The Difference Engine

[n2doc]

by LAURA SYDELL

Charles Babbage, the man whom many consider to be the father of modern computing, never got to complete any of his life's work. The Victorian gentleman was a brilliant mathematician, but he wasn't very good at politics and fundraising, so he never got the financial backing to finish any of his elaborate machine designs. For decades, even his fans weren't certain whether his computing machines would have worked.

But Doron Swade, a former curator at the Science Museum in London, has proven that Babbage wasn't just an eccentric dreamer. Using nothing but materials that would have been available to Babbage in the 1840s, Swade and a group of engineers successfully built Babbage's Difference Engine — and a version is now on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

The Difference Engine fills half a gallery and stands taller than most men. It's 5 tons of cast iron, steel and bronze woven together from 8,000 distinct parts. Though it looks like it could be a sculpture, the machine is essentially a giant calculator. Tim Robinson, a docent at the museum, says it's "the first automatic calculating machine."

This engine — made from 162-year-old designs — doesn't have a power pack; it has a hand crank. Robinson works up a sweat as he turns it. "As long as you keep turning that crank, it will produce entirely new results," he says.

Most importantly, the machine produces accurate results. In Babbage's time, England reigned over a vast global empire. To navigate the seas, captains used books filled with calculations — but these equations were all done by fallible human minds.

more:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121206408

[ixion]

1. very cool...

thanks for posting!

[cliffordu]

2. I WANT ONE OF THESE!!!! I WANT ONE NOW!!!!!

[n2doc]

3. Overnight shipping is going to be a real bear on that one n/t

[cliffordu]

4. No kidding.

[kentauros]

5. It can be done:

Shipping cost is another matter altogether :P

[TheMadMonk]

8. Make your own.

goggle: meccano difference engine
for vids and instructions.

Also available in Lego.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Get a Mac!

(Hey, you knew someone was going to say it!) :P

[marginlized]

7. Its also a great book

The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
An alternative history about what the world might have been like had Babbage been able to build his machine in the early 19th C.

[Fumesucker]

9. Can you say "steampunk"?

Sure, I knew you could..

/Mr Rogers

[Indenturedebtor]

10. Haha no doubt :D

I wonder if you could make this thing out of toothpics or somesuch?