly yeild better results. Something like your Urin or the stomack asid of an animal. Would take some research but its an idea. Course the copper and Zinc, if found in raw form, would need a bit of refining. The more surface area availible the better the rusults will be.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
Well at the very lest its in the wrong seciton. This would be a perfect topic for the Highly Technical section.

:thumbsup:

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
A very basic battery is just a copper plate and a zinc plate.

When I'm walking in the woods I'm just tripping over loose zinc plates all the time. Damn things are heavy.

/edit: you could build Babbage's Difference Engine out of wood.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
A very basic battery is just a copper plate and a zinc plate.

When I'm walking in the woods I'm just tripping over loose zinc plates all the time. Damn things are heavy.

/edit: you could build Babbage's Difference Engine out of wood.

I'd be more impressed if the OP could make a Curta out of a hair curler. :laugh:

 

[Colt45]

slide rule, sure. Mechanical calc out of wood.. perhaps. But making even the simplest Ge transistor, or the simplest triode, is incredibly difficult even in a household situation. In the wild it's nothing short of impossible.

 

[vailr]

Change the scenario to: an astronaut marooned on the planet Mars, just to make it fair....

 

[nineball9]

Try taking apart an existing calculator to see what you need and the technology to assemble it. Now try doing it w/o IC's or semiconductors in general - you won't make any of those in the wild. (Exception - galena with a cat wisker for a diode.) Circuit board - unlikely, so likely point-to-point wiring (if you can make wires.) Power - potato w/ different metal electrodes but that won't provide much power or last long.

To make it easier, how would the Romans, say circa Caesar's time, have made an electronic calculator? The Roman Empire had the knowledge of metals, knew some about static electricity (from the Greeks) and knew of loadstones and basic magnetism. How would you write a manual for the Romans, let alone a "Stone Age" civilization?

 

[Hacp]

Weren't the first electronic calculators the size of bookshelves? I don't think you'll be able to make one alone in your lifetime.

 

[SonicIce]

Where can you find natural magnets?

 

[nineball9]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
Where can you find natural magnets?

Loadstones.

 

[nineball9]

Originally posted by: Hacp
Weren't the first electronic calculators the size of bookshelves? I don't think you'll be able to make one alone in your lifetime.

Early mechanical calculators were large. Charles Babbage designed some in the 19th century including an amazing difference engine which was finally built in 1991!

From wikipedia : In 1954, IBM, in the U.S., demonstrated a large all-transistor calculator and, in 1957, the company released the first commercial all-transistor calculator, the IBM 608, though it was housed in several cabinets and cost about $80,000.

The first truely electronic calculators I remember (c. 1970) used nixie tubes to display the numerals. Not bookshelf sized but not something you'd fit in a pocket either.

 

[nineball9]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

I'd be more impressed if the OP could make a Curta out of a hair curler. :laugh:

lol!
Thanks Rubycon - I was trying to remember what those were called. Decades after college, my grandfather bought one out of curiousity. Said he preferred a slide rule!

 

[herm0016]

Originally posted by: deadlymuskox
Ok great you disagree but with what i never said anything about needing a calculator in the woods. As well I spelled out in the first statement that you DON'T KNOW. If you did than there wouldn't be anything for me to do would there?

just to make it clear... you DONT KNOW either. apparently you dont understand the materials and processes you must use to make some the the elements. there is only a few places on earth where you can find elemental metals near the surface only one or 2 where you will find copper ( the upper peninsula of Michigan being one) . I do not believe Si or any of the rare earth elements you will require are able to be processed without great heat or pressure. you will have to build a factory and mine and furnace before you get to the hard parts of building transistors and other components.

 

[mpilchfamily]

I think early electronic calcs wher ones that where mechanical but replaced the hand crank with a motor.

 

[deadlymuskox]

never said i knew. This is a hunting and gathering lifestyle situation.

The functional attributes of an electronic calculator is the main objective = False
The functional attributes of the electronic calculator come as the secondary objective but at the same time nessesary = True

I see the book as similar to the technical manual. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...Fleet_Technical_Manual
The manual becomes a narrative itself with an almost science fiction alure except that is real. It takes the fictional manual one step further it makes it real. In doing so the possibility of the act happening also occurs. (someone taking the manual out and doing it, it may never happen but the idea that it could is enough, it is the possibility that creates the allure and more questions arise) The last time you saw Kirk get beamed up to you say "shit that is so impossible." No you were like I don't care it was so cool. Well the calculator has different objectives and is a little more plausible but I think it has a similar allure. Or do I have to make a hollywood set depicting a wilderness situation? It may not be possible but it if you could make a tractor beam manual online wouldn't you?