The Difference Engine
by Doron Swade · first published 2000
6mentions
4recommended by
6HN commenters
2010–2021first – last mentioned
67% recommend17% neutral17% critical
"In 1821 an inventor and mathematician, Charles Babbage, was poring over a set of mathematical tables. Finding error after error Babbage exclaimed, "I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam." His frustration was not simply at the grindingly tedious labor of checking manually evaluated tables, but at their daunting unreliability. Science, engineering, construction, banking, and insurance depended on tables for calculation. Ships navigating by the stars relied on them to find their positions at sea.". "Babbage launched himself on a grand venture to design and build mechanica
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I just finished reading The Difference Engine yesterday, an entire book about this project, by the project lead! https://www.amazon.com/Difference-Engine-Charles-Babbage-Com... (unfortunately overshadowed in Google Search results by a William Gibson…
on “Why does sorting in computer science mean ordering rather than categorizing?” ↗The catch is that there are tolerance issues. Doron Swade's account of building the two existing Difference Engine #2 models (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670910201/donhosek) is a good example of where the challenges lie. It was just barely possible to do with 19th century technology. Physical mechanisms…
on “Megaprocessor – A micro-processor built large (2016)” ↗You can read the books by Doron Swade to know more about Babbage and his machine. http://www.amazon.com/Difference-Engine-Charles-Babbage-Comp...
on “Babbage's Debugger” ↗…origins of personal computing! This I learned from Jaron Lanier and Kevin Kelly, who recommended John Markoff's What The Dormouse Said: http://www.amazon.com/What-Dormouse-Said-Personal-Computer-e... The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer is a short book but also a fun read. Doron Swade, technology historian and assistant director of London's Science Museum, races to build a copy…
on “Ask HN: How to learn about the history of computing?” ↗There's a book that was published about 13 years ago by the man leading the program to rebuild the difference engine for London's Science Museum called, "The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer" [1]. I can't really recommend it, since half (or more) of it is about Doron Swade…
on “Computer Museum bids farewell to Babbage engine” ↗In the book "The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer" [1], author Doron Swade argued that Babbage suffered from tinnitus [2] in his old age and that's what drove him to wage war on noisy street…
on “Charles Babbage’s Observations on Street Nuisances (1864)” ↗