Serial Mainframe System “Strela”

The Mainframe “Strela” (Arrow). Magazine for youth “Znanie-Sila” № 7, 1956

Тhe first Soviet serial mainframe system was named “Strela” (Arrow). The computer was created in 1953, seven copies produced. It had 2-3 thousand operations per second speed, 43-bit memory into 2048 cells, operated floating point in the binary system. Two tapes represented external memory. The total amount of information on a single tape does not exceed 100 thousand 43-bit numbers. Memory originally performed on cathode-ray tubes: there were 43 tubes – one for each digit. Memory element represented an electrostatic charge of one of the 2048 points of screen. Writing and reading produced by an electron beam. Memory for tubes was later replaced by a more reliable memory on ferrite cores. Data entry carried from punched cards or using the tumbler registers located on the console; the results were outputted on the cards or wide format printer.

The principle of inter-node computer. Figure S.Kaplan. Magazine for youth “Znanie-Sila” (Knowledge is power) № 7, 1956

Structurally the construction was divided into standard cell containing from three to nine radio valves. The active elements performed on six thousand vacuum valves and two thousand semiconductor diodes. Warranty endurance of each radio valves was 500 hours and the trouble-free operation of the mainframe was twenty hours a day. Power consumption was 150 kVA. Heat carried out an air cooling system. The mainframe system occupied 300 square meters of the area.

All issued machines had hardware and software monitoring and diagnosis. The staff of one shift was 5-7 people.

Do not forget that the machine was set up in the war-ravaged country and it used entirely domestic (U.S. compatible) the high level electronic element base.

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MORE: (in Russian) ЭВМ "СТРЕЛА"| ИЗ ИСТОРИИ ТЕХНОЛОГИЙ И НЕ ТОЛЬКО

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The Great Seal Bug

Soviet young pioneers gave a carving of the Great Seal of the United States to U.S. Ambassador Averell Harriman. It hung in the ambassador’s Moscow residential office until 1952 when the State Department discovered that it was ‘bugged’. The Soviets were able to eavesdrop on the U.S. ambassador’s conversations for six years. A discovered bug was puzzle, since it had not batteries, no electric circuits and it was named The Great Seal Bug or The Thing.

Operating Principles

The Great Seal Bug was one of the first covert listening devices to use passive techniques to transmit an audio signal. It is considered a predecessor of current RFID technology.

The Thing was designed by Leon Theremin. It consisted of a tiny capacitive membrane connected to a small quarter-wavelength antenna; it had no power supply or active electronic components. The device, a passive cavity resonator, became active only when a radio signal of the correct frequency was sent to the device from an external transmitter. Sound waves caused the membrane to vibrate, which varied the capacitance “seen” by the antenna, which in turn modulated the radio waves that struck and were retransmitted by The Thing. A receiver demodulated the signal.
Theremin’s design made the listening device very difficult to detect, because it was very small, had no power supply or active components, and did not radiate any signal unless it was actively being irradiated remotely. These same design features, along with the overall simplicity of the device, made it very reliable and gave it a potentially unlimited operational life.

For his work, developer of the system, the prisoner Theremin, earned a personal freedom.

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MORE: THE GREAT SEAL BUG STORY by Kevin D. Murray; Passive Resonant Cavity & "Spycatcher" Technical Surveillance Devices from archive.is

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ILLUSTRATION OF THE SIBERIAN WAR

The landing of the Japanese army. Welcomed by every nation at Vladivostok

In November 1917, the Japanese General Staff developed a plan sending troops to northern Manchuria and Russian Far East. The decision of the Japanese Cabinet from January 13, 1918 referred to the need to limit significantly the power of the Russian Army in the Far East, to achieve freedom of action for the Japanese entrepreneurs and to open access to the Amur-river.

Foreign missions in the Far East began to spread the reality of the German threat to the region, the possibility of capture the military depots in Vladivostok (and, as it turned out, the fears were not unfounded, remember the famous events related to the Czecho-Slovaks Corps). This explains the absurdity of some Japanese propaganda pictures issued in 1919 and shown below. There are presence Austro-Hungarian and German troops in Siberia.

The march of the Japanese army at Vladivostok city 1919

Furious fighting at Amur

The battle of Ussuri, Siberia. were Captain Konomi died in battle

The brilliant exploit of the Noshido Infantry Company

The Japanese cavalry having taken possession of Khаbarovsk

Our cavalry occupied Khabarovsk, and march past took place in front of the enemy's gun-boats

The Japanese army occupied Khabarovsk, and the Amur Fleet surrendered

The Japanese Army occuping Vragaeschensk

Starting out from the head-quarters of the combined army in Siberia

Our army attacks from sky, water and shore, and repulsed the enemy of Siberia

And now there is the actual brief background of events. The formal reason for the occupation of Russia was the Russo-German separate peace and the exit Red Russia from the Alliance.

The march of the Japanese army. Nov. 1918, Vladivostok

Czecho-Slovaks inter-allied parade. Nov. 1918, Vladivostok

June 29, 1918 the Czecho-Slovaks arrived in Vladivostok for evacuation to France. They arrested Vladivostok Revolutionary Council. Czecho-Slovak’s act were supported by the landing of Britain, Japanese, American and French troops in August of the same year. Formally, the power went to the Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia. Allied Command announced Vladivostok under international supervision.

