12 ms·

Computer Museum bids farewell to Babbage engine

126 points by jgrahamc 11y ago

johnhattan 11y ago
When I was a kid, my local kids' museum (Mid-America Museum in Hot Springs Arkansas) had a giant mechanical Lego computer that could play Tic Tac Toe. Unfortunately, the thing had so many moving parts and was so unruly that I never got to see it actually working. It was almost always out of order and eventually was retired.
- EvanAnderson 11y ago
  I remember hearing about Danny Hillis (who went on to co-found Thinking Machines, who produced the massively parallel Connection Machine computers) building a tinkertoy computer. A little bit of digging turned up this book w/ some a chapter that includes, I believe, the computer you're talking about: https://archive.org/stream/tinkertoycomputer00dewd https://archive.org/stream/tinkertoycomputer00dewd
  - johnhattan 11y ago
    Yes, you are correct. Got my toys mixed up :)
pavel_lishin 11y ago
I wonder how difficult it would be to recreate this, given how prevalent 3D printing has become.
- runamok 11y ago
  Very. The tolerances are very tight and it needs all kinds of lubrication and being 'massaged' while it is run. IIRC the whole reason Babbage could not build it was because the machine shops of the day could not produce precise enough parts...
  - chx 11y ago
    I wonder if a desktop CNC mill like the Othermill (claimed precision 0.001 in) would be a better fit than a 3D printer.
  - FrankyHollywood 11y ago
    Besides that, the parts will be stressed with a lot of force. I doubt whether plastics are strong enough. Look at it working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiRgdaknJCg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiRgdaknJCg (at about 2:30 it is just computational art :)
    - toomuchtodo 11y ago
      You could laser sinter the entire device piece by piece.
  - andars 11y ago
    "Modern manufacturing methods were used but uncompromising care was taken to ensure that the precision achievable by Babbage was nowhere exceeded." [1] [1]: http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/modernsequel/ http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/modernsequel/
pkwood 11y ago
The guided tour of this machine is amazing. If you can make it over to see this beauty before she departs I strongly encourage you to do so!
- linker3000 11y ago
  Seconded. I was lucky enough to be involved in a demo of the machine at the museum during a visit just over a year ago. I am based in the UK and was in San Jose visiting our company HQ for a couple of weeks. I went to the museum one weekend and was chatting to the two gentlemen who were due to run the demo; when I told them I'd seen the other machine in the Science Museum in London, they asked if I would discuss the differences (pun not intended) between the two during their presentation. I was happy to oblige and spent a minute or so explaining how much better the one in Mountain View was because it wasn't behind glass and it could be seen in action. I went back to the museum during another visit last October and saw the machine again. I guess there's now going to be a void to fill next to the Cray, but even without the Babbage Engine, the museum is really worth a visit. Happy travels crazy computer.
  - russdill 11y ago
    Yes, while the crowd is large, the demonstration is lengthy so people do mill around the machine. You can get quite close and get pretty much any view of the machine you want while it is in operation. Totally brings this to life: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2247 http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2247
- carapace 11y ago
  Demo today at 1:00pm (about two hours from now...)
- bdamm 11y ago
  Also agree; looking at the machine is one thing, but actually seeing it in use, working through calculations, is a little bit breathtaking. There's never been a machine I felt was alive, but watching the difference engine (which is the size of a small locomotive!) move its thousands of parts in one smooth sequence, was stunning.
JBReefer 11y ago
If you're just scanning, it's not THE Difference Engine, it's a replica: >"To be clear, the museum's difference engine isn't an original built 160 years ago by Babbage, but rather it is a working model painstakingly designed and assembled in the 1990s. ... The London Science Museum keeps one Babbage Engine on display, but its design team also assembled a second model for a private benefactor who financed the project. That donor, Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft executive, originally loaned his Babbage Engine to the Mountain View Computer History Museum in 2008 with the idea to exhibit it for just six months."
- FrankyHollywood 11y ago
  well, scan a bit further, the 'replica' is the only one ever made! :) "... a design never built by Babbage that only existed in his plans and sketches"
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - theoh 11y ago
    Actually there are now two, due to Myhrvold.
- masklinn 11y ago
