Predicting the Tides: Old Brass Brains

Mechanical computers are complex machines designed to do various functions, but which worked entirely without electricity. Among the most interesting and complex was a machine used by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, called affectionately “Old Brass Brains.”
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This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
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Script by JCG
#history #thehistoryguy #Computers

[@jimbrasseur6600]

When I aboard the USS IOWA, there was an analog targeting computer from WW II for the 16” guns that was more accurate than the digital one installed when she was brought out of mothballs.

[@oliverlane9716]

From someone who went from being a navigator in the merchant marine, to a computer scientist, this is so fascinating.

[@andyinsdca]

Have you visited the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA? It rocks! They even had a working Babbage Difference Engine that I got to see/video!

[@bmxerkrantz]

you should check out veritasiums vid on mechanical computers then... if young, investing some time on analog computing will likely yield interesting results as these years tick on.

[@stefanschleps8758]

Thank you for your service.

[@oliverlane9716]

@@stefanschleps8758 merchant marine is not part of the military. I just worked on board civillian cargo ships. The only military aspect is that the navy has the right to press us into service during war.

[@guaporeturns9472]

@@oliverlane9716You we’re still serving your country and people as much as it more than our military. Same with grocery clerks , librarians , doctors , road crews and fast food employees. If you have a blue collar job you are serving your country and it’s people .. whatever your nationality

[@RetiredSailor60]

As a retired Navy Sailor, part of my job was to assist with the safe navigation of the ship during special evolutions namely pulling in and out of ports. Had to deal with tides and currents, ebb and flow. During Amphibious operations, had to calculate the tides and wave heights for the Marine assault vehicles to land safely on the beaches

[@goodun2974]

I'm fairly certain that was your job *before* you retired! 🤔😉

[@RetiredSailor60]

@@goodun2974 LOL. Yes, before I retired...

[@mapleleaf902]

Thank you for your service!

[@EPhotoAlbum]

Good old tide tables and quarter tenth method.

[@crowonawirehome]

QM

[@-jeff-]

It's also amazing the amount of analog computing put into some "Grandfather" clocks during the mid to late 1800's with lunar phases and such added to their complexities.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

Fascinating things, amazing really! My grandmother had the nearest grandfather clock she got from her job as an anniversary gift. I can't remember how many years it was. She worked that job, at that store, all of my life that she worked and most of my dad's. They worked there together I think in the late 70s, so maybe 25-35 year range.

[@goodun2974]

Old Brass Brains #2"is maintained in working condition at the NOAA facility in Silver Spring Maryland, where it can occasionally be viewed by the public at special Open House events.

[@geofffrench1591]

I believe that the Smithsonian has machine #1 in it's collection. I should have saved the first IBM PC that we used to do the predictions. It took 20 minutes to predict 1 year with the 8087 math chip installed (2 hours without the 8087).

[@goodun2974]

@@geofffrench1591 , When I Googled the subject to discover the fate of the machine, which appeared in the video here to be in a museum display, they did not mention the first "Brass Brain".

[@geofffrench1591]

@@goodun2974 There is a picture of it on the wiki page, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide-predicting_machine Designed by William Ferrel, completed in 1882.

[@fullwaverecked]

Ah. I was wondering that. Thanks mate!

[@billmcdonald4335]

Did not know that accurate tidal forecasts came so late. And I love that NOAA's keeping their faithful machine in running order. And the extended outro was a real treat.

[@chiron14pl]

One thing that was missed on predicting the tide on Tarawa, was the "neap tide," an unusually low tide that left many landing craft stranded on reefs and required Marines to wade into shore through heavy machine gun fire

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Talked about that in this episode: kzbin.info/www/bejne/novTe32Pl8tko9U

[@chiron14pl]

@@TheHistoryGuyChannel thx, I didn't know about Eddie Albert, but he's a true hero

[@IDYLBERRY]

@@kellyharbeson18 It's the solstice tides that are the highest and lowest.

[@tvideo1189]

You should do a piece on the electro-mechanical computers used aboard US Navy ships for ballistic calculations. These fire control computers weighed in at about 3000 pounds and were astounding accurate. They wereu sed before and throughout WWII and even into the late 80's and early 90's.

[@heatmyzer9]

There are videos (training) on the subject in YT. Really cool.

[@lancerevell5979]

And the TDC - Torpedo Data Computer - used on submarines. 👍

[@terryturman8495]

Great episode As a former bike shop owner I couldn't help but notice that it used a bicycle chain . The Wright brothers would've never flown without a the bicycle chain.I wonder how many other things the bicycle chain has changed in history ?

