Early acoustic delay lines also used thin tubes full of Mercury as the
delay medium.
These devices had higher storage capacity than the wire type of delay
line, thus
their use in computers. Wire delay lines were typically used in
calculators and other devices that needed small amounts of circulating
storage.
Rick Bensene
The Old Calculator Web Museum
http://www.geocities.com/oldcalculators
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org
> [mailto:cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of John Honniball
> Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2002 12:46 PM
> To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
> Subject: Re: Acoustic delay line??
>
>
>
> Bill Sudbrink wrote:
> > I've never seen one and couldn't find a clear picture
> > on the web anywhere. Is this an acoustic delay line?
> >
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=887259145
>
> I don't think it is. I have an acoustic delay line, and it's
> more like a coil of wire than a valve (vacuum tube). If
> anyone's interested, I can put up some digital photos of it.
>
> The gadget on eBay seems to have high-voltage electrodes at
> each end, similar to valve anode caps. Looks like there are
> glass-to-metal seals as well, so the interior is either
> evacuated or filled with a low-pressure gas. if it wasn't
> for the label, I'd say it was a Xenon flash/strobe tube.
>
> --
> John Honniball
> coredump_at_gifford.co.uk
>
Received on Thu Jun 20 2002 - 23:23:30 BST