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Building a 5-Ton Calculator From 19th-Century Plans

Posted by kdawson on from the steampunk-on-steroids dept.

alphadogg writes "Starting in May, many will have the opportunity to see computing done the old-fashioned way: with lots of gears, a big crank, and some muscle. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, will unveil a new construction, the first in the US, of the 19th-century British mathematician Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2, an improved version of his earlier design for a mechanical digital calculator. It weighs in at two tons more than the Difference Engine built in 1991 at London's Science Museum. Microsoft millionaire Nathan Myhrvold commissioned and paid for the US model."

16 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. It's cool by kampangptlk · · Score: 4, Funny

    But does it run linux?

    --
    àà®à¥à®à¾à¦ààYà¥àà àà
    1. Re:It's cool by calebt3 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Make an emulator and try it ;-}

    2. Re:It's cool by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Funny

      But does it run linux?

      Yes, but first you have to figure out how to approximate Linux as a Taylor series.

  2. frock by Missing_dc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does this mean as a sysadmin that I should start wearing my Frock and Tophat and subscribe to the local Victorian club???? :)

    --
    How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
  3. We'll know about four years after it's completed by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 4, Funny

    But does it run linux?

    We'll know about four years after it's completed - when it gets done with the boot-up.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  4. Improved model? by calebt3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2, an improved version of his earlier design for a mechanical digital calculator Hence the 2...
    1. Re:Improved model? by cyphercell · · Score: 4, Funny

      were you expecting 1.9? I don't think they used the opensource versioning conventions en vogue today.

      --
      Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
  5. What if... by DigitAl56K · · Score: 5, Funny

    What happens when you divide by zero on a calculator using a physical engine?

    Does it explode? Will it create a black hole? Could this be the next doomsday device?

    1. Re:What if... by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Funny

      Being boring I would expect it would Jam. A gear may break off if you force it.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:What if... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Universe 1.0 will come to an end. God -- or the designated higher being of your choice -- will shake His divine head, and create Universe 2.0 with better error handling routines.

    3. Re:What if... by Bronster · · Score: 4, Funny

      I definitely think it's v2.0 - it shows all the hallmarks of second system syndrome - big, complicated, complete rewrite with all the lessons from the first one thrown out. Yep, v2.0 it is.

      (maybe v2.1 now - there was a service pack applied a couple of thousand years ago according to some reports)

  6. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We do what we must

    Because we can.

  7. Re:Only the difference engine? by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 4, Funny

    In a nutshell, it's just an old way of saying "it runs programs".

    Before we had the formal concept of "programs" (as defined and refined by Backus and Naur), computation machines calculated numbers based on information fed into them on paper tape. A full set of instructions on paper-tape was called a "tour", and while the program was running the computation machine was said to be "touring" or "turing" (Fr). When the end of the tape was reached, the computation machine was said to be in the "turing complete" state (i.e. the tour was complete).

    The term "turing complete" came to mean any computer which could run any program fed into it to completion (assuming correct input, of course). We use the term "program" and "run" to talk about computer input nowadays, but we still use the term "turing complete" to describe our general purpose computation devices (computers).

  8. The login screen by Nimey · · Score: 5, Funny


        WELCOME TO THE BABBAGE ANALYTICAL TIMESHARING SERVICE

        PLEASE NOTE THAT THE INTEGRATOR IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE
        DUE TO THE WEEKLY GREASING SCHEDULE. WOULD ALL USERS KINDLY
        RETURN ANY UNUSED PLUGBOARDS, AS THE PROGRAMMING TEAM ARE
        RUNNING LOW. DIVISION UNIT 3 WILL BE OUT OF ACTION UNTIL
        THURSDAY DUE TO EMERGENCY COG REPLACEMENT - PLEASE ENSURE
        THAT YOUR PROGRAM DOES NOT ATTEMPT TO DIVIDE BY ZERO AS
        THIS CAN CAUSE SEVERE DAMAGE (INCLUDING SHAFT BREAKAGES).
    .
    .
    SYSTEM READY.
    ?

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem
  9. Guess that's why by Fnord666 · · Score: 4, Funny
    From the FA:

    Carol gives the example of multiplying 5 by successive numbers, such as 6, 7, 8. "In simple terms, the method of differences is based on the observation that if the work has already been done to multiply 5 by 5, [then] that work can be reused to multiple 5 by 7 with the addition of another 5 into the previous total," he writes.
    I guess that's why the author went into journalism instead of computers.
    --
    'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
  10. gentoo by Shadow-isoHunt · · Score: 4, Funny

    And that's just getting the livecd up. We've still gotta compile everything - "Deep thought" was just throwing an error from make.

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