John wrote on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:26:43 -0500:
>
>>> >>>
>>>> glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> And when was it that the beach wear started to be called
>>>>> flip-flops?
>>>>>
>>>>> I haven't yet tried to explain to my daughter that when I
>>>>> was her age that flip-flops were electronic circuits.
>>>>
>>> AFAIK, flip-flops were named in the mid-60s... But I'm sure
>>> someone older will remember that as even earlier!
>
>> ---
>>
formatting link
>
>
>I read about "flip-flops" in the 50s before my school actually acquired
>its first computer. Did they not call them "bi-stable circuits"? I seem
>to remember that the circuits described used vacuum tubes or, as we
>called them in Britain, "valves".
>
>I was very enthusiastic about using a computer in my research but had to
>wait until 1958 when I went to Cornell. The first two computers that I
>used were an IBM 650 and a Burroughs 220 and they both used tubes.
Bi and Mono stable multivibrators.