  > it's not THE Difference Engine Couldn't be, Babbage never finished it, switched to the Analytical Engine (burning his government funding bridges) and never finished that either. The subject of the article also isn't the original design, they're the No. 2 design following lessons learned working on the Analytical Engine. Of note: on top of the two Difference Engines, the Science Museum built the printer which Babbage had designed for the Engine. Babbage had realised that many table errors came from typesetting transcription errors, so the printer was designed to produce stereotype plates, templates for mass-printing with limited room for human error. Also contrary to what the article seems to say, Myhrvold didn't fund the first DE reconstruction. He commissioned one, and part of that commission was used to build the printer.
hvs 11y ago
There's a book that was published about 13 years ago by the man leading the program to rebuild the difference engine for London's Science Museum called, "The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer" [1]. I can't really recommend it, since half (or more) of it is about Doron Swade navigating the politics of a London Museum in order to get the thing built. But there is an interesting history of Babbage. [1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Difference-Engine-Charles-Computer/dp/0142001449 http://www.amazon.com/The-Difference-Engine-Charles-Computer...
- theoh 11y ago
  This is a good account by Swade if you have IEEE access: The Construction of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/an/2005/03/man2005030070-abs.html http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/an/2005/03/man2005030070-a...
- paulgerhardt 11y ago
  Ironically a lot of the works on Babbage go into his own trials and tribulations when trying to fundraise his Difference Engine and navigating the politics of 19th Century British Government affairs. Jacquard's Web [1] was a good break from this tradition and goes into the technical foundations for Babbage's work - highlighting the loom industry in Lyons but primarily focusing on Babbage and Lovelace's technical efforts. My two favorite quotes from this book: Babbage does not himself use the words 'programming' or 'program'. These terms had not yet entered the language and he is therefore obliged to resort to more obscure expressions. For example, he describes the Analytical Engine as being made 'special' for the mathematical formula in question. In precisely the same way, we could visualize a Jacquard loom that was programmed to weave a lily as being made 'special' for the task of lily-weaving. And: Babbage also borrowed from the Jacquard loom the plan of creating what he describes as a 'library' of cards that carry out different functions, with the Analytical Engine's operator being able to take cards from the library as required and input them into the machine in order to make it special for the task. The enormous advantage of the Jacquard loom was, of course, precisely that it was able to weave any picture or pattern for which a chain of cards had been made. Weavers would keep these chains of cards in a storeroom whose function was very much the same as that of the library–or we might even say software library–which Babbage was proposing to create. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Jacquards-Web-Hand-Loom-Birth-Information/dp/0192805789 http://www.amazon.com/Jacquards-Web-Hand-Loom-Birth-Informat...
daemin 11y ago
I guess I won't be able to see it again if I head down to SF for the GDC. Alas, at least I got to see it in action and have some photos. Might have to go to the closer one in London then.
rahulrrixe 11y ago
I have been at computer history museum recently and got a chance to see the Babbage machine. It is marvellous and within seconds, you will relish its beauty. It lets you realise how the computers has changed over the years.
DIVx0 11y ago
My family and I ended up at the museum on a whim late last summer during our vacation. I'm so happy we went and I'm doubly so I got to see this machine operate during a demo. It makes the most impressive sounds! Even without this machine, the computer history museum was far more impressive than I imagined it would be.
piyushpr134 11y ago
Had the privilege to see it in action https://twitter.com/piyush_ranjan/status/692750412085010432 https://twitter.com/piyush_ranjan/status/692750412085010432
URSpider94 11y ago
I'm going to try to take the kids this weekend.
anigbrowl 11y ago
I can't believe the CHM is located smack in the middle of Silicon Valley and nobody is willing to put their hand in their pocket to keep this available as an educational resource to inspire future generations. Pathetic.
- simonw 11y ago
  This isn't a money issue. Nathan Myhrvold commissioned the machine to live in his house. After loaning it to the Computer History Museum for longer than originally planned, he's taking it for private display (as originally intended). He's worth $650m plus, so there's likely no amount of money that would convince him to leave the machine in the museum.
  - rdc12 11y ago
    Prehaps a better approach would be to convince Myhrvold to gift the machine to the CHM in his will?
curtis 11y ago
I wonder if it would have been possible to build a Difference Engine/Analytical Engine equivalent machine during the same era using electrical relays. According to Wikipedia the first relays were invented in the 1830s or 1840s for use in telegraphs. It may have been many decades before relays were reliable enough or cheap enough to make such an undertaking practical, though.
