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Photos: Charles Babbage's masterpiece reincarnated

And takes a trip across the sea

By Daniel Terdiman on 10 April 2008 17:09

Tech millionaire Nathan Myhrvold commissioned London's Science Museum to make him a version of Charles Babbage's famous Difference engine, a machine designed to mechanically calculate polynomial functions. (The Science Museum has the only other full-scale Difference engine in the world; Babbage himself never actually made one).

The commissioned machine was delivered to the Computer History Museum in California, US and is scheduled to be exhibited there for six months starting 1 May.

Here, Tim Robinson (right), who makes specialised computing machinery, shows his version of a Babbage Difference engine to Richard Horton (foreground), the lead engineer on the Myhrvold/Science Museum. Robinson brought his scaled-down model to the Computer History Museum.

Photo credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com

Comments

There are 2 comments. Join the discussion

  1. 1. Disappointed

    What a missed opportunity - this is a picture story about removals rather than anything to do with Charles Babbage's difference engine.

    • 15 April 2008 14:25
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  2. 2. Stuart Walmsley

    Somewhat of a misnomer! Article should have been titled Photos of the packing case for the reincarnation of Babbage's Difference Engine

    • 19 April 2008 13:42
    • Add comment

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