Comments on: Gigapixel images of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine #2

By: Drew Gilmore

Drew Gilmore — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 15:51:00 +0000

By: Greg Downing

Greg Downing — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 00:59:00 +0000

Thanks John!

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 00:25:00 +0000

Not to mention the fact that if you’re going to such trouble to make the thing, you’d rather it wouldn’t wear out anytime soon.

By: Greg Downing

Greg Downing — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 21:30:00 +0000

sure does, there is video of it working at the bottom of the page and here http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/lit-shot-and-gigapixeled/ you can see some close up high speed videos

By: Purplecat

Purplecat — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 20:59:00 +0000

Making the engine smaller wasn’t really feasible. One of the huge problems that he had was that parts couldn’t be machined to the tolerances required, using technology that was available at the time. If you shrink the mechanism, you also magnify the proportional effect of any mechanical deviation from the design.

By: Philip Rink Jr.

Philip Rink Jr. — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:27:00 +0000

Something I always wondered: why didn’t he get together with a watchmaker or clockmaker and make the thing a whole lot smaller? Wouldn’t that have solved a lot of the mechanical issues, and enabled the more-complex Analytical Engine to be successfully built?

By: Lupus_Yonderboy

Lupus_Yonderboy — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:51:00 +0000

Love Curtas. I’d get one but they go for upwards of $800 nowadays.

By: awjt

awjt — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:46:00 +0000

Does this thing actually work?

By: Lemoutan

Lemoutan — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 10:01:00 +0000

If you have – say – a 3ds file of it, knocking about, ask the lowlanders.

By: Roy Trumbull

Roy Trumbull — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 02:48:00 +0000

The hand held version
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/the_amazing_curta.html

By: theophrastvs

theophrastvs — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 02:47:00 +0000

Cool! thankee! now someone build (a more-or-less complete version of) the damn Analytical Engine

By: John Colebrook

John Colebrook — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 01:40:00 +0000

Great Work Greg, Always a fan

By: Greg Downing

Greg Downing — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 01:03:00 +0000

Thanks Coderjoe :).

This is one of those things where half the audience likes it one way and the other have likes it the other. There are a few papers on peoples preferences. Generally things like maps and objects are set up for a click and drag type of scenario, but if you look at video games and panoramas (flash or qtvr) or a first person perspective dragging in the direction you want to look is predominate.

One other argument is that is less fatiguing to click and drag in one continuous motion than to click and drag repeatedly to continue panning.

By: Coderjoe

Coderjoe — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:11:00 +0000

That’s pretty darned cool. I find the xRez UI a little counter-intuitive, however. To pan with the mouse, you hold the mouse button down and move the mouse in the direction you want the view to go, rather than the direction you want the object in view to go. (The latter being how almost everything else handles drag panning.)

By: nixiebunny

nixiebunny — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:04:00 +0000

I tried to photograph this machine (on my iPhone, yeah right) while visiting it earlier this year. Not easy.

These photos are a good start at documenting the machine. Being static, though, all they show is its complexity and the skill of the fabricators.

I’m envisioning a few hours of HD video of CAD models with many parts made invisible or see-through to show the operation of each subsystem in detail.

Sounds like a good project for a federal grant. Oops, a patronage.

By: Greg Downing

Greg Downing — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:44:00 +0000

Believe it or not they did dust it, but the detail in the imagery goes well beyond what you would notice when standing in front of it.

By: John McGaw

John McGaw — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:03:00 +0000

Great stuff but why didn’t they dust it off before doing all of that meticulous photo work?

By: Greg Downing

Greg Downing — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:53:00 +0000

Thanks Kimmo! It is exciting to make it on BoingBoing, been a fan of it forever.

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:45:00 +0000

See, this is why I come here.

This is indeed a wonderful thing.