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Rūta and other computing machines, which were manufactured by the Vilnius Computing Machine Factory until the end of the Soviet era, were the forerunners of modern computers. However, they were many times larger than today’s computers, although they have been declining as technology has evolved.
Such machines were found in computer centers, universities, institutes. They provided a variety of options; for example, an engineer who designed a bridge could use a machine to calculate what loads would act on the bridge.
Vytis also had to face such machines much later.
“I had to work in insurance, and next to it was the calculation center of the Ministry of Finance with machines. He goes into the hallway, and there are many boxes one and a half meters high and similar in size to a garbage container: calculating machines. And they help you calculate some statistics, process the data. Now the computer programs do it, and then those boxes do it. There were a lot of them in about 50 rooms, ”Vytis recalled.
By the way, the Vilnius University Center for Computing Machines delighted the students for a rather unusual reason – it gave them the opportunity to swim in the fall.
“There was a huge pool at dawn, the water of which cooled those cars. The water in that pool was warm. To go chebra, of course, bathed there. It was difficult to say whether or not there was radiation in the water. But the students liked the warm water that they could go in and stand on in the fall, ”Vytis recalled.
