Before electronic computers, naval fire control depended on precision mechanical analog machines — assemblies of levers, cams, gears, cranks, and differential gear trains that continuously computed targeting solutions as ship and target moved. This two-part US Navy training film explains the fundamental mechanical principles on which those computers were built.
Part 1 covers the basic mechanism types: levers as adders and subtractors, cams as function generators, the ball-and-disk integrator, and gear differentials. Part 2 builds on those foundations to show how the mechanisms are combined into working computing elements capable of continuously solving the fire control problem.
Part 1 runs 19 minutes; Part 2 runs 22 minutes. Click a title below the player to select.
See also: Fire Control Analog Computers Parts 1 & 2 — 1953 and Main Battery Fire Control. Part of the US Navy Films from the 1950s series.