From the What are America’s Quirks? thread:
…seriously awesome shit that’s taken for granted.
There was an aircraft carrier docked someplace we went – I can’t even remember where it was, because the aircraft carrier was the most mindboggling gigantic thing I’d ever seen. People sort of stopped to see what we were staring at, slackjawed and drooling, raised an eyebrow when they realised it was the ship, shrugged and moved on.
Another time we pulled off some random highway on to a random road to a small, non-descript building. No signs, no fanfare…for the NATIONAL CRYPTOLOGIC MUSEUM. There are Enigma machines in there YOU CAN TOUCH. A CRAY YOU CAN SIT ON. That guy telling you about that telephone used to work for the NSA. Why is there not a line out the door around the block?
Didn’t know that existed. Yeah, that’s a must-visit for sure. Here’s a set of awesome photos from a recent tour.
When my father was in the Air Force in Germany in the ’50s, he did some classified radio intercept work. Seems he had naturally sensitive hearing, so they used him to tune in signals very precisely. Then they’d run the catch through a machine he said was called “the Witch.” I presume it was a codebreaking machine, but he said he thought it translated languages as well. Which would have been pretty damned advanced for the ’50s.