Any adjustments required were recorded on a card fixed to the front of the computor. As the computor held the level line and was sending angle commands to the sight, it eliminated the need for a two-axis gyro in the sighting head itself. The gyro on the sight head only adjusted for rotation of the aircraft around its roll axis. The bomb sight was also supplied with the Emergency Computor, a simple circular slide rule for use when the main computor stopped working.
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As the Mk. XIV could calculate the effects of a shallow climb or dive (or glide as it is referred to in bombing), the computor included its own levelling mechanism. This was added to the range angle calculated by the computor to move the sight head. Levelling the system required adjustment of both the computor and the sight head. Since these were in a fixed relationship to each other, levelling could be carried out on the ground and then left alone.
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Once measured, the angle of the aircraft and the angle of the drift (measured either from the dial on the computor or the scale on the sight) were recorded. Using the Mk. III Navigation Computor, the RAF's version of the modern E6B, the three sets of angles were entered on the wind calculator face. This normally resulted in a small triangular area forming where the three lines came close to meeting, and the centre of this triangle revealed the wind speed and direction. This value was then entered into the computor.
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The programmer must translate the algorithm into a language that the simulator/computer/computor can effectively execute. Stone gives an example of this: when computing the roots of a quadratic equation the computor must know how to take a square root. If they don't, then the algorithm, to be effective, must provide a set of rules for extracting a square root.Stone 1972:5.
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The Mk. XIV consisted of two independent parts, the sighting head and the computor. The sighting head was located in the bomb aimer's window at the front of the aircraft. The separate computor cabinet was assembled with the operating knobs positioned on the right side of the case, so it had to be placed on the left side of the fuselage. The two were connected via two flexible cable drives.
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The Low Level Bombsight Mk. III consisted of two parts, the computor, and the sighting head, shown here. The bomb aimer looked through the glass plates to see an image of moving horizontal lines, and released the bombs when their motion matched the motion of the target. The computor for the Mk. III was very simple, with inputs for the airspeed and altitude only. The range can be read off the series of lines on the white cylinder visible through the perspex window.
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Although the computor was much smaller than the Mk. XIV's, it too could clamp into the same fittings in the aircraft. This allowed a Mk. III and Mk. XIV to be easily swapped in the field.
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The Mk. III used a number of components from the Mk. XIV, as well as much of its basic layout. Like the Mk. XIV, the Mk. III was built in two separate components, the computor that calculated the range angle, and the sighting head that displayed this for the bomb aimer. The sighting head was located in the bomb aimer's window at the front of the aircraft. The separate computor cabinet was positioned on the left side of the fuselage, and two units were connected via an electrical cable.
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Two of these could be set before the mission: the altitude of the target above sea level and the terminal velocity of the bomb, a function of the particular bomb being used on that mission. The only settings that had to be adjusted in flight were the measured wind direction and speed. The altitude, airspeed and course were all measured by the internal instruments and presented to the user in windows on the side of the computor case. Once set, the computor would automatically update the calculations and display the resulting bombing angle in another window.
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The Petri 7 came in many varieties. The Petri F1.9 rangefinder with 45mm f1.9 lens Petri Computor 35 The Camera Company was an optical company and manufacturer of cameras in Japan. It was founded in 1907. Prior to World War II, it was known as Kuribayashi Shashin Kōgyō or Kuribayashi Camera Industry, inc.
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The manual for the Mk. XIV described only one method of determining the wind speed, equivalent to the most complex of the procedures from the CSBS model. Prior to the bomb run the pilot was directed to fly the aircraft in several different directions in sequence, preferably about 120 degrees apart. On each leg, the bomb aimer used the reticle to measure the drift angle, either by rotating the wind direction dial on the computor to get the sight head to the right angle, or by unlocking the azimuth control from the computor and turning the sight manually. The drift angle was whatever angle the sight head was pointing when objects on the ground could be seen to be moving along the line on the sight.
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RAF Museum's reserve collection. The Mk. XIVA computor, normally mounted on the left side of the forward fuselage. The wind speed and direction are set on the blue dials, the bomb's terminal velocity and the target altitude on the green dials. The Mark XIV Bomb Sight was a bombsight developed by Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command during the Second World War.
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Retrieved 23 February 2010. Miami, also from 1995, had Maureen Hansen (also in COW and McCormack's then girlfriend), Nick Naughton on drums and Medew.Spencer et al, (2007) MIAMI) entry. Retrieved 23 February 2010. Miami released two CDs: Costume of Sand (March 1997) and Feel the Seed (1998). Computor was another collaboration between McCormack and Moore,Spencer et al, (2007) COMPUTER entry. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
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The cylinder was also connected to an electrical mechanism that output a varying current based on the settings. This was fed into a motor on the sighting head. The motor was calibrated to turn at a fixed speed depending on the output fed to it from the computor. The motor turned a ring with lines inscribed on it, positioned in front of a projector system.
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The T-1A computer, a US-built version of the Mk. XIVA computor. This example retains the scales in the reading windows and a blank levelling card. Existing sources do not record when the Mk. XIV went into production in the UK; operational testing started in January 1942, and production examples started reaching squadrons in March. It was manufactured by small machine shops and instrument makers like the Aron Meter Company.
