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NOAA Heritage Homepage
NOAA’s Brass Brains, officially known as Tide Predicting Machine No. 2, is an early 20th century mechanical computer used to make tide predictions for the United States. This video highlights Brass Brains and how it worked.
The “NOAA Rewind” series highlights artifacts and stories from NOAA’s history in approximately one minute.
Learn more about NOAA’s history at noaa.gov/heritage.
Transcript:
This is Brass Brains, the U.S. government's first computer design.
It's essentially a 2,500 pound mechanical computer made of pulleys, gears, and chains.
The U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey used it from 1910 to 1965 to predict tides.
Brass Brains uses 37 factors related to the motions and positions of the Earth, moon, and sun.
Brass Brains did in one day what would take 125 mathematicians the same length of time.
After its invention, the number of shipwrecks was cut in half in two years’ time.
During WWI, WWII, and the Korean War, it was used to plan amphibious invasions and kept under lock and key to prevent sabotage.
Believe it or not, NOAA still has Brass Brains and it still works today!
NOAA Heritage Homepage