17 Oct
2010
17 Oct
'10
5:01 p.m.
I recall reading about Babbage's work many years
ago and it was the
opinion of the author (I don't recall the source, sorry) that AE was
basically unbuildable using 19th century materials and methods. ?The
reason to the best of my recollection appeared not to be the scale,
but rather simple mechanical considerations; that is, frictional
losses, strength of materials, etc.
Does this view still hold any merit?
With one big difference - it was basically unbuildable by the British
machinists of the time. By the early 1830s or so, North American, and
especially middle European, machinists had moved to more modern
tooling and practices and displaced the British as the best
machinists. By the 1860s the British were quite far behind. You can
see this with guns, clocks, lab instruments, telescopes, and such.
Had Babbage been German or Swiss or living in Rhode Island, things
today might be very different.
--
Will