[@Pygar2]

TINY versions were used in watches...!

[@boathousejoed1126]

And now I can look at my watch and have instant tide information. It is amazing how far tech has advanced in a relatively short period of time.

[@TalenGryphon]

Casio WS-1300H? Or an Apple watch?

[@boathousejoed1126]

@@TalenGryphon Garmin

[@johnopalko5223]

As an amateur clockmaker, those closeups of Old Brass Brains made my heart beat faster. What a beautiful machine!

[@MisterMcHaos]

I assume, thetefore, that you make sure to take a sedative beforing watching any "ClickSpring" KZbin videos... :)

[@johnopalko5223]

@@MisterMcHaos One of my favorite channels. I am so envious of his skills.

[@stephenrickstrew7237]

As long as we are on the subject …the history of Naval Fire Control computing is also quite interesting..

[@-jeff-]

Beat me to that one. My dad was a fire controlman on a destroyer in the Korean War.

[@videodistro]

There is an amazing WWII video teaching about the mechanicals of those computers on KZbin. I highly recommend it! Amazing stuff!

[@MightyMezzo]

Looks as if the only “upgrade” Old Brass Brains required was the addition of an electric motor. No worries about viruses, either. Very impressive!

[@dancamp1515]

If you are ever at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, be sure to check out the mechanical tide computer with its own scale model of the Puget Sound. A plunger raises and lowers the water level based on the tide calculations, and you can inject dye at certain spots to observe the tidal flow. The various wheels and gears are visible along the wall at the end of the display.

[@rustymotor]

Certainly there were very clever and skilled technicians who designed and constructed these devices, each and every part carefully planned and fitted and then synchronised with the other components. I certainly appreciate looking at these machines and admire them having worked as an instrument technician for many years!

[@markmarkell9209]

A well preserved working tidal machine is on display in Ueno, Japan at the engineering and science museum there. Beautiful machine.

[@mytube001]

I grew up in a part of the world where the tides are about a foot. Most people, even many experienced boaters, fishermen and sailors, aren't even aware that we have tides here. Changes in air pressure and wind direction and strength affect the water level more than tides here, so the actual tidal range is masked by other factors. Always interesting to see how different it is in many other parts of the world.

[@TalenGryphon]

Great Lakes?

[@mytube001]

@@TalenGryphon Not even the right continent. Let's just say somewhere in Northern Europe. But salt water, not a lake.

[@TalenGryphon]

@mytube001 SALT water with almost no measurable tides? Hmm. So it would have to be an area with lots of channels, islands or an absurdly complex coastline acting as baffles to prevent fluctuations in water level. Northern Europe. And you mentioned fishermen so... Finland?

[@mytube001]

@@TalenGryphon Nope. I mean, as I mentioned, we do have tides, it's just that they're only about 20-30 cm, with a maximum of maybe 40 cm for an extreme spring tide. No channels, large islands or absurdly complex coastline. In fact, the tidal range is the same tens of kilometers out from the coast, far from any islands. It's just the way the tidal nodes and resonances work. Some areas aren't as affected, while others are extremely affected. Do an image search on Google for "tidal range map europe" and you'll get a few search results that may surprise you.

[@Hey_Its_That_Guy]

Having previously only experienced the relatively small tidal changes on the east coast of North America, I was astounded by the high and low tides in the UK. Seven to ten meters (23 - 33 feet)! Absolutely incredible!

[@shawnr771]

Thank you for the lesson. Every so often NOAA gets a new supercomputer. When it does the new supercomputer will be if not the fastest computer well within the top 10 for that year.

[@reader1956]

You find the most interesting, fascinating subjects to explore. I love these videos.

[@oliverscratch]

If you want to do a deeper dive into the technology, the engineerguy channel has a series of videos on how harmonic analyzers crunch numbers.

[@davea6314]

Who needs a supercomputer when you have an abacus?

[@schroedingersdog7965]

Very true for arithmetic problems. Trigonometric, logarithmic, and exponential functions, however, are something of a challenge for an abacus. 😉

[@davea6314]

@@schroedingersdog7965 Lol

[@gilzor9376]

I will always be amazed at the minds that can even compute in their brains at such levels, let alone build a machine that can to their work! . . . .Amazing!. I have as much respect for the makers of these old brass brains as I do for the owners of the old brass balls who fought and served for our country.

[@briantaylor9266]

Tangential to tide computers, the women that did the calculations for early space flight were referred to as 'computers', i.e., those who compute.

