It's time to build the Analytical Engine | Hacker News Reader

It's time to build the Analytical Engine

blog.jgc.org

43 pointsjgrahamc17 comments

While I think it would be interesting, I don't think it's worth the cash outlay.

Build a virtual model of it and have educational/informational bits that explain it, instead. That will allow virtual disassembly of the machine for a better look at how it works.

It'll be both cheaper and better to make a virtual version.

I think this is one of those good and bad ideas.

On the one hand, the point of having a steam-powered computer is to have a steam-powered computer. What fun is a virtual steam-powered computer? You can't scald anyone with that!

On the other hand, yes, in the year 2010 you really should master the art of building the virtual Analytical Engine before you go for the real thing. One reason, I believe, is that the current draft of the design of the Analytical Engine is more akin to the world's largest collection of back-of-the-envelope sketches than to a finished blueprint. There was never one canonical design for the Engine, because so little of it was ever actually realized in hardware. Babbage had a lot of fun swapping parts in and out in his imagination.

So there needs to be a bit of each approach. Build the virtual version first, in an environment where building 1024 identical custom-machined ratchets and pawls is just a matter of ten copy-and-pastes. Then a nail down a plan for what you intend to realize in hardware. And then build it. If you can find the money.

There will also have to be some back-and-forth. One of the central lessons of engineering is that it's more than just CAD. It isn't until you try to build a thing that you fully understand its design, if only because it is difficult to imagine the constraints that reality imposes on your design -- and, more embarrassingly, that the earlier parts of your construction impose on the later parts -- until you've actually gotten into the middle of the job. This is one reason why these projects are so expensive: They are, in part, research projects. I believe that the folks who assembled the Difference Engine weren't entirely sure, going in, that the darned thing was actually going to work as well as it does. And they made some crucial tweaks during the assembly process.

There is an emulator here: http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/contents.html

Okay, then, to the machine shop! ;)

Even better - to the 3D printers!

Printing an Analytical Engine would be rather cool.

No, there's still a lot of research to do to make it a reality, but some of the work has been done.

I don't see a 3D model there.

Well of course it's not worth the cash outlay, that's the point! That's one of the hallmarks of nerd-dom. Taking a joke or a concept, and going to extraordinary lengths to bring it into reality, for novelty and to impress people. "You know that one _____ thing? Somebody actually made/did it!"

Prime example: http://blog.xkcd.com/2007/04/19/life-imitates-xkcd-part-ii-r...

In any case, it would be cheaper to build than a Turing machine (The infinite length tape alone would cost a pretty penny).

Another brilliant idea from jgc. I hope you're as successful in this one as you were with the Turing apology.

I imagine the first step is to get someone with name recognition to donate a sizable enough chunk of change to get some news coverage. Any candidates?

The first thing I did on my last trip to London was to head straight for the Science Museum and check out the Difference Engine they have on display there. It was awesome along with the other examples of mechanical calculators and early computers they had in the same room.

I agree thought that first a virtual model should be built, but only if it runs as a physical model of it in 3d, and not as an instruction emulator. Once the bugs are worked out in the virtual model of course a steam powered version needs to be made - at that point I think you could get bankrolled by a museum.

I agree. Also, this seems like a great use for CAD drawings fed into one-off 3D fabrication printing.

edit: seems like someone else suggested this below

There are some cool Babbage-related meccano models here: http://www.meccano.us/

One of them is a "barrel" for the Analytical Engine: http://www.meccano.us/analytical_engine/index.html

There are also fully working models of the Difference Engine e.g. http://www.meccano.us/difference_engines/rde_2/index.html although I think they had to make some modifications due to the limitations of Meccano!

Theres a definite UK angle to the project , so you might be able to get some matching government funding to whatever you raise elsewhere if you were set up as a "proper" charity .

Eg , http://www.hlf.org.uk/ourproject/projectsbysector/industry/P...

"We have given more than £770 million to over 2,200 conservation and activity projects in the industrial, maritime and transport heritage sector."

You should put this on Kickstarter. From your blog's comments, it looks like you might be able to generate some non-negligible funding.

Kickstarter requires a US bank account, is in $ and won't accept charities. I think it's a non-starter for this as I don't imagine it being commercial.

Kickstarter for a $1m funding? Would be awesome to see if that works... What was the highest amount of money pledged on Kickstarter ever since?

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