[Cialug] "Grind Crank"

[Todd Walton]

The New Hacker's Dictionary defines "grind crank" as:

n. A mythical accessory to a terminal.  A crank on the side of a
monitor, which when operated makes a zizzing noise and causes the
computer to run faster.  Usually one does not refer to a grind crank
out loud, but merely makes the appropriate gesture and noise.  See
grind and wugga wugga.

Historical note: At least one real machine had a grind crank -- the
R1, a research machine built toward the end of the days of the great
vacuum tube computers, in 1959.  R1 (also known as 'The Rice Institute
Computer' (TRIC) and later as 'The Rice University Computer' (TRUC)
had a single-step / free-run switch for use when debugging programs.
Since single-stepping through a large program was rather tedious,
there was also a crank with a cam and gear arrangement that repeatedly
pushed the single-step button.  This allowed one to 'crank' through a
lot of code, then slow down to single-step for a bit when you got near
the code of interest, poke at some registers using the console
typewriter, and then keep on cranking.