Hahaha it sounds like a Rockabilly rock band :-D

More seriously I'm gathering my thoughts after (re)finding the sources and (re)interpreting the data.

I looked at the paper by Burks about the design of the ENIAC and admit it's a really impressive project. Somewhere it says that the flip-flops have two versions : one version with one triode and one with two triodes. The 2T seems easy to grasp but how is it possible to use only one triode ?

It became clear when I looked at that project (thanks to Tom Anderson) that tries to recreate a single ENIAC flip-flop. A few things became apparent :

• The distinction between FlipFlop and RS latch is not clear and it seems they use mostly transparent latches, not edge-triggered registers. We engineers of today are pampered and spoiled !
• The text should have mention "double triodes" or "envelopes" because not only is it not possible to latch with just one triode but the schematic shows that the two circuits are in fact with 2 and 4 triodes.
• Diodes would have simplified and eased the design of the Flip-Flops (and the programming panels, which use resistors). However, reliable and efficient diodes became available when Silicon took over, and the IBM 604 manual (1958 era) still mentions that diodes are used only when really necessary, as they seemed to be much more expensive znd fragile than tubes. You just can't make a computer using radio receiver's cat whiskers. This confirms what I learned with the #YGREC-РЭС15-bis : without good diodes, computing machines are possible but they can't take off...

Further looking at the ENIAC schematic, I am shocked:

Seriously guys, how many power rails do you even need ?

-555V, -470V, -450V, -390V, -360V, -355V, -285V, -200V, 0V, 20V, 50V, 225V, that's 12 rails just for this circuit !

I was complaining that I had to provide 2 supply voltages (filament and anode) but this is simply insane.

OTOH this explains how they do level shifting and AND gates: they shift the tubes, not the signals. This is getting insane...

The IBM604 is more rationalised and engineered (yet still energy wasteful), with only -100V/0V/150V...

Speaking of big bad supplies, I remember I hacked one together 20 years ago out of an old guitar amp transformer, as I wanted to use it to create my own LM3886-based bass amp. This is a symmetrical high-current, pretty high voltage supply that could work with this project... Now I have to find it in my archives :-D