December 09, 2017 Saturday
Bedtime Story
Making of Difference Engine
You may be surprised to know that the first
difference engine that faithfully emulated Babbage’s working plan was built
only in 1991, almost 170 years after the idea was fully laid down on paper!
Such were the difficulties encountered in
the actual construction of this machine.
How it took that long will need some
explanation on which I shall venture forth.
For three years Babbage had worked on the
conceptual design after the idea had first struck him and in 1822 he presented
his machine in the form of a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society.
The paper was titled “Note on the
application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical
tables”.
Please note that the essential goal of this
contraption was to enhance the production of accurate mathematical tables, the
kind we were forced to use in our schooling days.
I am not sure whether this was merely a
paper or he actually had constructed a primordial model of the machine that he
had presented to the society.
But whatever it was, it got the British
government interested as mathematical tables was then something that involved
national interest and was produced in large numbers.
Any machine that would cut down the price
of production of mathematical tables and make it faster and accurate would
serve the nation or rather the Empire well.
Science and technological advancements was
soon becoming extremely valuable for emperors and empresses, politicians and
generals and merchants in trade and commerce.
So when on June 14, 1822 Charles Babbage
had first announced his invention to the Royal Astronomical Society, British
Government had taken an instant liking to it.
They were after all the great British
Empire who even if had not found this to be a practically useful device, would
surely have been driven by their pride to seize upon it.
Whatever the reason was, the almighty
British government funded Babbage with 1700 British pounds which I assume must
have been substantial money for those times.
Yet even this funding proved to be
inadequate.
One must keep in mind that Babbage was
essentially a mathematician and not an engineer.
So even if he did conceive the design on
paper, to physically execute it and bring it alive would surely require a
mechanical engineer (and not an electric engineer).
For this Babbage called in a well
established engineer of that time by the name of Joseph Clement.
Now why Joseph Clement?
Clement was not your usual run-of-the-mill
engineer that our colleges mass produce these days; his repute of excellent in
engineering was well established for his construction of planers – a type of
metalworking machine tool.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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