samedi 11 février 2017

Inertial Surge Suppressor

This just popped into my head overnight: In the 1960s I was shown the mainframe installation at a well-known R&D outfit in the Boston area. This was a time when many such computers still had TUBES, and non-volatile memory was Hollerith cards. Their surge suppessor/UPS was...(wait for it)......a huge motor-generator set with a flywheel about eight to ten feet in diameter. (The flywheel alone must have weighed 4000 lbs. Motor was probably 100 HP.)

A few years later I came across a machine tool control computer, (also rather antediluvian), in an aerospace machine shop out in western Massachusetts that had the same thing, albeit a lot smaller, and cobbled together by one of the maiintenance electricians. Much more to our scale. Probably capable of one kilowatt.

Occurs to me that this setup, while inefficient, would be proof against any level of EMP, short of an air burst directly over your BOL that vaporizes your roof. The motor might fry, so a spare would be good to have.

Make of it what you will.

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Inertial Surge Suppressor

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