FLODAC: a pure fluid digital computer

Abstract

The use of fluids (both liquids and gases) for the transmission and amplification of power has been common for over a century. This power has been controlled by valves, pistons, and other mechanical parts. Within the past decade considerable attention has been given, both in this country and in Russia, to the use of fluids for control and logic functions, and until recently these systems also employed mechanical moving parts. In 1960 the Diamond Ordnance Fuze Laboratory (now the Harry Diamond Laboratories) of the U. S. Army announced a fluid amplifier with no moving parts---a discovery which seems likely to revolutionize the whole field of fluid logic and control.