FERMIAC

The Monte Carlo trolley, or FERMIAC, was an analog computer invented by physicist Enrico Fermi to aid in his studies of neutron transport.

In the early 1930s, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi led a team of young scientists, dubbed the "Via Panisperna boys", in their now-famous experiments in nuclear physics.

Among the others present was Los Alamos mathematician Stanislaw Ulam, who was familiar with the use of statistical sampling techniques similar to those previously developed by Fermi.

He discussed his ideas with John von Neumann, who eventually used the ENIAC to implement the Monte Carlo method (as the statistical sampling techniques came to be called) to solve a variety of neutron transport problems.

[5] In 2015, the Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche "Enrico Fermi" created a replica of the device.