[@scotcoon1186]

The dodge 48re still used a hydraulic analog computer in 2007. The electronics varied the governor pressure to fool the valve body into shifting at different points.

[@sillyone52062]

The Norden bombsight, used by US bombers, was also a mechanical computer. It cost $9,000 a copy at the outset.

[@KevinWindsor1971]

By all measures the Norden was inferior to the Sperry bombsight. The Norden won out due to exaggerated claims by the company, and the fact it was an American company. Sperry was a multi-national company with ties to Germany.

[@swirlcrop]

Thanks for the great video. You really make quality videos that are fun to watch.

[@reallyseriously7020]

In school (80's) we learned about Babbage and Lovelace but nary a word about this amazing machine that made such an impact on the world.

[@tomo9126]

I think a school (MIT?) built one of Babbage's unbuilt computer a few years ago and it worked.

[@jebsails2837]

The same mechanical / analog components, integrators, revolvers etc. were the used in the torpedo fire control systems of our WWII submarines. If only we had a working torpedo the Pacific conflict may have ended earlier. Narragansett Bay

[@marckyle5895]

Everyone in BuOrd connected in any manner with the word 'torpedo' should have been court martialed.

[@TheHylianBatman]

I love old school mechanical computers like that!

[@richardmourdock2719]

And then someone came up with the idea of daylight savings time and a gunshot was heard within the geodetic survey "computing" department.

[@iskandartaib]

Might be worth pointing out what a "computer" was back then - a human being whose work was doing mathematical calculations. These "computers" were mentioned 3 or 4 times during the narration.

[@gilzor9376]

Your comment is so ironic . . . lol . . I was thinking exactly that when listening to the references. I was thinking how today's generations are pretty much clueless as to the use of that word long before today's pc.

[@catatonicbug7522]

The film "Hidden Figures" is a prime example of this. A door with the word "computers" on the outside opened to a room of black women who did the calculations that took us to the moon.

[@iskandartaib]

@@catatonicbug7522 Yes, exactly. Don't remember what the tools of the trade were, I think adding machines was one, and they probably used those logarithmic and trigonometric tables we had to use when I was in high school. And maybe slide rules, but maybe not (only good to 3 significant figures). As you probably recall from the movie, they'd give them a task, and the output would be a report in the form of a thick booklet presented to the managers. And it would take them a long time to produce the output, and in that one case in the movie it was already obsolete by the time it was done, since things were moving so fast in the space program.

[@frankgulla2335]

The Manhatten project was calculated by human calculators, mostly women PhDs, if memory serves me.

[@TupperWallace]

This was the most successful, important analog computer of all time, good to see it described in context so carefully.

[@michaelmcginnis9391]

I don't really want to argue that point but I am very surprised that no one has yet mentioned that most basic mechanical computer - the Slide Rule. It did, after all, do the calculations that put us into space and I believe onto the moon.

[@cmillerg6306]

At the Deutches Museum, I saw an impressive German tide computer. It had a monolithic steel exterior, much wider than tall, painted a light green, with many similar looking dials.

[@earlyriser8998]

i used the tide tables but never knew how they were calculated

[@AskMrScience]

I had the pleasant opportunity to see this machine some years ago.

[@andrewschmidt5312]

I want to compliment your oral presentations. You present images that aid the commentary, but the commentary is so well written and articulated and the descriptions detailed enough to be stand alone. This is important to me because I can share them with a very good and well educated and talented friend who is interested in history. He is also blind. Thanks for creating something that is so interesting and informative and that is accessible to those who are usually not considered and forgotten in media production.

[@darren8269]

Fascinating... I love you History Guy.

[@markb1764]

The machine work involved in the creation of that is very cool

[@davidepperson2376]

Another outstanding video about yet another fascinating subject. Bravo!

[@DeanStephen]

Having myself worked at sea for several years, let me offer a special thank you for this one.

[@braxtonnelson5375]

I would have to posit that Mr. Geiger could tell a hell of a ghost story!

[@SeverityOne]

Great video. I'm going out on a limb and argue that the "Tide-Predicting Machine No. 2" is, in fact, a digital computer. It doesn't use binary digits (bits), but rather whatever radix was chosen for the gears. There have been analogue electronic computers to predict tides. The Dutch built the "electronic model of watercourses" in 1954 and used it till 1961, when it was replaced by the Deltar, also an analogue electronic computer. The latter was used to compute the complex tides when building the Delta Works, after the disastrous storm surge of 1953. The Deltar was used until 1984. Unfortunately, both have been dismantled, and only four modules of the Deltar remain. In that sense, the Americans took much better care of their past. It requires the insight to understand that what seems ordinary today will one day be a piece of history - that deserves to be both remembered and experienced.

