Lightbulbs might be the best idea ever – just not for light. Head to https://brilliant.org/veritasium to start your free 30-day trial, and the first 200 people get 20% off an annual premium subscription.
A huge thanks to David Lovett for showing me his awesome relay and vacuum tube based computers. Check out his YouTube channel @UsagiElectric
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References:
Herring, C., & Nichols, M. H. (1949). Thermionic emission. Reviews of modern physics, 21(2), 185. – https://ve42.co/Herring1949
Goldstine, H. H., & Goldstine, A. (1946). The electronic numerical integrator and computer (eniac). Mathematical Tables and Other Aids to Computation, 2(15), 97-110. – https://ve42.co/ENIAC
Shannon, C. E. (1938). A symbolic analysis of relay and switching circuits. Electrical Engineering, 57(12), 713-723. – https://ve42.co/Shannon38
Boole, G. (1847). The mathematical analysis of logic. Philosophical Library. – https://ve42.co/Boole1847
The world's first general purpose computer turns 75 – https://ve42.co/ENIAC2
Dylla, H. F., & Corneliussen, S. T. (2005). John Ambrose Fleming and the beginning of electronics. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films, 23(4), 1244-1251. – https://ve42.co/Dylla2005
Stibitz, G. R. (1980). Early computers. In A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century (pp. 479-483). Academic Press.
ENIAC's Hydrogen Bomb Calculations – https://ve42.co/ENIAC3
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Written by Petr Lebedev, Derek Muller and Kovi Rose
Edited by Trenton Oliver
Animated by Mike Radjabov, Ivy Tello and Fabio Albertelli
Filmed by Derek Muller & Raquel Nuno
Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images & Pond5
Music from Epidemic Sound
Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, & Emily Zhang
Thumbnail by Ignat Berbeci
I made one of thise in my high school electronics shop in the early 1970s.
@yondaime2487 Says:
I'm wondering, where's the next video?
@rakibhasan6895 Says:
can we play pubg on that?? 😅
@Husain_bohra Says:
16:50 he referred the topic that how someone figured out how to do the switching operators using silicon. Is he referring to the transistors, if anyone has any knowledge of this please give in with the reply.
@drfill9210 Says:
And colossus was chopped liver?
@XzarElite Says:
I like silent PC's, but that loud computer that would make anyone insane in a office, sounds so good.
You hear, that something is working, like the engine from a car/truck ... today electrical cars only bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
@saigonmonopoly1105 Says:
it flashed to imprinted rolling cassete memory pattern?
@great.Indian.culture Says:
Amazing sir 👍👍. Better than my 4 years Electronics engineering degree....
@michaelsilva5414 Says:
I'm a Yank who has to point out the the top secret British codebreaking computer Colossus was a few years ahead of the ENIAC, and could do logic and arithmetic operations on 25,000 characters per second.
@dheerajvirgo3 Says:
for a person from 1950s, our computer would be magic, just as how we would find super advanced alien technology magic
@akshitkumar8307 Says:
thankyou this was simply beautiful
@tmastersat Says:
Tubes not lightbulbs
@raymondholguin7272 Says:
Your explanation of a simple relay is way off from my training and working career of 30 yrs.
@terryeaster1 Says:
7:09 they still make the best guitar amps
@QichaoXie-ve5mg Says:
Dear YouTuber Veritasium,
Greetings! I am a content creator from China, specifically a Bilibili UP. I am writing to inquire if it would be possible for me to purchase the rights to the animation material from your video titled "Why The First Computers Were Made Out Of Light Bulbs," specifically the segment between the 4:35 and 5:35 timestamps. This material would be used exclusively for a brief segment in a non-commercial science documentary that I am producing. I would greatly appreciate your consideration of this request.
Thank you very much for your time and assistance.
Best regards
@polycreativity Says:
Can I point out that Boole didn't invent his system of logic. He was (self-admittedly) inspired by Indian Logic whos roots go back as many as 1700 years previous. We need to decolonize Math and science!
@DrakeLarson-js9px Says:
Great educational 1900s-late1960s electro computer making video!
@giannapple Says:
Because the transistor were not invented yet… ? 🤷🏼♂️
@EmperorKonstantine01 Says:
We began With the Light Bulb, Then we were given the Leg up 👽
@user-yj6xo1bu9q Says:
Vote for making video about silicon computers😊
@galencallahan6951 Says:
I didn't really understand the whole triode thing until I realized, the "grid" is the signal. A weak input to the grid is amplified. Doh!
@NEWDAWNrealizingself Says:
🟦🔴🟦 MODIFICATIONS OF EDDISON'S EFFECT LED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRIODE VALVE AND TRIODE VALVE ALONGWITH SHANON' S CIRCUIT LOGIC LED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENIAC .🟦🔴🟦
@flashyparody3594 Says:
Came here because Fallout TV series😂, anyone?
@ToreBroxLarsen Says:
Relays are on-off devices which were used to make digital computers predating tube-based devices.
@TheinternetArchaeologist Says:
Actually the first computers we know about were mostly gears and were basically high-tech calendars for their time
@ulfschack Says:
5:21 isn't correct.I'm sorry. Maybe it's dummed down for pedagogy's sake, but not good pedagogy. For that to work you need to have some sort of alternating current of the middle electrode, like they did with Clystrones. Sure, electrons accelerate towards the middle, but once past there's a plus charge pulling on the elsctrons ending up slowing down, not accelerating them, towards the anode. Electrons simply will not be accelerated towards the anode while the middle electrode is kept positive, like the animation shows.
@SuperGreatSphinx Says:
Peace
@andrewnguyen777 Says:
Speaking about the origins of computers, as an ECE myself, “Let there be light” is still quite the appropriate phrase💡
@wissenistmacht8930 Says:
14:17 the Z3 existed 4 years earlyer.
@alessandromagatti4863 Says:
TVM thats amazing
@KSmightymouse Says:
its all downhill from here, bois
@simonockas Says:
Somebody please let me know when he makes a video about the silicon processors he mentioned at the end
@Aishhere-YT Says:
Even though I've watched many videos about transistor, I still want your take on it.
@adityamishra1868 Says:
this video >>> whole college education
@robert885 Says:
Edison DC - Tesla AC
@snowkracker Says:
It’s crazy to think that Stibitz device was kind of the beginning of the cellphone I’m using to write this. Along with Boolean logic and binary. This has always fascinated me how simple computers work on the most basic level. Basically just switches on or off. 1 or 0
@rajarshikhatua100 Says:
where is the next part
@sg39g Says:
These vacuum tubes are magnificent! Especially on the hood of a DeLorean!
@yoface2537 Says:
As someone who programs, the title made absolute sense to me, as anyone who codes knows you almost never know what actually is going wrong when something does, so writing code that gives you cues of at which point the code breaks, in a more analog design, using lightbulbs as status indicators makes a lot of sense
@I-Have-Fire Says:
I think this video is an excellent example of how everything that exists is an extension of something that existed before. I especially liked seeing the first calculator contraption sitting on a piece of wood. 😂
@amrmorsi881 Says:
that was a very good presentation ... i realy gained a lot from that video
@DiamondAcademy2 Says:
💡☎️💡💻💡📱
@sanketsbrush8790 Says:
9:25 What are you saying bro ! It's awesome !
@onmyworkbench7000 Says:
Back in the 1960's I learned to work on TV's with tubes as that was all we had.
@rpbajb Says:
We did it step by step. There is no need to invoke extraterrestrial aid to explain humanities inventions.
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