It's a Miracle WWI US Naval Destroyers Managed to Hit Anything at All

Gizmodo writes It's a Miracle WWI US Naval Destroyers Managed to Hit Anything at All

"The Mark 1 Fire Control Computer was a vital component of the navy's Mark 37 Gun Fire Control System and, for more than three decades served as the fleet's primary means of calculating shots at sea. While it was smaller than the earlier British design, the Mark 1 was still a hefty piece of equipment standing four feet tall and weighing more than 3000 pounds. And, given its importance, was similarly stored in the bowels of the vessel where it would be most defended against battle damage.

The Mark 1 is classified as an electromechanical analog computer—not quite digital yet but leagues beyond an abacus and slide rule. The gun director unit (an electronic device that served the same function as the earlier fire-control officer and rangetakers) topside would gather optical and radar telemetry information—known as Line of Sight (LOS) data. The director unit would then transmit the LOS data via a series of synchro motors down to the Mark 1 which would subsequently calculate out firing instructions and the necessary lead angles based on the two ships' movements through the wateras well as environmental factors like gravity and relative wind. This analyzed data, known as the line-of-fire (LOF) data, would then be transmmitted up to the gun batteries throughout the vessel to line up the next shot. And as soon as the first set of calculations were complete, the system effectively 'locked on' to a target and continually rain hot lead without the need to keep redoing the calculations."