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CrieDeCoeur t1_irtzl1w wrote

And yet the Nazis turned to IBM for their 'data prcessing' needs.

Side note: Many innovations born out of wartime necessity often become mainstream. See also: automatic transmission, 4 wheel drive, etc.

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mankls3 OP t1_irtzq74 wrote

Yes Germany did not p7rsue this invention because it was determined to be not in the war time interest

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Meandmystudy t1_irujba8 wrote

The United States pursued a bombing computer that was not digital. It resembled what phone companies were using to route calls. During raids I think bombers would call in their position and they would mark it on something that looked like a giant router.

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guitarnoir t1_iruzjsp wrote

The US submarines of WWII used an analog, electro-mechanical computer to figure out inwhich direction, and when to fire a torpedo and have it arrive at a moving surface vessel:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo_Data_Computer

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Sdog1981 t1_irw6gpg wrote

And they are still being used today.

"Two upgraded World War II-era U.S. Navy fleet submarines (USS Tusk and Cutlass) with their TDCs continue to serve with Taiwan's navy and U.S. Nautical Museum staff are assisting them with maintaining their equipment."

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Peter_deT t1_irvi8vk wrote

Ships had used the same for gunnery direction for decades - continuously developed from pre World War I. One of the components of dreadnought gunnery.

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Veilchengerd t1_irv7no9 wrote

Zuse only finished his Z3 in the middle of the war. Which was a prototype. Meanwhile the mechanical IBM hardware, which was perfectly usable, had been around for years.

And there is no need to put date processing in parentheses. They used them pretty much any data processing they had to do. Not just for the genocides.

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OldMork t1_irujodf wrote

at the time there was not many options if need a computer, wiki lists models from the 50's, wonder what they had before that?

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kibufox t1_is016w8 wrote

Automatic transmission has no ties to war. Alfred Horner Munro, a Canadian steam engineer, designed the first automatic transmission in 1921 and patented the transmission in 1923. He created the automatic transmission with four forward gears and no reverse or parking gears, and he used air pressure instead of hydraulic fluid. General Motors used the transmission in the Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac between 1937 and 1938.

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