Charles Babbage and his Difference Engine #2

[SailorBarsoom]

Several people have compared this to DNA. That's what I thought of too. But the amazing thing is that DNA wasn't discovered until 1878, and its structure wasn't discovered until 1953 (one of the scientists, Francis Crick, credited LSD with helping him to visualize it).

Babbage was truly a man ahead of his time, and one can't help but wonder what the world today would be like if this machine, and his analytical engine, had both been built, say by 1850.

[iLOVENATURE2011]

charles babbage....the father of computer. That's what my grade school teacher taught me. Great mind.

[johnas1011]

Genius, and very beautiful

[pixysamuel]

When I heard this thing I thought it was just another great industrial artifact...

Turns out this thing is not any of industrial, it's a piece of art work!

I wow-ed when I saw that DNA like mechanism.

[geckoboy222]

mind blowing!

[luis3826]

cool, but can i update my facebook status on it?

[cyberteque]

Didn't Babbage build a limited version of the Difference Engine to print out ephemeris tables for the British Navy?

I read somewhere he was commissioned to devise a method to get around typo's that cropped up.

Does that "engine" still exist?

[andrew8833]

@cyberteque You mean the enigma machine? That was developed actually in Poland I think, definately was not us Brits that created that!

But was given to use by some other European country anyways and Churchill ordered that it be kept under wraps to not let the Nazi's know about it's creation that we managed to decrypt their communication encryption, where SSL in computing originates from somewhat.

[cyberteque]

@andrew8833 Not enigma.

Babbage got his funding from the Admiralty.

Typo's were sinking ships and costing money.

[andrew8833]

@cyberteque he got his funding from the government here in Britain but he had a few personality clashes and due to him wasting time he lost funding.

[didwedie]

What does the original computer do?

[nawaryoussef1]

@didwedie It was a calculator simply

[GelandnaleG]

3:46

[inputmodule]

this is truly one of the most unbelievably cool mechanical devices ever

[Noisegator]

I love the DNA like helical fingers on the register towers.

.

Have they ported any video games to the Babbage platform yet?

[creaturebotman]

Now here is a computer that immune to viruses.

[LocustsOfSteel]

@creaturebotman Ever tried linux lol

[IraqMesopotamia]

He said (after he dead by his son) what does that means .... Is his son killed him ?

[ComputerHistory]

@IraqMesopotamia Thanks for your question. Charles Babbage's son, Henry Prevost, didn't kill him. His son lived on after Charles Babbage died and tried to continue some of his work on mechanical computing engines.

[97273998]

One of the most amazing things i`ve ever seen!

[MrMalavon]

He was way ahead of his time.

[genomastergenomaster]

@MrMalavon just like Athene

[xoio]

@MrMalavon He was about 100 years ahead of his time...

[andrew8833]

@MrMalavon The problem with Babbage was he kept changing and improving it and never really finished what he'd created.

[wvdirtboy]

Absolutely amazing.

[SomethingAudio]

Truly an inspiration to us all - Thank you Mr. Charles Baggage for your vision.

[opsanus]

Also came here as a result of the 11.10.09 NPR story. One of the most amazing stories I've ever heard about relatively unknown genius. I had read about Babbage before, but never specifically about this device. Considering the lack of precedence at the time and the practical difficulties involved, his conception and design was an incredibly brave intellectual quest.

[ChevyHebHeb]

An incredible shame that he never completed it, this would have easily catapulted science decades

[willfreese]

Just heard the National Public Radio piece on this. Lovely to see it working. An inspiration to every genius ahead of his time. Also to every crackpot, of course.

[lostinxlation]

I live near CHM and I visited there to watch the demo of the Difference Engine this spring. The way the disks and rods moves all together was stunningly beautiful and I felt like I could keep watching it forever.

[thebadgerbaiter1977]

Nice. But I hate the patronising way American documentaries are set.

[peeeepsi]

he was one smart man, most people people still thought leaches cured illness and he built a computer....

[Kanonvale]

i think its sad that charles died he should of finished this invention and make england proud

i'm only watching this video cuz of a m=homework from school

[ypsidixit]

That is fascinating...I love knowing things like that. Thank you!

[ypsidixit]

Just out of curiosity, how in the world do you ship a five-ton Difference Engine? Is it disassembled?

[ComputerHistory]

The engine was shipped from London to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California almost completely assembled. A custom designed frame was built for the Engine within a standard cargo shipping container. Some additional bracing was added and the Engine was shipped by air to avoid the long transit time and movement of a cargo ship. The Engine arrived with no damage though some parts needed to be cleaned due to the extreme changes in temperature and humidity during shipping.

[andrew8833]

@ComputerHistory Slight correction he did not finish what he created with the difference machine he kept changing it for one reason or another.

2 where finished off in Britain to his original designs and then one was quite rightly shipped as you put it to CA in the US, the other remains in Oxford.

[jvatl]

In the NPR story today, they flew it in one 5 ton piece inside a 747

[JimManley94085]

For those who haven't already heard, the Babbage Difference Engine at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, is still there, and will remain there until the end of December 2009, when it will be packed up and shipped to its actual owner in the Seattle area, Nathan Myhrvold, former CTO of Microsoft (seems movement was delayed because he needed to beef up the floor in his "living room" - the thing weighs five tons - I guess that wasn't listed in "Required Hardware" on the packaging :)

[Deushofito]

thank you for sharing this with us... it's really amazing to see how machines were before the transistor era... my students still find it amazing to see how a typewriter works.. imagin what they would say when they see this... thanks again!

