Arty computers

[Chuck Guzis]

On the subject of systems that are all pretty skin and no guts, does 
anyone remember the direct-contact water-cooled Honeywell mainframe? 
I got to see it in development at the old GE plant in Phoenix back in 
the 70's.

Interesting operator's console with bar-graph Nixie displays.  The 
CPU itself was separate and was a hoot.  The outer cabinet was pretty 
much a walk-in "shed" that held the floor-standing racks containing 
the PCBs with cooling interconnects made of what looked to be vinyl 
tubing.   I was told that the big problem of the day was algae in the 
cooling lines and the engineers were checking out additives that 
would inhibit algae growth but tnot corrode the copper contact 
plates.

The old GE machines with the "Thousands of Operations Per Second" 
analogue meters were kind of neat too.  

Cheers,
Chuck