27 Nov
1997
27 Nov
'97
12:17 a.m.
Jeff Kaneko wrote:
Yes, I'd heard about the Difference Engine that had been built, that's
why I'd rather check out the bill of materials for the more ambitious
project.
If anybody on this list reads science fiction in the spare time left
over from rebuilding computers, _The Difference Engine_ by William
Gibson and Bruce Sterling is a fairly good read and _In the Country of
the Blind_ by Michael J. Flynn is an excellent one. Both of these
novels build from the premise "What if Babbage succeeded?" in very
different ways.
--
Ward Griffiths
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails
of the last priest." [Denis Diderot, "Dithyrambe sur la fete de rois"]
What I saw demonstrated at the Science Museum
(part of the British
Museum) 5 years ago was a working _difference_ engine. This had a
couple of design bugs fixed (one in the ripple carry mechanism IIRC) and
no printer.
Yep. There's Egg on my face. As punishment, I shall wear a bronze
cogwheel from my neck that says: "I can't tell the _difference_
between an analyitcal engine and a dead crab." =B:-0
I don't recall anything about an analytical
engine being built at this
time. Has it been done since? Do tell!
See above.