|
| |
Difference Engine
From: Science Museum
| By:
|
 harles Babbage's (1791-1871) position as the first computer pioneer and great ancestral figure places him firmly in the history books. Information about the man, his life and his endeavours has been brought online at the Science Museum website(www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/collections/exhiblets/babbage/start.asp). London's Science Museum has always had a special relationship with the life and works of Babbage; its collections contain objects from his work, including some of his original manuscripts and designs. |
Babbage's reputation as one of the founders of computing rests largely on his conception and design of vast mechanical calculating engines. In the nineteenth century, most scientists, navigators, engineers and surveyors relied on printed mathematical tables to perform calculations requiring more than a few figures of accuracy. These tables were not known for their precision, so there were a number of attempts to mechanise calculation. Similarly, most of these automatic devices were not reliable and were impractical for everyday use. |
In 1821, Babbage also began to consider the task of mechanising the production of mathematical tables. He designed an apparatus called a Difference Engine No. 1, so called because it used a method of finite differences to calculate the tables. Babbage never physically built the engine; instead, he moved on to a far more ambitious and technically demanding machine in 1834, which he named the Analytical Engine. The groundbreaking work was largely complete by 1840, but, like the Difference Engine No. 1, only a few mechanical parts of the Analytical Engine still exist. |
Seven years later, Babbage started the design of Difference Engine No. 2, using elegant and simplified techniques developed for the more complex Analytical Engine. Again, this was never completed. But in 1991, a team at the Science Museum celebrated Babbage's bicentenary by creating the second design of the Difference Engine. This can be seen on the Science Museum's website (www.nmsi.ac.uk/on-line/treasure/objects/1862-89.html). |
The Science Museum team was led by Doron Swade, and their work was a triumphant success, vindicating Babbage's technical work. The machine they built works in a way that Babbage intended and supports the viability of his original design. However, the far more ambitious task of constructing an Analytical Engine still remains to be undertaken. |
|
| |
