Uncle Scoopy,
I came across your 1954 picture of a future home computer and I had a few comments that I thought you might find interesting…
The large gauge panel on the back wall in your photo is actually made up of three individual panels as found on an US nuclear propulsion Navy ship or sub. The section to the left in the photo is called the Steam Plant Control Panel (SPCP), you can see the “ahead” throttle handwheel (the large one) and the “astern” throttle handwheel (the smaller one). The “Engine Order Telegraph” (the thing that reads A1/3 and A 2/3, etc for requested speeds) is the large round dial to the right of the flat section.
The section in the middle is the Reactor Plant Control Panel (RPCP). You can see the control rod “shim” switch right in the middle of the flat panel. If you could read those gages, this photo would be Classified. The right section is the Electric Plant Control Panel (EPCP). This is where the major electric plant breakers are controlled from.
I spent 4 years teaching Reactor Plant operations for the Navy at a land based plant in upstate NY and then I spent 5 years of the USS Tennessee. I have been a member from the first days of controlled access. Just thought I would pass this along. I am really not trying to ruin the joke. Thought you might find it interesting.
J.
Scoop's response:
I do find it interesting, especially since it sort of implies that the picture is fake, a theory which I didn't previously consider. As I formerly understood it, it is supposed to be a real picture actually taken in 1954, in which people mocked up what a computer would look like in 2004. Based on your information, it seems that the picture could not have been taken in 1954, so it must be some kind of offbeat satire, ala National Lampoon, re-creating how the past viewed the present.
J's rebuttal:
I am guessing the picture is a fake…
but ...
it might have been a parody photo in 1954. When I first joined the Navy, I was stationed at a “prototype” in Saratoga Springs, New York. A “prototype” is really an operating nuclear power plant that is an exact replica of an engine room from a ship or sub. In my case, I was at the D1G reactor site (Design ‘D’, 1st generation, ‘G’E was the manufacturer). This plant was brought online in 1957 and construction started in 1953, so those panels, in the picture, were definitely around in 1954. I have heard that the Navy reactors had been in production since the early 1930’s.
