AllThingsD » Charles Babbage http://allthingsd.com Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:23:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://allthingsd.com/theme/images/logo-rss.jpg All Things Digital http://allthingsd.com/ 144 22 The Steam-Punk Dream Computer: Watch the Babbage Difference Engine in Action http://allthingsd.com/20101204/the-steam-punk-dream-computer-watch-the-babbage-difference-engine-in-action/ http://allthingsd.com/20101204/the-steam-punk-dream-computer-watch-the-babbage-difference-engine-in-action/#comments Sat, 04 Dec 2010 14:00:39 +0000 Drake Martinet http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=33437

After All Things Digital finished up a recent tour of the not-yet-reopened Computer History Museum, conducted by Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak, one of the curators offered a special treat for a few of the geekiest reporters in attendance.

That meant the cult-legendary Babbage Difference Engine, a Hummer-size calculator originally designed by Charles Babbage in 1847 and later built from the original plans by the Science Museum in London in 2008.

Every part, and there are over 8,000, was finished by hand, using only techniques available in Victorian England.

The bronze, cast-iron and steel engine uses a dizzying series of gears, cams and catches to calculate and print tables of numbers that you might be familiar with if you’ve used one of those little brown pocket reference books.

Plus, it’s the only computer that requires an oil pan.

When “turned on,” which means turning the hand crank, the whole thing clatters to life in a decidedly organized symphony of metallic motion.

There are only two Babbage Engines in existence, and the maintenance alone means they’re almost never brought to life.

But, just for our nerdtastic audience, here is a short video of the whole thing in action in Silicon Valley–something you’ll probably not see again if you wait a lifetime.

Geek on:


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101204/the-steam-punk-dream-computer-watch-the-babbage-difference-engine-in-action/feed/ 0 Geek Alert: Babbage Difference Engine at the Computer History Museum! http://allthingsd.com/20080513/geek-alert-babbage-difference-engine-at-the-computer-history-museum/ http://allthingsd.com/20080513/geek-alert-babbage-difference-engine-at-the-computer-history-museum/#comments Tue, 13 May 2008 12:54:45 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080513/geek-alert-babbage-difference-engine-at-the-computer-history-museum/ For those who love a five-ton mechanical computing device, Silicon Valley’s Computer History Museum recently installed a Babbage Difference Engine.

babbage

Designed on paper by English inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage (pictured here with his creation) and built to his specifications, it is on loan for one year from former Microsoft (MSFT) tech guru Nathan Myhrvold.

(Myhrvold will be a speaker at our sixth edition of D: All Things Digital, taking place in exactly two weeks.)

Babbage was one of the great stories of the early computing age, a man who intricately designed one of the first automatic computing engines to battle the inaccuracies endemic in figures calculated by hand.

As the overview of this video relates: “Engineering, astronomy, construction, finance, banking and insurance depended on printed tables for calculation. Ships navigating by the stars relied on printed tables to find their position at sea. The stakes were high. Capital and life were thought to be at risk … it was not only the grindingly tedious labor of verifying a sea of figures that exasperated Babbage, but their daunting unreliability.”

Despite his laborious and detailed designs, though, Babbage never actually built his creation.

But other geeks took up the task and there are two now, both called Difference Engine No. 2, one in London and one now at the museum. Each has 8,000 parts, weighs five tons and measures 11 feet long and seven feet high.

Check out the video:

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