As a general rule, it is not a good idea to combine water with electronics . Hence, it is not advisable to get your mobile phone or your computer wet, unless they have adequate protection and isolation. But before electronics it was mechanics, and here things change. The hydraulic energy has made it possible to move large and heavy structures with the help of water currents since time immemorial. It replaced the animal and human force . Even today it is still present in electricity generation but also in automotive, construction, mining, etc. And many other sectors thanks to modern hydraulic pumps, valves and motors . It is not surprising that, with the long history of hydraulics in human history, more than one person came to use it in the form of a water computer, as happened to the Russian Vladimir Lukyanov , Vladimir Lukianov in his Spanish version. The father of the hydraulic integrator.
The primitive computing of the early 20th century, prior to the invention of the transistor, was more closely related to machines than to today's computers. Lacking electronics, its operation was based on levers and gears . These translated orders into actions that affected a multitude of mechanical parts. Depending on the result, it offered the answer to a problem, usually a mathematical calculation. Vladimir Lukianov thought of replacing certain mechanical elements of those primitive computers. And in using water as a base.
The invention became known as Lukianov hydraulic integrator, water integrator or hydraulic integrator. An analog water computer, without electronics involved. Far from modern computing, solved differential equations . Something of utmost importance for fields such as construction or aeronautics. The first of its kind and that held that title for at least half a century more. This is his story.
Source : Amusing Planet
Concrete and thermal changes
Vladimir Lukianov . Full name Vladimir Sergeyevich Lukianov, born in March 1902 in Moscow when the Tsar was still reigning. After graduating from the Moscow Lyceum, he studied at the construction faculty of the Russian University of Transport . There he graduated as a railway engineer in 1925. One of his first jobs will be of great importance. In various ways. The construction of the railway lines Troitsk-Orsk, of almost 500 kilometers, and Kartaly-Magnitnaya, of 110 kilometers.
In this first task, Lukyanov realizes that changes in temperature affect concrete. After its application in summer, during winter the first signs of breakage begin to appear. To obtain a solution from the data and information in his hands, Lukianov needed to perform complex differential equations . Something that required too much time and precision.
How to perform those calculations quickly and accurately ? Without the technology we have today. It was necessary to create a machine that would automate this process. A mechanical computer that responded without error and in the shortest possible time. And, interestingly, Lukianov discovered that the physical laws that apply to water have some similarity to the laws that govern the distribution of heat.
Source : Amusing Planet
The water computer or hydraulic integrator
Vladímir Lukiánov begins his research on hydraulics and thermal in relation to concrete at the Central Institute of Roads and Construction . At that time, 1930, it was called the Central Institute of Roads and Construction of the People's Commissariat of Communications of the USSR. Today it is the Central Institute for Transportation Construction Research. And six years later, in 1936, from his research a mechanical water computer was born, which everyone will know as a hydraulic integrator or water integrator. Lukianov gave it the technical name IG-1 .
Why water? Already in 1934, two years before building his machine and four years after starting his research, the Russian engineer proposed a hydraulic model of the thermal process . Or what is the same, a scientific basis that allowed working with concrete temperatures using water as an equivalent. The first time in history that something like this has been done. Previously, others had worked on solutions in the form of mechanical integrators, but water had never been used as a reference .
The hydraulic integrator or IG-1 was the size of a closet. Like all computers from the time on, until the arrival of the transistor. It was made of iron. The level of water, distributed in different chambers or glass tubes, represented certain numbers. The flow between them was equivalent to mathematical operations. Specifically, it had vertical tanks interconnected with tubes of variable hydraulic resistance and connected to mobile tanks. As they were raised and lowered, the flow of water changed. Far from looking like gibberish, the result was shown by means of a graph. Graphic that was printed on paper. Of course, then you had to translate that graph into data, but the difficult part was already done. The first computer machine that solved differential equations was born, and furthermore, it was a water computer instead of using exclusively mechanical elements .
Still, working with this water machine or computer was not easy. It was necessary to carry out some previous diagrams and calculations to configure the tubes and the water so that the calculation required by the operator could be carried out. But still, the process was much faster and easier than if it had been completely manual. Hence the importance of the water integrator.
The long life of the water integrators
Vladimir Lukianov did not remain his first integrator. He continued working on its improvement and improvement. After IG-1 in 1936, a second integrator was launched in 1941. This time it was two-dimensional. And such was its importance that it was built in series at the Moscow plant of calculating machines. Eight years later the State Institute of Calculating Machines would be created. And the water computer would be one of its first flagship machines. Thanks to them, power plants, mining and metallurgy projects were built. And it was even applied in aeronautics and rocket science. It was also used to solve the challenges of building in the sands of Central Asia and in the permafrost of Antarctica .
Lukyanov's work will continue. In 1945 he received a PhD in Technical Sciences . Thanks to a thesis related to his analogy of water to calculate thermal variations. And in 1951 he will receive the USSR State Prize or Stalin Prize. Among other awards and recognitions that will obtain his death in 1980.
Successive versions of hydraulic integrators were used in the USSR until the 90s of the last century. And it is that since 1949, the Soviet Union had a research institute dedicated exclusively to these machines, the NIIschetmash . In the first half of 1970 alone, 115 of these water-powered machines were in use. Back then, electronic computers already existed. Even in the USSR itself, since the MESM saw the light in 1950, an acronym that in Russian means Small Electronic Calculation Machine, a machine that used vacuum tubes .
As a curiosity, in 2015, engineers from Stanford University, in California, announced the development of a computer that used drops of water as a substitute for the electrical pulses of modern computers. Although somewhat slower than an electronic computer, this water computer was intended to be an alternative that would allow precise control and manipulation of physical matter. As the central axis, it had a magnetic clock that synchronized the drops for their correct operation.
Currently only two Lukyanov integrators remain. Both can be found in the Moscow Polytechnic Museum . A souvenir of one of the first complex calculating machines. Furthermore, the water integrator appears as one of the first computers both in the history of the USSR and in world computing. Hydraulic integrators are one of the most distant ancestors of today's computers. Today it is possible to perform complicated calculations and mathematical operations using electronics and in a matter of seconds. On the other hand, hydraulic integrators only needed something as simple, in appearance, as water to perform their calculations.
