UNIQUE MECHANICAL BRAIN PERFECTED BY YOUTHFUL RAILWAY ENGINEER

Evening Star, Issue 26091, 3 May 1947, Page 6

UNIQUE MECHANICAL BRAIN PERFECTED BY YOUTHFUL RAILWAY ENGINEER

WELLINGTON, May 3. A mechanical brain, believed to be the only one of its type in the world, has been designed by Mr P. Angus, a 21-year-old engineering assistant _ in the Railways Department at Wellington. Called technically a “ network analyser,” the machine will enable engineers to calculate overhead and construction details of any new electrified railway system. It has already been used to check estimates of the size, location, and number of substations required to feed the Hutt Valley when it is electrified. When the original estimates were computed mathematically by Mr Angus it required four months of hard work. The machine, worked by two operators, did the job in 16 hours. The machine was designed by, Mr Angus in a week and was built by the laboratory staff of the chief engineer’s’ office in . five 'months. It cost £6OO. but is valued at several thousands. More than 8,000 feet of wiring, 32 meters, 194 rotary switches, 90 small toggle switches, and 30 varying switches (used to vary the amount of current) ivere used in, the construction of the machine. The machine imitates the passage of a train along a track and can measure, the amount of power drawn by any number of trains on a section of track. Senior electrical engineers say that electrification schemes for the next 50 years will benefit materi-' ally from the invention.