Re: Vector Volume 23 N°3

Curtis A. Jones wrote:
Keith Smillie fancied a Differential Analyzer build from Meccano
parts, but found it easier just to model it.
...
Here's a Meccano differential analyzer.
http://meccano.us/differential_analyzers/robinson_da/index.html

Tim Robinson, who built it, also built a couple of Babbage difference
engines. e.g.
http://www.meccano.us/difference_engines/rde_2/index.html
Tim is in thick of preparations at the Computer History Museum in
Mountain View, California, USA to show a 5-ton Difference Engine no. 2
built by the Science Museum of London:
http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/

http://www.computerhistory.org/virtualvisiblestorage/popup_image.php?base_name=102637025
It's more impressive than one might expect from the picture.

If you're around London don't despair if you want to see it. The
Babbage engine at the Computer History Museum is the second one built
by the Science Museum and is brand new.
Curtis

P.S.
Tim used Mathematica, with its extended-precision arithmetic, to
generate the starting values to put into the engine to demonstrate use
of the difference engine to make a log table which can be compared to
one published by Babbage himself.

my goodness, that stuff is gorgeous -- thanks ever so much for these links

to the best of my knowledge, the red and green Meccano is no longer available -- the company is now French-owned, I believe, and the colours tend to be more (what..?) fashionable? purple and silver, for instance

IIRC, when the Science Museum built their first difference engine, they found that Babbage's problem was not only that the required accuracy was not available at that time, but the materials would not have been up to the job either -- I was quite surprised that something as simple as brass could vary so much -- and the weight! 5 tons is an awful lot of metal to move without a proper supply of power

/phil
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: "The Difference Engine"
    ... Difference Engine had been built causing an explosion of technologies ... Now, suppose this had happened, what would these mechanical computers ... computation would have been done via analog computers as such are more ...
    (sci.military.naval)
  • =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re=3A_Vector_Volume_23_N=B03?=
    ... Tim Robinson, who built it, also built a couple of Babbage difference ... Mountain View, California, USA to show a 5-ton Difference Engine no. 2 ...
    (comp.lang.apl)
  • Re: The Phoenix has landed!
    ... And Babbage's biggest target customer was the Royal Navy. ... By the way neither his difference engine nor analytic engine ... I believe that a working version, built from his plans, now exists ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: What to buy?
    ... "Tim S Kemp" wrote in message: ... since the ones from the early 90's are not built as well. ... I'm drawn to a Galant - the V6 model is all I ...
    (uk.rec.cars.modifications)
  • =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re=3A_Vector_Volume_23_N=B03?=
    ... to the best of my knowledge, the red and green Meccano is no longer ... IIRC, when the Science Museum built their first difference engine, they ... achieving higher tolerances than were needed in many parts of the ...
    (comp.lang.apl)