The Mechanical Blackboard

Robert E. Machol
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Robert E. Machol: Willow Run Laboratories, The University of Michigan, Ypsilanti, Michigan

Operations Research, 1957, vol. 5, issue 3, 422-428

Abstract: A device has been constructed to aid in solving problems of optimum distribution (the assignment problem, the transportation problem, the traveling-salesman problem, etc). It does not mechanize the algorithm, and therefore, is not a computer, rather, it mechanizes the tedious operations that one is forced to perform in manipulating such problems on a blackboard. While it may be used to solve certain problems, and to demonstrate methods of solution, its primary value is as an aid in the development of new algorithms. It is suggested that building special-purpose mechanical blackboards rather than special-purpose computers may prove a valuable approach in the solution of many comparable problems.

Date: 1957
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