# What is the name of these scientific devices? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 4, 2020, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-of-these-scientific-devices/914238 "2020-07-04T01:41:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-of-these-scientific-devices/914238/21 "2020-08-05T22:58:15Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Grin! The first mainframe computer I worked with had an **led** display of the CPU instruction register in binary, built into the front cabinet, just to provide blinking lights for those who utterly depend on such things. Many the long empty midnight hours I watched it flicker… Bolding mine. LEDs? How modern. Try incandescent lamps that sorta blurred from flickery to almost-solid but dim to almost-solid but brighter to eventually nearly full brightness as the time-averaged value of that particular bit moved from zero towards one. You could sorta see the Instruction Counter doing a binary count-up for a short run, then jump to a totally different bit pattern with an interrupt, or jump to a slightly different pattern with a branch. Then watch it count up again for at most a second or two then jump again. Meanwhile the air conditioner is roaring and I’m too tired to study & too keyed to nap. Yeah, the overnight shift babysitting one of the uni’s raggedy old mainframes was not a good job. It wasn’t dirty or smelly, but it wasn’t much fun either. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2020, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-of-these-scientific-devices/914238/22 "2020-08-06T02:25:25Z")
No, but 1100s do make a characteristic “click, whine” that I rather like [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-of-these-scientific-devices/914238.md?page=1)