Robinson's Difference Engine

[mjtunstall1976]

what is it trying to do?

[Thepockets88]

I bet calibration is a bitch. :D

[ZeusDeusEx]

so........ what does it do?

[aachelabelaaron]

@BdBreese mikey ate it.

[aachelabelaaron]

erector sets run on vista XD

[SayrexZ]

what do u do with this o.0 ?

[CRAZYhill112or999]

what is a difference engine? is it a type of mechanicle calculator?

[scott93257]

Very AWESOME work...That thing looks very complex...

[legoclockfreak710]

nice... NOW MAKE IT OUTTA LEGOS!!!!

[bazengao]

is that a mechanical calculator?

[Robbskunky]

Does it blend?

[Del350K4]

@dizzib You, sir, are a man of culture : )

[tomislavlac]

This Is Madness! This is SPARTA!!! Noo , this is Patrick!

[jorgecalivalle]

The input was 0 + 0 = ?

the output was : NEXT QUESTION

[jace0man]

idk what the fuck this even is lmao

[nawaryoussef1]

does it work like babbage's difference engin ??

it looks the same

[lobsterboy2020]

the question is.... will it blend?



[wylanify]

12 people went tno the fridge

[ZombieGraah]

when you see it you shit bricks

[Snoker4711]

So Nice!

-But can't see a USB-plug there.. :p

Must be something wrong... :)

Again, very nice!

[osgarmen3]

this is beautiful!

[genomastergenomaster]

I came binaries

[gerwin136]

i'm serieus what can it do?

[Secundinius]

@gerwin136 It's the bad ass motha' 4000! Goes twice as fast as your ass!

[gerwin136]

@Secundinius cool!

[xPangerLenisx]

omg

wtf?

wth!

[Bazuna]

How much ram does it have

[Cazz2706]

For the four who are hard of understanding - this is a computer built out of meccano. from a design that was put together over a hundred years before the first IBM model.

It is so cool it is cryogenic.

[crzybtch1000]

I don't get it.

[MrGameboy1989]

dear santa.....

[cyberteque]

Wow!

How long did this take to assemble?

It's a pity Babbage didn't have Meccano!

Can you imagine hand milling all those pieces?

[ophelius111]

All 4 people who disliked this probably built a better difference engine.

[jcecmp]

had to make it with a patent, good guy.

[utubekojitakeo]

Oh god, I do hope you do a write up for how to rebuild this.

[rjy8960]

How the fcuk can four people dislike this? Why???? Is it cos there isn't a pair of tits in it? Faggots.

[Films4You]

Better than Vista LOL

[hushcolours]

We don't need electricity anymore !

[Jorickhoofd]

That's impressive. What does it calculate?

[dawkidjorge]

wait can any1 tell whts the point of the machine?

[myguitardidyermom12]

@dawkidjorge Think of it as a big ass calculator. Not practical at all, it's just cool.

[Grafschnitzel]

@dawkidjorge look for Charles Babbage in Wikipedia. He designed the first computer in 1849, and this is a meccano rebuild

[seriouslyWeird]

imagine all those gears grinding and after a hour it finally finishes and pours cafe late into the cup

[AGrandt]

Incredible.

[TheAttackRat]

can it play WOW?

[0Drwatson0]

@TheAttackRat

it can but the FPS is terrible

[fredbsb]

I think it is overclocked.

[cyanman123]

I bet that thing make one he'll of a capachino

[PanzerBuyer]

incredible

[avatarelite]

where on earth did you get the design for this ? :O

[Zetune79]

Unless I counted wrong, does that thing have a 10 bit hard drive ? ha ha

[LuckyLeppy777]

I could watch this for hours.

*look up Babbage's analytical engine

[brokebiker19]

does a coke come outa that thing

[Kunibuler]

The computer of the first Enterprise.

[thexoldxman]

Absolutely stunning. And @dizzb: The answer is right, but don't ever pose the question thet goes with it! The mice would be just so ennoyed...

[nexxo00]

I agree with wilsconces. Nerd porn. Definitely.

[LeeviON]

So... what does it do? :D It is amazing anyways..

[badnewswade]

I love it. It's utterly insane. Marry me!

[Patriot1776]

Why do I hear in my head a heavy metal instrumental with LOTS of extremely distorted guitar in my head while watching this? It seems to fit for some reason with the images of gearwheels and cogs doing their thing.

[infirno53]

real nice, you must have a thing fore meccano is think.

[beldimanvlad]

what does it do? lol

[jeymeowmix]

OMFG

[kleinepanzer]

you spin me right round baby right round

[binderclip16]

no life?

[nickeliot]

SRF£$%£$%ing awesome

[wisteela]

That is amazing. Love the colour too.