[@rickhobson3211]

Amazing! Thank you for producing this episode!

[@edwardabel3716]

THG, I love your content that is so very detailed in each and every episode! You intro’s are also wonderful to watch please 🎉❤

[@robertweeks4240]

well yet another awesome video! thank you! i owned a small sailboat on lake Erie(no tide) yet i do appreciate navigating !

[@buzbuz33-99]

As late as 1972, I worked in a government office where we used geared machines to make calculations. We all had adding machines, with a hand crank, that you could use to add or multiply numbers. But only the supervisor had a machine that could divide numbers - which meant walking your numbers back to the supervisor and watching the machine literally "crank out" the result. Fortunately, it appears that early mechanical computers, like the astronomical and tide machines, mostly relied on sine wave-type calculations, which are easily performed using gears. (In contrast, sine wave calculations are a challenge for digital computers - something to be avoided if you want to compute a lot of numbers quickly.)

[@michaelmcginnis9391]

I learned statistical analysis using electro-mechanical calculators - entering x and y data points would yield x squared, y squared, x times y values as well as sums of x, y , x squared etc. etc. The lab I worked in had a couple older and smaller hand cranked calculators - one of which could be used to fine square roots. AMAZING machines.

[@markcampanelli]

Fantastic story. Thanks!

[@buddharuci2701]

A couple days ago I ditched my iPhone in favor of my 1909 railroad pocket watch. It ticks, tocks, and loses half a minute a day. If you haven’t already, please do a segment on the history of watches. Such fun!

[@chrism4008]

I miss pocket watches

[@tygrkhat4087]

I have my maternal grandfather's pocket watch. I took it to a jeweler to have it refurbished, and was told the cost of refurbishment was more than what the watch was worth. I told him that I didn't care as it belonged to the grandfather I never met.

[@scottthomas6202]

It might have a regulating screw that lets you adjust it for accuracy. Those old railroad watches were both accurate and durable...

[@TalenGryphon]

Might need servicing or adjustment. My Orient Tristar wristwatch loses under a minute per week

[@buddharuci2701]

I’m not complaining about the half minute a day loss. I rather like it. Living things are imperfect. Modern watches are perfect dead things. IMHO.

[@michaelcerkez3895]

Coming from someone who worked on yachts and sailing vessels I find your video very informative. I've taken a number of trips up the east coast on sailing vessels and should the calendar have been turned back 125 years Old Brass Brains would surely have been welcome.

[@constipatedinsincity4424]

Back in the Saddle Again Naturally

[@katiekat4457]

He consistently chooses interesting things to make his videos about. I really like this channel.

[@mikecummings6593]

I hope they keep it in working order because one of these days the lights are going to go out and it's coming they're going to go out and they're going to stay out

[@joshsater4044]

I never knew such a thing existed. Thank you!

[@hugodesrosiers-plaisance3156]

Producing the timetables 4 years in advance is such an elegant way to shut corruption out. Very classy. 👌

[@RobMR3]

It's amazing how far we're NOT removed from the old ways; compared to how long the old ways were used.

[@schroedingersdog7965]

Utterly fascinating! Thanks very much, THG!

[@goodun2974]

"You pull me like the moon pulls on the tide/you know just where I keep my better side...." Richard & Linda Thompson. Also this: " Have no fear for atomic energy/because none of them can stop the tide....." Bob Marley. (PS, the Thompson's song is the most gorgeous, beautiful yet bittersweet love song ever, a bit like "At the Dark End of the Street" but even more achingly heartbreaking).

[@BasicDrumming]

I appreciate you, thank you for making content.

[@JamesGoetzke]

Until the 1980's my grandmother would balance her final books and bills on a rather large and old mechanical calculator. She would punch in the numbers and pull back a lever reveling the sum on a receipt. I thought it an incredible work of machinery.

[@VespasianJudea]

The brains behind the wars. Interesting for sure. Thank you. I never would have known.

[@terrycole9427]

Thank you for sharing this piece of amazing history

[@10XBULL]

That was absolutely amazing. Thank you.

[@harrycarter1722]

Thank you for this one. Son of a sailor. 42-53

[@steveschwartz6138]

Great story and research.

