4 ms·

I remember seeing the difference engine as a child on a trip to the science museum. I was awestruck at the time, both by the thing itself and by the fact that n

I remember seeing the difference engine as a child on a trip to the science museum. I was awestruck at the time, both by the thing itself and by the fact that nobody had bothered to make the upgraded version! even when they clearly recognised its importance enough to put bits of it in a museum. Thanks jgc! Can't wait to go back there and see the whole analytical engine in its full glory. One thing: plan28.org is on the ever-growing list of websites that have left the html5 boilerplate hot pink text selection color directive in their stylesheets. Doesn't really go with the rest of the aesthetic. It seems that I now see several sites each day with this left in there, its most amusing.

ChuckMcM 16y ago
The difference engine was at least reasonably complete in its specification and some small models had been built. Much of the Analytical engine's description and design was still in the 'power point' stage, so there is significant work to be done to figure out what Babbage was really thinking when various parts of it need to be built. Another key difference was that the difference engine was mostly the same chunk replicated n times (one for each term of the polynomial) whereas the analytical engine has many different kinds of subsystems.