Jeff Kaneko wrote:
>
>
> > What I saw demonstrated at the Science Museum (part of the British
> > Museum) 5 years ago was a working _difference_ engine. This had a
> > couple of design bugs fixed (one in the ripple carry mechanism IIRC) and
> > no printer.
>
> Yep. There's Egg on my face. As punishment, I shall wear a bronze
> cogwheel from my neck that says: "I can't tell the _difference_
> between an analyitcal engine and a dead crab." =B:-0
>
> > I don't recall anything about an analytical engine being built at this
> > time. Has it been done since? Do tell!
>
> See above.
Yes, I'd heard about the Difference Engine that had been built, that's
why I'd rather check out the bill of materials for the more ambitious
project.
If anybody on this list reads science fiction in the spare time left
over from rebuilding computers, _The Difference Engine_ by William
Gibson and Bruce Sterling is a fairly good read and _In the Country of
the Blind_ by Michael J. Flynn is an excellent one. Both of these
novels build from the premise "What if Babbage succeeded?" in very
different ways.
--
Ward Griffiths
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails
of the last priest." [Denis Diderot, "Dithyrambe sur la fete de rois"]
Received on Thu Nov 27 1997 - 08:17:21 GMT