[@cdstoc]

I'm so glad NOAA maintains the machine in working order. Mechanical analog computers were used for many things, one other is the targeting computer for the 16-inch guns on the Iowa-class battleships. It worked well enough that when the ships were brought out of mothballs in the 1980's the Navy ended up not updating the computers, as the cost would be great but the improvement in the end not so great.

[@notpublic7149]

❤️ this tidbit of early computers! Yet, let's at least mention Lovelace please? ❤️

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpOumHmNirKaf8U

[@davidbryant2872]

Fascinating!

[@ricardokowalski1579]

8:00 -Here is the latests, most advanced, the most recent machine... how shall we call it? - *OLD* brass brains, obviously

[@mut8inG]

Thank you.🎶💥🌸

[@dennisnicholson952]

I recall seeing a series on the History Channel about the WW2 aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Enterprise. It was originally sponsored by Enterprise Rent-A-Car because the company's founder served on that ship. Anyway, that ship had radar-guided anti-aircraft guns; very accurate and deadly.

[@stefanschleps8758]

Well done. Thank you.

[@digilyd]

Fascinating, thank you!

[@critical_always]

That was super interesting. Thank you.

[@FastEddy396]

That’s genuinely outstanding

[@314299]

Pretty cool stuff! Thanks for the video.

[@williamthethespian]

It is hard for the modern mind to appreciate the complexity of times passed. We so often say that things were "simpler back then." Maybe not.

[@chriskelvin248]

Brass balls, now out of the ether I am made aware of brass brains. Stands to reason that somewhere out there, beyond the fog, is a complete brass man.

[@marckyle5895]

And his name is C-3P0

[@kenjackson5685]

1st class....thanks for sharing

[@NoahSpurrier]

One of my favorite analog computers.

[@tnekkc]

My father won a contract for a cruise missile loader design in 1985. I showed him how to design electronics, and at age 65 he designed an analog electronic computer using analog ICs with trig functions and multipliers.

[@philmanson2991]

I had no idea there were mechanical computing devices that are centuries old!! Fascinating!

[@larryjohnson7591]

I was a mechanic my whole life. This was one fascination story for me. Thank You.

[@richardthornhill4630]

Incredible feat of ingenuity.

[@Svartalf14]

lol, when I first read brass brains, I thought this would be about the Antikythera mechanism

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

And it kinda was.

[@kurtisburtis]

“Blasé Pascal” 🤣

[@tadroid3858]

How about a piece on the now defunct LORAN system maintained by the USCG and replaced by GPS?

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Mentioned in this episode: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oavZpn2qprp6n7s

[@MarshOakDojoTimPruitt]

thanks

[@marckyle5895]

I liked how at 7:15 AND 7:21 the captioning said 'feral machine'. I can imagine it snarling and snapping at the setters~

[@mikestaihr5183]

I guess you could call the new replacement "Old Sand Brains" Silicon replacing brass....LOL

[@TrueOpinion99]

I use a ballistic calculator (for range estimation) that is, in effect, a slide rule.

[@tracyrreed]

Computers today still only do mathematical calculations. The video game you see on the screen is the result of those mathematical calculations.

[@chadparsons50]

Lord Kelvin stood strong against the Theory of (macro) Evolution all his long life.

[@Gieza-Brake-Pahl]

Kelvin believed in evolution but originally disagreed with Darwin, he only accepted Darwin’s aging of the World when radiology started being used to age rock. He did originally believe evolution must have been assisted by a devout being but later accepted that the developing science provided a better explanation. Can’t have people thinking he was one of the crazies now can we 😊. Wikipedia has a good summary biography, otherwise both Russel and Gray‘s biographies make interesting reading.

[@chadparsons50]

@@Gieza-Brake-Pahl agree to disagree.

[@matthewnothdurft8037]

thankyou sir, love your channel would watch if just for your 'polite demeanour'! 👍

[@EmptyPotOfGold]

After a few adult beverages consumed late in the evening, I woke up with what could be described as “brass brains”.

[@hillbilly4895]

quickly man! ...to the brass-hair-of-the-dog potion!

[@Aramis419]

I see that phaser on the shelf!

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Found it on the charred body of a guy in a red shirt.

[@flashwashington2735]

Thanks.

[@yannisconstantinides7767]

Cool!

[@CutsToTheChase]

Thank you, THG. I feel like my nickname should be "Old Ass Brains", but I'm not as crank-ee.

[@AlwaysCensored-xp1be]

I remember using a new algorithm on a 8bit MC68705 microcontroller. Each location had a few values that affected heights and times. It was acurate to the minute and centimeter. Had to use Binary coded decimal as floating point was useless.