[SIGCIS-Members] Babbage Engine - Full Technical Description on Open Access

[Doron Swade]

Dear All

 

I am pleased to report that the full technical description of Charles
Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 has recently been made available online on
open access by the Science Museum (London).

 

The Engine was built to Babbage's original drawings (1847-1849) and
completed in 2002. It has 8,000 parts, weighs 5 tonnes, and works as Babbage
intended. It is the first of Babbage's calculating engines to be built in
its entirety. 

 

Over the decades-long life of the project I documented the interpretation of
the 19th-century drawings, the design decisions made in its construction,
its assembly, operational debugging, and what was learned from running the
Engine for countless live public demonstrations.

 

A full description of the Engine is presented in two works available online:

 

 
<https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-09/DE2_Technical_
Description.pdf> Difference Engine No.2 Technical Description (232 pages,
131 illustrations)

Provides a detailed interpretation of Babbage's design, and documents the
technical understanding that informed the successful construction of the
working machine.

 

 
<https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-08/User_Manual_PD
F_Vsn_1.1_Final_SEC1.pdf> Difference Engine No.2 User Manual (147 pages, 199
illustrations)

         Documents the practical procedures for operating the Engine safely,
setting up a calculation, testing, trouble-shooting, fault-finding, and
maintenance including lubrication.

 

The two documents are free-standing i.e. relevant drawing-excerpts are
embedded in the text so that understanding does not, for the most part, rely
on reference to the full 19th-century design drawings. 

 

Direct Browser Links: 

Technical Description:

https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-09/DE2_Technical_D
escription.pdf

User Manual:

 
<https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-08/User_Manual_PD
F_Vsn_1.1_Final_SEC1.pdf>
https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-08/User_Manual_PDF
_Vsn_1.1_Final_SEC1.pdf

 

Additional Material

 

 
<https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/documents/aa110000003/the-babb
age-papers> The Babbage Papers at the Science Museum:

*	Digitised archive of Babbage papers including full technical archive
and Notebooks.  

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/documents/aa110000003/the-babba
ge-papers

 

 
<https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/charles-babbages-diffe
rence-engines-and-science-museum> Charles Babbage's Difference Engines and
the Science Museum | Science Museum

*	Short contextual and historical summary. 
*	Links to the Technical Description and User Manual are in Further
Reading.

https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/charles-babbages-differ
ence-engines-and-science-museum

 

Citation: 

Swade, Doron, Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2: Technical
Description. Science Museum, 2023.

Swade Doron, Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2: User Manual. Science
Museum, 2023.

 

Best wishes

Doron Swade

 

 

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