Some geniuses start projects that are not only extremely expensive but also demand a chilling amount of time. However, once they are finished, all we can do is acknowledge their effort again and again. In the past we have seen a computer built with relays, and the Mega-Processor was completed in July 2016, but today we are going to look at the calculator that Simon Winder finished in 2014. Inspired by the work of German scientist Konrad Zuse, the calculator solves square roots with pure relays, Nixie tubes, and a dial like those used in old pulse phones.
The history of calculators is truly wonderful. All we have to do today to access one is take our mobile phone out of our pocket and let the software take care of it, but if we study the mechanical calculators of old, we will notice that the precision in their manufacturing and the knowledge of their designers were impressive. All parts had to be accessible for maintenance, or in the worst case, direct replacement. Although we had tubes and transistors that gained traction after World War II, it would be crazy to forget the relay, and the work of pioneers like Konrad Zuse, considered the inventor of the modern computer. Scientist Simon Winder felt inspired by Zuse and those old platforms, which led to the construction of a relay-based calculator.
Construction began in 2009 and ended in 2014, then it went through the Maker Faire of that year in San Mateo, and through an exhibition at none other than Microsoft Research. The calculator can only solve square roots for a simple reason: the limit on the number of relays. To create a “complete” calculator, Winder would have needed about 800 relays on average (the final number was 480, each with its own light, in a 30x16 configuration), and since the square root is not an obvious calculation in some cases, he decided to focus on that.
The machine is slow, noisy, and exactly as Winder wanted it. What he was looking for was a more human, warm design, on our scale, with eight Russian IN-16 Nixie tubes acting as the screen. Number input is done through an old dial (probably taken from a rotary phone), and a dedicated button enters the decimal when needed. The best part? The calculator goes “ding!” when it finishes. Winder did this in five years, and I can't fix the washing machine over a weekend...
Official site: Simon Winder's Relay Calculating Engine