- kwhitefoot 11y ago
  I suspect that at the time the reliability problems would have been greater for relays and the speed would probably not have been much better. But they could certainly have tried and that alone would probably have been enough to drive someone to improve the design and manufacture of relays. Is there anyone about who has expertise in this field who could give a better answer?
  - jameshart 11y ago
    Wolfram (1) points out that Babbage and Lovelace knew Charles Wheatstone - whose telegraphy work should have presented obvious electromechanical opportunities if Babbage had been able to actually finish anything, and perhaps if Lovelace had lived longer. (1) http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2015/12/untangling-the-tale-of-ada-lovelace/ http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2015/12/untangling-the-tale-o...
bashinator 11y ago
Leave it to the Brits to invent a computer that leaks oil. (Yes, the difference engine in question has an oil pan, and I would assume needs regular maintenance.)
mavhc 11y ago
There's a project to build the Analytical Engine also, http://plan28.org/ http://plan28.org/ some great videos about how it works there, finally feel like I understand it.
- jgrahamc 11y ago
  And we're making slow progress.
guelo 11y ago
Here's a video of the machine in operation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o3uejzyILY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o3uejzyILY
dnautics 11y ago
Would it be possible to rebuild one using 3d printed parts (probably laser sintered metal would be the best)... And then, build an analytical engine... And then make the analytical engine drive a 3d printer...
- arunaugustine 11y ago
  As the difference engine computes result of polynomial equations (upto x to the power 7, if I remember the demo correctly) , I don't think its turing complete enough to drive a 3d-printer completely. It can, perhaps, drive the generative design of a 3d printed art based on the result of a polynomial equation.
SwellJoe 11y ago
I was living in Mountain View when they first unveiled this beautiful beast, and went to a couple of the very early exhibitions. I love everything about the Computer History Museum, and recommend it heartily to anyone visiting the area. I've taken a huge variety of guests (from my parents, to non-techie girlfriends, to nerds of many types, etc.), and I think everyone has enjoyed it and learned something. The Babbage engine is one of the coolest things in the building, but having it go away doesn't make the CHM any less worth visiting. In short: If you haven't seen the darned thing, and you're anywhere near Mountain View, I guess now is the time. And, if you miss the Babbage engine, you should still go check out the CHM. As nerds, it's like the museum of our people. Where else can you see one of the first computer games or hear one the first computer music pieces being demonstrated by the people who wrote them? (Though those also have a time limit...the folks who wrote those first games and musical compositions are in their seventies; they won't be docents at the CHM forever.)
GeorgeRichard 11y ago
>The Mountain View Computer History Museum is saying goodbye to one of its most unique exhibits, if not also its most priceless. I know its poor form to mention such things but "unique" and "priceless" are both absolutes: something is unique/priceless or it's not. For example, if one thinks about two unique things it is not possible to say which is more unique than the other. (If one thinks about Difference Engines, since there is one in the Science Museum and one in the Computer History Museum, neither is unique.) Usually when I see this sort of thing I shrug and remind myself that living languages constantly change. (It seems that "unique" has lost some of its force and is changing its meaning to something like "very unusual" or "very rare".) But two examples in one sentence apparently stirs the old fuddy-duddy in me to action...
- ta93882 11y ago
  perhaps it's the domain people refer to? For example: A chair that I make is unique, there is not another exactly like it. A chair that I make is unique, there is only one in the world made by me. In this case, the chair is unique in a very specific way. However, the Babbage engine is unique in more ways. First mechanical computer of a certain complexity. Only mechanical computer with so much funding from the government. Build quality, ability etc...
rbanffy 11y ago
It would be awesome if it could print the lyrics for Daisy Bell before being "turned off" for shipping... Of course, that would probably mean building a different "microcode camshaft"... I'm not sure it can print letters.
- jameshart 11y ago
  Difference engine, not analytical engine. Just a polynomial sequence calculator, not a computer.
  - rbanffy 11y ago
    Now that you mentioned it, the printer directly prints the decimal number in the accumulator, so it's unlikely it could print lyrics. We could, however, build a music-box-like device that would "print" the accumulator as pair of pitch/duration notes, a "sound impression device", or SID. That would certainly drive future historians nuts.

