Truth (was: Hi, I'm new...

[Chuck Guzis]

On 8/6/2006 at 4:17 PM Fred Cisin wrote:

>I'm trying to figure out how to make pneumatic (NOT hydraulic) gates.
>Once I can build a half adder and full adder with compressed smoke
>(no mirrors), THEN I'll be ready to start really learning how
>digital electronics works.

Get yourself a good book on fluidics.  IIRC, a fluidic computer was
supposed to replace electronics in rugged environment situations. 

I spent a good part of my college summers working as a technician on
pneumatic instrumentation.  It's actually pretty surprising what one can do
with pistons, diaphragms and nozzles.  We had integrators, differentiators,
square-root-extractors and lots and lots of copper tubing.  But that was
all analogue.

Cheers,
Chuck