And coming back to the pictures of virtually victorious “Siberian War”; we need to understand: the task of propaganda to influence on emotions and the mind of the target audience in any way; so no matter who the enemies are – the Kaiser German Army, the Imperial Russian Army, the White Army, the Red Army or someone else – it does not matter because the goal always been the geopolitical and strategical, not moral.

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All The prints depicted here are courtesy of The Library of Congress Washington D.C.

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Helicopters for Everybody

Science and Inventions. May, 1923. The Automobile of 1973

The personal helicopter or the helicopter-taxi was not too audacious idea for the twentieth century; at some stage, it had gained the physical shape, was embodied in the real industrial models, for example – Kamov’s diminutive and very practical helicopter Ka-26; but the idea slowly died in a digital heart of now days.

Mechanix Illustrated. Nov, 1941. This Helicopter-Car Flies Over Traffic!

Mechanix Illustrated. Jan, 1951. Helicopters for Everybody by Frank Tinsley

Popular Mechanics. Feb, 1951. Personal Helicopter

Znanie-sila. Jan, 1956. Air Motorcycle K-10 by V.Pustovalov

Znanie-sila. Feb, 1956. Air Taxi, Illustration by K.Kuzginov

Tekhnika-molodyozhi. Apr, 1970. Diminutive and Practical Soviet Helicopter Ka-26

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Moscow Future

Let me introduce you the 1913 year postcards named “Moscow of the Future” (Moscow in 2259) issued by “Partnership of Steam Factory of Chocolate, Sweets and Tea Cookies Einem” (Товарищество паровой фабрики шоколада, конфектъ и чайныхъ печенiй Эйнемъ).

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MORE: (in Russian)
МОСКВА БУДУЩЕГО | ИЗ ИСТОРИИ ТЕХНОЛОГИЙ И НЕ ТОЛЬКО
ВРЕМЯ НАДЕЖД И УТОПИЙ | МАСТЕРА КНИЖНОЙ И ЖУРНАЛЬНОЙ ГРАФИКИ

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STRANGE BIKES

This particular monowheel was built by the Italian M. Goventosa from Udine, in Northeast Italy, just before WWII. Maximum speed: 150 kilometers per hour (93 Mph). Source: Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.

POWERED by steam from a compact boiler, this novel motor cycle is virtually silent in operation. The inventor, a Miami, Fla., filling-station man, claims that the odd cycle averages fifty miles on a gallon of fuel. Source: Motor Cycle Is Driven by Steam. Popular Science. May, 1936.

Prof. A. M. Low, rocket pioneer, and Alex Jackson, manager of the Wembley track, developed the rocket-boosted bike. The additional power is supplied by four rockets fixed over the rear wheel, two to the side. Kitchen was protected from the blast by a steel shield. Switches on the handle- bars controlled the rockets. The race rider said the “acceleration was absolutely terrific” when the rockets let go. Source: Rockets Soup Up British Bike. Popular Science. Feb, 1947.

Aéromotocyclette, made by Ernest Archdeacon, in 1906. 6 HP engine, 1.50 m propeller, 79 km/h. Source: Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.

Aeromoto Volugrafo captured by British troops in Italy. This was Italian parachutist's bike. The construction of these motorcycles took place from 1942 to 1944. Source: Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

Homemade tracked snow-motorcycle from Russia. Source: www.fish.karelia.ru

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VICTORY ON SKIS

One of the first model of aero-sled “NKL-16″

Next model “NKL-26″

Aero-sled “Sever-2″

"Sever-2", test drive. Vladimir Kostylyov’s archive

As you know Siberia has extreme winter and the absence of any kind of roads on huge distances. But Siberia is also very important for Russia; it is magic tablecloth for the country. And civilized people who live there need to communicate, not only by the radio. For postal delivery and passenger transportation in 1960 aero-sled “Sever-2” (North-2) were created . It based on the Soviet post-war car “Pobeda” (Victory). The improved aero-sled “Ka-30” replaced “Sever-2” in 1962. Vehicles were designed by engineer Nikolay Kamov, famous for his helicopters.

"Ka-30"

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MORE: (in Russian) «ПОБЕДА» НА ЛЫЖАХ И С ПРОПЕЛЛЕРОМ ; Электронная энциклопедия Томского политехнического университета

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THE LIVING PICTURES OF THE LOST WORLD

Novaya Ladoga

The color photographs of the people and landscapes of pre-revolutionary Russia by a pioneer of color photography Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) are amazing!

S.M. Prokudin-Gorskii

Rostov the Great

Zlatoust

The multilayer color photographic materials did not exist in the early twentieth century, for the color filming and viewing an Adolf Miethe’s technology was using. It was a consistent method of photographing an object through the filters of red, blue and green colors, after that the results fixed as black-and-white images on glass with subsequent staining of the appropriate color. The color image had been recombined by passing light through filtered lanterns on the screen.
The mechanism of camera is unknown, probably, the photographer used the camera which the prism and three-color filters.

The war and revolution did not allow to finish him his job. In 1918 Prokudin-Gorskii left the Russia. He died in Paris in 1943. In 1948, the 1903 plate with a triple image were sold to the Library of Congress, and perhaps because of this have been preserved and become a world heritage.

Village Grafovka. Peasant Family

Three Generations

Members of Railway Construction

Railway

Etude

It is hard to believe that these bright, vivid images of the highest quality were made a hundred years ago. But more impressive is special spirit – the spirit of equilibrium and stability that artist sent us via the character types, the landscapes saturated by air and the faraway prospect full of light.

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MORE: boston.com | Russia in color, a century ago

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