http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8aH-M3PzM0 is a related video made by the US Navy during the 1950's talking about their fire control computers. There are some pretty interesting mechanical systems in there.
EDIT: 2 Warnings, don't start reading the book Ian posted if you have something you need to do. The same for that video. The videos wasted the majority of a day for me (reading more and whatnot). Looks like this book is doing the same.