126 points by jgrahamc 11y ago

When I was a kid, my local kids' museum (Mid-America Museum in Hot Springs Arkansas) had a giant mechanical Lego computer that could play Tic Tac Toe. Unfortunately, the thing had so many moving parts and was so unruly that I never got to see it actually working. It was almost always out of order and eventually was retired.

EvanAnderson 11y ago
I remember hearing about Danny Hillis (who went on to co-found Thinking Machines, who produced the massively parallel Connection Machine computers) building a tinkertoy computer. A little bit of digging turned up this book w/ some a chapter that includes, I believe, the computer you're talking about: https://archive.org/stream/tinkertoycomputer00dewd https://archive.org/stream/tinkertoycomputer00dewd
- johnhattan 11y ago
  Yes, you are correct. Got my toys mixed up :)

pavel_lishin 11y ago

I wonder how difficult it would be to recreate this, given how prevalent 3D printing has become.

runamok 11y ago
Very. The tolerances are very tight and it needs all kinds of lubrication and being 'massaged' while it is run. IIRC the whole reason Babbage could not build it was because the machine shops of the day could not produce precise enough parts...
- chx 11y ago
  I wonder if a desktop CNC mill like the Othermill (claimed precision 0.001 in) would be a better fit than a 3D printer.
- FrankyHollywood 11y ago
  Besides that, the parts will be stressed with a lot of force. I doubt whether plastics are strong enough. Look at it working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiRgdaknJCg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiRgdaknJCg (at about 2:30 it is just computational art :)
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    You could laser sinter the entire device piece by piece.
- andars 11y ago
  "Modern manufacturing methods were used but uncompromising care was taken to ensure that the precision achievable by Babbage was nowhere exceeded." [1] [1]: http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/modernsequel/ http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/modernsequel/

pkwood 11y ago

The guided tour of this machine is amazing. If you can make it over to see this beauty before she departs I strongly encourage you to do so!

linker3000 11y ago
Seconded. I was lucky enough to be involved in a demo of the machine at the museum during a visit just over a year ago. I am based in the UK and was in San Jose visiting our company HQ for a couple of weeks. I went to the museum one weekend and was chatting to the two gentlemen who were due to run the demo; when I told them I'd seen the other machine in the Science Museum in London, they asked if I would discuss the differences (pun not intended) between the two during their presentation. I was happy to oblige and spent a minute or so explaining how much better the one in Mountain View was because it wasn't behind glass and it could be seen in action. I went back to the museum during another visit last October and saw the machine again. I guess there's now going to be a void to fill next to the Cray, but even without the Babbage Engine, the museum is really worth a visit. Happy travels crazy computer.
- russdill 11y ago
  Yes, while the crowd is large, the demonstration is lengthy so people do mill around the machine. You can get quite close and get pretty much any view of the machine you want while it is in operation. Totally brings this to life: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2247 http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2247
carapace 11y ago
Demo today at 1:00pm (about two hours from now...)
bdamm 11y ago
Also agree; looking at the machine is one thing, but actually seeing it in use, working through calculations, is a little bit breathtaking. There's never been a machine I felt was alive, but watching the difference engine (which is the size of a small locomotive!) move its thousands of parts in one smooth sequence, was stunning.

JBReefer 11y ago

If you're just scanning, it's not THE Difference Engine, it's a replica: >"To be clear, the museum's difference engine isn't an original built 160 years ago by Babbage, but rather it is a working model painstakingly designed and assembled in the 1990s. ... The London Science Museum keeps one Babbage Engine on display, but its design team also assembled a second model for a private benefactor who financed the project. That donor, Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft executive, originally loaned his Babbage Engine to the Mountain View Computer History Museum in 2008 with the idea to exhibit it for just six months."

