[COFF] Mercury delay lines

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

On Monday, 15 June 2020 at 17:38:18 +0100, Tony Finch wrote:
> Adam Sampson <ats at offog.org> wrote:
>> Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org> writes:
>>
>>> Apart from the beautiful Teletype in the foreground, there was a
>>> machine with lots of dials in the background; obviously some early
>>> computer, but not enough footage for me to tell which one,
>>
>> There are some shots in this trailer:
>>   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JQmO2fC00E
>>
>> The racks are mockups (there's a nice National HRO radio in the middle
>> of one!), but I think what they're trying to represent is the EDSAC
>> computer at Cambridge; the noughts and crosses game pictured ran on
>> EDSAC.
>
> A picture of Wilkes with some mercury delay lines and a corner of an EDSAC
> rack.
>
> https://images.computerhistory.org/revonline/images/500004368-03-01.jpg?w=600

That looks very much like the delay lines on CSIRAC, the oldest
Australian computer, currently on display at Scienceworks in
Melbourne.  I have a number of photos of the machine at
http://www.lemis.com/grog/photos/Photos.php?dirdate=20040904 , and
there's a delay line at
http://www.lemis.com/grog/Photos/20040904/big/Delay-line-1.jpeg

CSIRAC was built in 1949.  If you're in Melbourne, it's well worth
looking at.

Greg
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