The Babbage Engine

[Dave Monroe]

Tha Babbage Engine

http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/

Computer History Museum

http://www.computerhistory.org/

Steampunk Unboxing: Difference Engine Arrives in Silicon Valley
By Dylan Tweney
04.09.08 | 7:00 PM

When Charles Babbage invented a massive calculating machine in 1849,
he probably didn't count on the 150 years it would take to actually
get the thing built.

Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 was a precursor of modern computers,
capable of performing complex mathematical calculations with 31 digits
of precision, all using Victorian-era rods, gears, levers and
linkages.

But Babbage never completed it. It took engineers and curators at
London's Science Museum almost six years of work to bring Babbage's 20
pages of blueprints to life in 1991.

Now, thanks to Microsoft multimillionaire Nathan Myhrvold, a second
Difference Engine has been built and delivered to the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California, where trained docents will turn
its brass handle to crank out the calculations Babbage dreamed of
automating.

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/multimedia/2008/04/gallery_babbage