[conspire] Replica of a Babbage "engine" on display until May 2009

[Rick Moen]

Jim posted this to SF-LUG's list.  After 150 years, one of Charles
Babbage's three Victorian-era calculating engine designs has been built,
twice -- two copies of Babbage's planned "Difference Engine #2".  The
first is on permanent display at the Science Museum in London.  (It took
17 years to construct, even with modern machining.)  The duplicate now
at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View is a privately-constructed, 
fully operational duplicate built by Nathan Myhrvold, which he has lent
to the Museum for the next year.  Go see it!

I'll bet the boffins at London's Science Museum would _love_ to also
finally construct Babbage's 1834 Analytical Engine, a full
general-purpose programmable computer that exists on paper but was never
built.  That would be really spectacular.  Had _that_ machine been built
as designed, the computer revolution would, truly, have started over a
century earlier than it did.  It _could_ have happened, but
labour-relations problems, PR ineptitude, and underfinancing sunk the
project as of 1832 -- and all we had until 2002 was the working fragment
of Difference Engine #1 that had been completed before Babbage's workers
quit.  (It remained the first successful automatic calculator.)

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

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Computer History Museum <CHMfeedback at my-websites.org>
Reply-To: Computer History Museum <CHMfeedback at my-websites.org>
To: Jim * <jim at well.com>
Subject: The BYTE
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 10:27:42 -0700



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Dear Jim, 

Highlights from the Collection
Highlights from the Collection 
Babbage Engine Unveiled 

On Saturday, May 10th, the
Museum was proud to unveil our
latest exhibition, The Babbage
Engine.  A crowd of 1800, including
some dressed in Victorian attire
were able to see the Engine in full
operation.  Other highlights from
the day included two showings of a
movie on Ada Lovelace and
approximately 550 people attending
an afternoon lecture by Doron Swade.

Charles Babbage is regarded as the
first computer pioneer. His designs
for vast mechanical calculating
engines rank as one of the startling
achievements of the 19th century.
For over 150 years, his
designs remained an historical
curiosity.  But his Difference
Engine No. 2, dating from 1849 has
now been built.  

The Museum is pleased to present
this extraordinary object, rich in
history, in full operation.  This
five-ton Engine is one of only two
Charles Babbage's computing engines
ever built, consisting of 8,000
parts of bronze, cast iron and steel
and measuring 11 feet long and 7
feet high. It was designed to
calculate and print mathematical
tables. Babbage's early vision was
that the 'unerring certainty' of
machinery would eliminate the risk
of human error in the production of
printed mathematical tables.

The Babbage Exhibit is made possible
through the generosity of the
following donors: Nathan Myhrvold,
Andreas Bechtolsheim, Bell Family
Trust, Donna Dubinsky & Len Shustek,
Judy Estrin, Fry's Electronics -
Kathryn Kolder, Dorrit & F. Grant
Saviers, Marva & John Warnock, and
special thanks to Science Museum,
London. 

Photo Caption: Charles Babbage's
Difference Engine No. 2 . 
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Museum
Now Open
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4 PM
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Museum in the News: Spring 2008 
Good News Abounds! 

The Computer History Museum has been featured in a number of articles on
various online newsites including The New York Times and the BBC. While
most of these articles have centered on the April arrival of the Babbage
Engine (68 sites as of May 1, 2008), the New York Times article entitled
"Trying to Add a Pulse to a World of Machines," published on March 12,
2008, focused on the evolution of the Museum.

Babbage-related articles appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, San
Jose Mercury News and CNET. In addition, NBC 11, ABC 7 and Kron
4 recorded video of the Babbage Engine in action.

Photo Caption: Len Shustek, CHM Chairman of the Board, alongside the
first Google server. Photo by Fred Mertz for The New York Times. 
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phone: (650) 810-1883 

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