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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 Di

by 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...

by hvs 11y ago

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...