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The computor cabinet included only four main controls. On the left side of the chassis, from top to bottom, were dials that set the wind direction, wind speed, target altitude and terminal velocity of the bomb. All these inputs were set by reading their value in a small window on the left side of the dials. Additional windows provided output values for the indicated airspeed, course, and bombing angle (or range angle).
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Clips in the upper right held a card with levelling data, as well as notes about the sight or the bombs being dropped. The computor was also connected to several external sources. Compressed air was supplied from the engines to drive the mechanism, and an exhaust allowed the less dense used air to escape. Tubes were also connected to the pitot tube and static air source, which allowed the accurate measurement of airspeed.
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The computor for the Mk. III had only two inputs, one for airspeed and the other for altitude. Both were dialled in on large wheels positioned on either end of the long rectangular cabinet. The top of the cabinet was a perspex window that displayed the calculation. The altitude wheel was connected to the main part of the calculator, a large metal cylinder marked with lines showing the time it would take for the bombs to reach the surface.
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In 1941, naval Headache personnel with receivers to eavesdrop on Luftwaffe wireless transmissions were embarked on warships and from May 1942, ships gained RAF Y computor parties, which sailed with cruiser admirals in command of convoy escorts, to interpret Luftwaffe W/T signals intercepted by the Headaches. The Admiralty sent details of Luftwaffe wireless frequencies, call signs and the daily local codes to the computors, which combined with their knowledge of Luftwaffe procedures, could glean fairly accurate details of German reconnaissance sorties. Sometimes computors predicted attacks twenty minutes before they were detected by radar.
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DMX Krew is the recording name of the musician Edward Upton. Upton's other aliases include 101 Force, Asylum Seekers, Bass Potato, Chester Louis III, Computor Rockers, David Michael Cross, Ed DMX, EDMX, House of Brakes, Michael Knight, and Viet Cong. He has released six full albums on Aphex Twin's label Rephlex Records and numerous singles/EPs for both Rephlex and his own Breakin' Records. DMX Krew's sound spans several electronic music genres, mostly been rooted in early electro-pop/breakbeat type music; the Collapse of the Wave Function EPs were a more experimental direction.
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An example that uses Euclid's algorithm appears below. Computers (and computors), models of computation: A computer (or human "computor"In his essay "Calculations by Man and Machine: Conceptual Analysis" Seig 2002:390 credits this distinction to Robin Gandy, cf Wilfred Seig, et al., 2002 Reflections on the foundations of mathematics: Essays in honor of Solomon Feferman, Association for Symbolic Logic, A.K. Peters Ltd, Natick, MA.) is a restricted type of machine, a "discrete deterministic mechanical device"cf Gandy 1980:126, Robin Gandy Church's Thesis and Principles for Mechanisms appearing on pp. 123–148 in J. Barwise et al.
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The computor could even account for steady changes in altitude, allowing the bomb run to take place in a shallow climb of up to 5degrees or dive of up to 20 degrees. The resulting Mk. XIV was first tested in June 1941. It was the first modern bombsight that allowed for accurate bombing immediately after radical manoeuvring, with a settling time as little as 10 seconds. The fast settling time was invaluable during night bombing missions, as it allowed the bomber to fly a corkscrew (a helical path), climbing and turning, and then level out immediately before the drop.
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The console was equipped with repeaters for each of the aircraft instruments needed to operate the sight, like altitude and airspeed. The operator simply turned the dials on the console so their indicator arrows matched the readings on the instruments displayed in the same location, known as laying needle on needle. This reduced the possibility that the numbers would not be changed as the bomber manoeuvred, but required so much manual working that a new crew member was introduced to operate the console, the bomb-aimer's mate. The inputs operated by the bomb-aimer's mate drove a mechanical calculator inside the console, or computor.
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Bomb aimer on an Avro Lancaster demonstrating use of the Mark XIV The need for the second crewman was an obvious problem with the Mk. XII, especially as few bombers of the era had enough room for the operator. Working with Henry Braddick, Blackett developed a new version of the calculator that included aircraft instruments inside the computor, eliminating the need for the needle-on-needle matching and completely automating the calculations. After the initial design was complete, Blackett moved onto other matters with RAF Coastal Command, where he continued development of his theories of operational research. The new design reduced the bomb aimer's setup workload to dialling in four settings.
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To address this, the collimator handle could be used to manually rotate the sighting assembly forward, allowing the bomb aimer to point the sight further in front of the aircraft's location. This allowed the bomb aimer to select any convenient object on the ground for drift measurements, including the target itself, long before the aircraft reached it. Through periodic movements of the handle, the bomb aimer could ensure the drift line continued to pass through the target. When the handle was returned to the resting position and released, the shaft to the computor automatically re-engaged and started tracking the proper range angle again.
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This is done by means of computor [sic] techniques > using arrangements of plug-in electronic "bogie" units, in which transistors > and magnetic cores perform "logical" switching operations. There are no > magnetic relays of conventional type... The installation at Henley is > operated from a mosaic-type signalling panel, of the pattern already > standard on the Western Region, controlling 36 routes on the "entrance-exit" > principle with a switch at the entrance point of the route and a pushbutton > at its exit. Track, signal, point, and other miscellaneous indications are > also shown on the panel in the usual way. For reasons of economy, all points > and facing point locks are worked manually from the existing lever frame, > from which all the mechanical interlocking has been removed.
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