[Zeanu]

Astounding. Truly mesmerizing and inspiring.

[ThePolka]

Thank you.

[isobelzx297]

Thank you so much for this video. As a long time admirer of the great man this really brought him and oneof his great ideas to life.

[thewerrett]

My mothers maiden name was Babbage.

Charles Babbage is my great great great Grandfather. ^^ (my sort of claim to fame)

[Saberdonkey]

thats awesome

[britsinsf]

I've just seen this working at the Computer Museum in Mountain View, CA and it is truly mesmerizing watching the helical arms spin. An amazing piece of mechanical engineering.

[tomguelph]

Did Charles Babbage sort of invent the calculator?

[Zeanu]

You could say he invented the computer.

[orKhaly]

im doing a project on Charles babbage, and this really helped me..

[zaohad1]

clever chap really but there werent too many slicon chips and ddr ram modules around in 1832. He had the idea ahead of the technology.

[zaohad1]

1832 was 8 years before queen victoria came to the throne. He was born at the wrong time.

[stemcellfilms]

Who says he had no knowledge of past inventions? his father was a banker, right? just saying... that double helix spin when the machine runs is definitely "mesmerizing" as the video puts it.

The printing plates is exactly what the Sumerians would do, which is why we have some records of theirs (they printed on clay cylinders) I can't help but think babbage's ideas were lifted from some older secret babylonian machinery, at least Kitab al-Hiyal. Thats just me, could be wrong... whatever..

[Laoch111]

Great video. Charles Babbage was a true genius. Such a pity the technology wasn't there in his time to build his computer.

[evensgrey]

Actually, if you watch the talk on the machine, they explain that, in fact, it COULD have been built at the time. Great care was taken to reproduce the tolerances and materials that would have been used had the machine actually been built.

[Nibblesguy]

Thats my I.T Teacher (Mr babbage :P) great great somethin

[UltraDroog]

Just imagine what Babbage would think of computers today. I bet he'd improve them somehow!

[sundhaug92]

He would probably prefer the Altair 8800 or Apple 2. More direct control over the computer.

[thesonyallstar]

heh, charles only hangs out with people named charles

[ahmadclk]

is this vista capable?

[bilzoo2000]

Of course it's not, all things vista capable have to have a "Vista Capable" sticker on it.

[ahmadclk]

I was joking you idiot.

[bilzoo2000]

Have you considered the fact that I was joking too about how almost every peripheral device for computers sold today have a "Vista Capable"

sticker on them?

[ozkar19]

So it IS true what they say about viewer comments in youtube...

[monongoelite]

so its only xp capable?

[Dynamics18]

duh, but its bound to skrew up on vista

[spikeman14]

The word is compatible you idiots!

[slackertwentytwo]

Anyone know if it's Turing complete?

[SailorBarsoom]

@slackertwentytwo

Apparently not, but the analytical engine, had it been built, would have been.

[stevespielberg]

I wrote a paper on Babbage in high school!

[JuliusLjungberg]

Babbage? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO­LOLOL.

[aquamerfish]

Bharles Cabbage!

[Jsadoway]

.... but... im not realy sure.. what it does.... can someone explain it simpler...

it presses numbers.. great... huh?

[LegendSaber]

It's basically a calculator.

We take them for granted now, but back in Babbage's day it would have been quite an impressive machine.

[MrTech40]

Even in the 1950's my dad was telling me that the electronic calculator was extremely impressive.

[peppeddu]

It is more than a calculator, it is a general purpose computer with a printer that can be programmed with a language that Babbage called "the coding system"... in 1830!

God knows what he would have invented if he was born this century.

[ComputerHistory]

Hello,

To be clear, Difference Engine #2 is an advanced, large digit calculator. The general purpose computer you're referring to was a different design of Babbage's called the Analytical Engine.

Bob Sanguedolce

Computer History Museum

[peppeddu]

Thanks!

[MrGoodfella123]

Babbage = Awesome.  To think what he'd have done in our age. He wanted to instil the mathematical principle into machines (i.e. the first step on the road towards AI). A definite visionary if ever there was one.

[raulitech]

babbage was a genius and like many others never got his place in history or had the resources to realise his works fully.

[elbethere]

There were two computers that predate babbage's. One was the antikythera mechanism, found off the Grecian cost, and the other was the Cosmic engine, developed by the chinese. Althoug babbage had no knowledge of eather, his design was remarkebly similar.

[evensgrey]

Similar, perhaps, but more general purpose than either, as the Difference Engine could have been used to perform the fundamental calculations of either of the others, and many more besides. The display on the special-purpose machines would be much more easily readable, of course.

[shaurz]

Build the analytical engine!

[mopalia]

Tim has started one of Meccanos; Doren says he's working on it.  ;)

[mopalia]

The plans are not sufficiently complete, but there is a version under construction in Meccano parts.

[gocaca]

i honor this great man and thank him,amazing he was

[cphellp]

That thing runes OSX

[mopalia]

It's all open source...