[X5Industries]

that must be the super-delux-ultra-mega erector set model

[CarlosTadeus]

Computer primitive (abaco)

[scallymouse14]

can it actually compute things or does it just folow a pre-set pattern

[LunaticQuutamo]

some one should a screensaver out of this!

[jayeastanglia]

I could just watch that for ages..

[mrlittleplatypus]

beautiful

[whitephatt]

Needs more cowbell.

[Thetheif90]

Such a fantastically complicated machine, made purely out of primitive parts and powered by hand.

It takes a certain kind of genius to make this kind of machine.

[freshlyshowered]

If Charles Babbage was still alive he would have invented time travel by now

[kefsound]

I for one welcome our mechanical overlord

[Nachtschicht2206]

ist das enigma maschine? gibt es jemand den deutsch weisst?

[NutsandGuts]

nein das ist nicht enigma maschine.

[johne30587]

I don't think anyone said that it was...

[NutsandGuts]

Nachtschicht2206 asked..........moron.

[tomboehmpdot]

the brain power needed to make this thing is incomprehensible... i dont understand

[hugoestr]

This is so cool. How long did it take to build it? What was the source for the plans?

[tsjaikdus]

Calculating polynomials means that it can calculate series. And sines, cosines, logarithms, etc. can be approximated by series. The quality of the approximation depends on the number of colums in the difference engine. The more colums, the longer it takes before major deviations occur. The machine would calculate tables like Sin(0.00), Sin(0.01), Sin(0.02), Sin(0.03), etc.

[ahz123]

This is the far more capable Difference Engine #2.  Difference Engine #1 is easier to understand and is still incredible. Look it up ;-)

[ahz123]

It is a machine that calculates polynomials.

Back in the day, like 1850, a 'calculator' was a person. You'd sit at your desk and calculate numbers. Then your results might be published in a book of calculations. The problem is that typesetters and calculators (the people!) make mistakes. You'd have a book of tables, and it would have errors! Then an addendum would be published - and IT would have errors! Maddening! Babbage invented a machine that "might jam but will never deceive."

[pakiik]

what is it?

[KENKENNIFF]

..maybe it was made, huh ? Ever think of that ?

[CaptainCorndog9]

"nerd porn" lol.

[Amishman35]

They could of had this in the age of elves, swords, and knights, as there's no electrons flowing and it runs on human power. It would be cool if they had a Protracker MOD player that ran on a spring on July 1, 1682.

[rascalrascal]

ahahahaha

[kefsound]

Just imagine thousands of steam-powered difference engines running in the 1850

[toothless778]

destroyed the mankind in 1867. ;)

[kefsound]

D'you mean calling it Skynet wasn't such a good idea?

[beldimanvlad]

what you can do with it?

[wilsonces]

It's amazing, almost like .... nerd porn.

[BobCassidy]

hahahahaha

[mushroomdweller]

How do you program it?

[PerfectBlindness]

lol If only they had meccano back in the day.

[lesatseaside]

very impressive!

[zstarch]

Very nice, and handy to have if you need to balance your checkbook in a power failure!

[BHT195]

That actualy eriely beautiful......

[spongebathe]

imagine trying to stuff an analog computer like that into a robot, LOL

[dizzib]

And the answer is... 42!

[apachedrifter]

@dizzib i always thought there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe.

[Chuckftw3]

@dizzib 42 Likes.....

[Sooprazn]

@dizzib I'm so tempted to thumbs up, but its at 42 and I dont want to die.

[MrAstronomiebahner]

@dizzib

I thougt the same! xD

this book is just fantastic, ins´t it?

[firewire67t]

@dizzib because ice cream has no bones?

[ccfox9133]

Babbage was stupidly ahead of his time. An analytical computer, powered by steam (or hand in this case) would have change everything. Except, like all unseen Great British inventions, lack of ivestment killed it.

[drewid88]

Not just lack of investment. Babbage was notorious for constantly changing the design of bit of it. He'd have the plans down in the machine then stop production when he thought of a better way of doing something. But you're right a fantastically powerful piece of kit. Like a 6502 chip but with 50 digit numbers rather than single bytes.

[CMPerry]

Simply wonderful - best Meccano construction I have ever seen, and a working Engine, to boot.

[Hindermore]

It's amazing how something so simple on paper can look so beautiful physically.

[AisforAgglomerate]

Brilliant

[vog71]

look like a universe

[1JMC1]

That is just superb... Congratulations!

[DTHuey]

that's some crazy shit

[m0nde]

wow, awesome!

[thecreepingmess]

Awesome work. I'm sure Babbage would be chuffed. If only he had some Meccano back in the day ;)

[tbma2000us]

You welcome :)

[res3ia]

This has to be one of the best Meccano creations ever. Thank you for sharing this.