FrankyHollywood 11y ago
well, scan a bit further, the 'replica' is the only one ever made! :) "... a design never built by Babbage that only existed in his plans and sketches"
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- theoh 11y ago
  Actually there are now two, due to Myhrvold.
masklinn 11y ago
> it's not THE Difference Engine Couldn't be, Babbage never finished it, switched to the Analytical Engine (burning his government funding bridges) and never finished that either. The subject of the article also isn't the original design, they're the No. 2 design following lessons learned working on the Analytical Engine. Of note: on top of the two Difference Engines, the Science Museum built the printer which Babbage had designed for the Engine. Babbage had realised that many table errors came from typesetting transcription errors, so the printer was designed to produce stereotype plates, templates for mass-printing with limited room for human error. Also contrary to what the article seems to say, Myhrvold didn't fund the first DE reconstruction. He commissioned one, and part of that commission was used to build the printer.

hvs 11y ago

There's a book that was published about 13 years ago by the man leading the program to rebuild the difference engine for London's Science Museum called, "The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer" [1]. I can't really recommend it, since half (or more) of it is about Doron Swade navigating the politics of a London Museum in order to get the thing built. But there is an interesting history of Babbage. [1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Difference-Engine-Charles-Computer/dp/0142001449 http://www.amazon.com/The-Difference-Engine-Charles-Computer...

theoh 11y ago
This is a good account by Swade if you have IEEE access: The Construction of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/an/2005/03/man2005030070-abs.html http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/an/2005/03/man2005030070-a...
paulgerhardt 11y ago
Ironically a lot of the works on Babbage go into his own trials and tribulations when trying to fundraise his Difference Engine and navigating the politics of 19th Century British Government affairs. Jacquard's Web [1] was a good break from this tradition and goes into the technical foundations for Babbage's work - highlighting the loom industry in Lyons but primarily focusing on Babbage and Lovelace's technical efforts. My two favorite quotes from this book: Babbage does not himself use the words 'programming' or 'program'. These terms had not yet entered the language and he is therefore obliged to resort to more obscure expressions. For example, he describes the Analytical Engine as being made 'special' for the mathematical formula in question. In precisely the same way, we could visualize a Jacquard loom that was programmed to weave a lily as being made 'special' for the task of lily-weaving. And: Babbage also borrowed from the Jacquard loom the plan of creating what he describes as a 'library' of cards that carry out different functions, with the Analytical Engine's operator being able to take cards from the library as required and input them into the machine in order to make it special for the task. The enormous advantage of the Jacquard loom was, of course, precisely that it was able to weave any picture or pattern for which a chain of cards had been made. Weavers would keep these chains of cards in a storeroom whose function was very much the same as that of the library–or we might even say software library–which Babbage was proposing to create. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Jacquards-Web-Hand-Loom-Birth-Information/dp/0192805789 http://www.amazon.com/Jacquards-Web-Hand-Loom-Birth-Informat...

daemin 11y ago

I guess I won't be able to see it again if I head down to SF for the GDC. Alas, at least I got to see it in action and have some photos. Might have to go to the closer one in London then.

rahulrrixe 11y ago

I have been at computer history museum recently and got a chance to see the Babbage machine. It is marvellous and within seconds, you will relish its beauty. It lets you realise how the computers has changed over the years.

DIVx0 11y ago

My family and I ended up at the museum on a whim late last summer during our vacation. I'm so happy we went and I'm doubly so I got to see this machine operate during a demo. It makes the most impressive sounds! Even without this machine, the computer history museum was far more impressive than I imagined it would be.

piyushpr134 11y ago

Had the privilege to see it in action https://twitter.com/piyush_ranjan/status/692750412085010432 https://twitter.com/piyush_ranjan/status/692750412085010432

URSpider94 11y ago

I'm going to try to take the kids this weekend.

anigbrowl 11y ago

I can't believe the CHM is located smack in the middle of Silicon Valley and nobody is willing to put their hand in their pocket to keep this available as an educational resource to inspire future generations. Pathetic.

simonw 11y ago
This isn't a money issue. Nathan Myhrvold commissioned the machine to live in his house. After loaning it to the Computer History Museum for longer than originally planned, he's taking it for private display (as originally intended). He's worth $650m plus, so there's likely no amount of money that would convince him to leave the machine in the museum.
- rdc12 11y ago
  Prehaps a better approach would be to convince Myhrvold to gift the machine to the CHM in his will?

curtis 11y ago

I wonder if it would have been possible to build a Difference Engine/Analytical Engine equivalent machine during the same era using electrical relays. According to Wikipedia the first relays were invented in the 1830s or 1840s for use in telegraphs. It may have been many decades before relays were reliable enough or cheap enough to make such an undertaking practical, though.

