Comments on: Computer History Museum and the Babbage Engine http://madisonian.net/2008/05/05/computer-history-museum-and-the-babbage-engine/ a blog about law, tech, culture, and related things Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:06:26 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Greg Lastowka http://madisonian.net/2008/05/05/computer-history-museum-and-the-babbage-engine/comment-page-1/#comment-250045 Greg Lastowka Mon, 05 May 2008 17:57:47 +0000 http://madisonian.net/?p=1402#comment-250045 My impression was that personality was the primary reason it wasn't built -- I think the British government would have worked with Babbage if he hadn't been so darned persnickety. And though, technically, it wasn't built during Babbage's lifetime, it actually kind of was. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Georg_Scheutz But I actually saw this one, at the Santa Clara Law conference earlier this year which was held at the Comp H Museum. It was breathtaking (for me) to be so close to it. But then they had a PDP-1 set up for Space War, the Johnniac, and all sorts of other incredible vintage machines there. :-) My impression was that personality was the primary reason it wasn’t built — I think the British government would have worked with Babbage if he hadn’t been so darned persnickety.

And though, technically, it wasn’t built during Babbage’s lifetime, it actually kind of was.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Georg_Scheutz

But I actually saw this one, at the Santa Clara Law conference earlier this year which was held at the Comp H Museum. It was breathtaking (for me) to be so close to it. But then they had a PDP-1 set up for Space War, the Johnniac, and all sorts of other incredible vintage machines there. :-)

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