Model CDP-1
Mechanical Computing Machine


Intro:
Back in the sixties while employed at Honeywell EDP in Brighton, Massachusetts, a friend and I designed a mechanical gravity operated computer called the CDP-1, CDP standing for Cheap Data Products.
The theory behind the design was to use ball bearings as data bits falling via gravity over tiny levers and rachets to operate mechanical logic gates instead of expensive electrically powered transistors and diodes.

I will try to recreate from memory the technickel attributes of this wonder in lewd of not being able to find the original manuscripts***; which I think are buried somewhere in my garage.

So return to those adventurous days of yesteryear, to the wide open badlands on Commonwealth Avenue in Brighton Mass; to an era of lawlessness in the computer industry when parity bits got grounded, the skys were filled with punch card chad, thyratrons fired intermittently, relays controlled the power circuits and magnetic tape data was visible to the naked eye.


Tech manual for the gravity operated ball bearing computer.
1. Cabinet design
Round metallic cabinets about three feet high with two handles on opposite sides for easy disposal of faulty units.
2. Tiny ball bearings for data BITs (ie Bearings In Transit).
3. Lubricated by oil rendered from stunted chickens to maintain miniaturized environment.

----------

*** NOTE ****
Some of the early original manuscripts have been found and can be seen by clicking HERE!!! This write up includes the first memory hardware which was made up of stove bolts.


Return to the Strange & Unusual
Or back to TumbleweedTom

Updated 02/18/2013 AD (After Digital)