kwhitefoot 11y ago
I suspect that at the time the reliability problems would have been greater for relays and the speed would probably not have been much better. But they could certainly have tried and that alone would probably have been enough to drive someone to improve the design and manufacture of relays. Is there anyone about who has expertise in this field who could give a better answer?
- jameshart 11y ago
  Wolfram (1) points out that Babbage and Lovelace knew Charles Wheatstone - whose telegraphy work should have presented obvious electromechanical opportunities if Babbage had been able to actually finish anything, and perhaps if Lovelace had lived longer. (1) http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2015/12/untangling-the-tale-of-ada-lovelace/ http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2015/12/untangling-the-tale-o...

bashinator 11y ago

Leave it to the Brits to invent a computer that leaks oil. (Yes, the difference engine in question has an oil pan, and I would assume needs regular maintenance.)

mavhc 11y ago

There's a project to build the Analytical Engine also, http://plan28.org/ http://plan28.org/ some great videos about how it works there, finally feel like I understand it.

jgrahamc 11y ago
And we're making slow progress.

guelo 11y ago

Here's a video of the machine in operation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o3uejzyILY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o3uejzyILY

dnautics 11y ago

Would it be possible to rebuild one using 3d printed parts (probably laser sintered metal would be the best)... And then, build an analytical engine... And then make the analytical engine drive a 3d printer...

arunaugustine 11y ago
As the difference engine computes result of polynomial equations (upto x to the power 7, if I remember the demo correctly) , I don't think its turing complete enough to drive a 3d-printer completely. It can, perhaps, drive the generative design of a 3d printed art based on the result of a polynomial equation.

SwellJoe 11y ago

I was living in Mountain View when they first unveiled this beautiful beast, and went to a couple of the very early exhibitions. I love everything about the Computer History Museum, and recommend it heartily to anyone visiting the area. I've taken a huge variety of guests (from my parents, to non-techie girlfriends, to nerds of many types, etc.), and I think everyone has enjoyed it and learned something. The Babbage engine is one of the coolest things in the building, but having it go away doesn't make the CHM any less worth visiting. In short: If you haven't seen the darned thing, and you're anywhere near Mountain View, I guess now is the time. And, if you miss the Babbage engine, you should still go check out the CHM. As nerds, it's like the museum of our people. Where else can you see one of the first computer games or hear one the first computer music pieces being demonstrated by the people who wrote them? (Though those also have a time limit...the folks who wrote those first games and musical compositions are in their seventies; they won't be docents at the CHM forever.)

GeorgeRichard 11y ago

>The Mountain View Computer History Museum is saying goodbye to one of its most unique exhibits, if not also its most priceless. I know its poor form to mention such things but "unique" and "priceless" are both absolutes: something is unique/priceless or it's not. For example, if one thinks about two unique things it is not possible to say which is more unique than the other. (If one thinks about Difference Engines, since there is one in the Science Museum and one in the Computer History Museum, neither is unique.) Usually when I see this sort of thing I shrug and remind myself that living languages constantly change. (It seems that "unique" has lost some of its force and is changing its meaning to something like "very unusual" or "very rare".) But two examples in one sentence apparently stirs the old fuddy-duddy in me to action...

ta93882 11y ago
perhaps it's the domain people refer to? For example: A chair that I make is unique, there is not another exactly like it. A chair that I make is unique, there is only one in the world made by me. In this case, the chair is unique in a very specific way. However, the Babbage engine is unique in more ways. First mechanical computer of a certain complexity. Only mechanical computer with so much funding from the government. Build quality, ability etc...

rbanffy 11y ago

It would be awesome if it could print the lyrics for Daisy Bell before being "turned off" for shipping... Of course, that would probably mean building a different "microcode camshaft"... I'm not sure it can print letters.

jameshart 11y ago
Difference engine, not analytical engine. Just a polynomial sequence calculator, not a computer.
- rbanffy 11y ago
  Now that you mentioned it, the printer directly prints the decimal number in the accumulator, so it's unlikely it could print lyrics. We could, however, build a music-box-like device that would "print" the accumulator as pair of pitch/duration notes, a "sound impression device", or SID. That would certainly drive future historians nuts.