Charles Babbage and the Analytically Engine

Good News Everyone! 

The first general purpose programmable computer was designed in 1837 by Charles Babbage, but was never constructed. Babbage's Analytical Engine would have been an entirely mechancial monstrosity that predates it's first electromechanical counterpart by more than 100 years. Babbage's brainchild was, sadly, never to be built. 

The incomplete "Analytical Engine Mill" 

The plans, notes, and tests that Babbage constructed in his lifetime have been on display with the London Science Museum since the early 1900s. In 2010 a group of individuals started to raise funds and attempt to gain access to Babbage's notes with the intent of building their own Analytical engine. Today they announced a great step along the way to the completion of that goal: The London Science Museum has agreed to digitize the Babbage archives, giving access to the Analytical Engine team first, and then to expanding digital access to the general public sometime in 2012. 

Steampunks Rejoice! Soon you will be able to marvel at a mechanical machine that can compute the product of two 20 digit numbers in only 3 minutes, and without the use of electricity. 

Link

Charles Babbage and the Analytically Engine

Good News Everyone! 

The first general purpose programmable computer was designed in 1837 by Charles Babbage, but was never constructed. Babbage's Analytical Engine would have been an entirely mechancial monstrosity that predates it's first electromechanical counterpart by more than 100 years. Babbage's brainchild was, sadly, never to be built. 

The incomplete "Analytical Engine Mill" 

The plans, notes, and tests that Babbage constructed in his lifetime have been on display with the London Science Museum since the early 1900s. In 2010 a group of individuals started to raise funds and attempt to gain access to Babbage's notes with the intent of building their own Analytical engine. Today they announced a great step along the way to the completion of that goal: The London Science Museum has agreed to digitize the Babbage archives, giving access to the Analytical Engine team first, and then to expanding digital access to the general public sometime in 2012. 

Steampunks Rejoice! Soon you will be able to marvel at a mechanical machine that can compute the product of two 20 digit numbers in only 3 minutes, and without the use of electricity. 

Link

Introductions are in order

Photo by Flikr user Shordzi. Licensed CC-BY-SA. http://www.flickr.com/photos/shordzi/

Let us forget, for a moment, that the year is 2011. Let us further forget that, in all likelihood, neither I (the author) nor you (the reader) are persons of great consequence, though I concede that it is entirely possible that we are. Let us forget that we may be separated in both space and time by what seem to be insurmountable distances. 

For now, in this moment, let us only remember the things that tie us together. You are here because, weather you believe it or not, you and I have a common bond. We are nerds, geeks, technophiles. Further, we have a particular, peculiar, historical bent to our passions and obsessions. We are here to ensure that the technologies of our past are rediscovered and remembered by the generations of our future. We are comrades, kindred spirits. 

Join us. 

Join us as we explore the technologies of our fathers, and their fathers. Join us as we explore the technologies of our childhoods. Join us as we explore the technologies that never were, the machines that could have been.  Let us explore yesterday's cutting edge, and steal a glimpse into the technologies that the march of progress has deemed obsolete.

Obsolete! 

What a word. What a vile, despicable word. It's a word dreamed up by marketing departments and corporate executives to ensure the ever marching status quo. Let us rally against obsolescence. 

We do not claim to be historians, experts, or teachers. We have no great and noble purpose, beyond illustrating a past that is so quickly forgotten. Think of us as storytellers, as raconteurs. It is my hope that together we may journey through the technologies of our past and achieve an understanding strong enough to shape the technological progress of our future. 

We are here to share our love of technology, typewriters, telegraphs, turntables, oxford commas, and even things that don't start with the letter 't' and have nothing to do with grammar (such as vintage computers, photography, electric cars, cassette tapes, and a plethora of other symbols of geekdom.) 

Prop your feet up and stay a while.

Submissions welcome

Introductions are in order

Photo by Flikr user Shordzi. Licensed CC-BY-SA. http://www.flickr.com/photos/shordzi/

Let us forget, for a moment, that the year is 2011. Let us further forget that, in all likelihood, neither I (the author) nor you (the reader) are persons of great consequence, though I concede that it is entirely possible that we are. Let us forget that we may be separated in both space and time by what seem to be insurmountable distances. 

For now, in this moment, let us only remember the things that tie us together. You are here because, weather you believe it or not, you and I have a common bond. We are nerds, geeks, technophiles. Further, we have a particular, peculiar, historical bent to our passions and obsessions. We are here to ensure that the technologies of our past are rediscovered and remembered by the generations of our future. We are comrades, kindred spirits. 

Join us. 

Join us as we explore the technologies of our fathers, and their fathers. Join us as we explore the technologies of our childhoods. Join us as we explore the technologies that never were, the machines that could have been.  Let us explore yesterday's cutting edge, and steal a glimpse into the technologies that the march of progress has deemed obsolete.

Obsolete! 

What a word. What a vile, despicable word. It's a word dreamed up by marketing departments and corporate executives to ensure the ever marching status quo. Let us rally against obsolescence. 

We do not claim to be historians, experts, or teachers. We have no great and noble purpose, beyond illustrating a past that is so quickly forgotten. Think of us as storytellers, as raconteurs. It is my hope that together we may journey through the technologies of our past and achieve an understanding strong enough to shape the technological progress of our future. 

We are here to share our love of technology, typewriters, telegraphs, turntables, oxford commas, and even things that don't start with the letter 't' and have nothing to do with grammar (such as vintage computers, photography, electric cars, cassette tapes, and a plethora of other symbols of geekdom.) 

Prop your feet up and stay a while.

Submissions welcome