[GTALUG] Computer Pioneers - Pioneer Computers Part 2 - YouTube

[James Knott]

On 04/19/2015 04:27 PM, phiscock at ee.ryerson.ca wrote:
> Fascinating stuff. Thanks for the pointer.

One of the things mentioned, but not described was the "Williams tube",
which was a type of memory based on  a CRT, with the phosphor decay time
being used for storage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube

They also mentioned delay lines.  I used to work on some video terminals
that used a delay line, though a coil of wire was used instead of mercury.

Incidentally, I aslo used to work on an ancient "Teleregister" computer,
located in the basement of the old stock exchange building at 234 Bay
St.  It was a single purpose computer, as was common back then, which
was used to transmit stock prices to brokers offices.  It was built with
vacuum tubes & relays and had a memory drum.  I recall gapping the
heads, with a piece of bond paper, between the head and drum.  That
system was older than I was.