Discover a 170-year-old computer

Weighing up to 8 tons and over 3 meters high, the Difference Engine machine performs complex calculations and prints the results at the same time.

Designed by engineer Charles Babbage in late 1840, Difference Engine No. This 2 weighs 8 tons, 3.4 meters long, 2.1 meters high and has 8,000 components made of copper, iron and steel. The machine will be presented at the Babbage Engine Exhibition at the Computer History Museum on May 10, 2008, in Mountain View (California, USA).

Part of the machine .

. showing the digital wheels in decimal. A total of 248 digital wheels like this are interlocked to perform calculations.

The wheel is rotated by hand, calculated to 31 digits after the comma (decimal part), giving 1 result for each wheel rotation.

The printer gets the results automatically.

Only two Difference Engine in the world.

Charles Babbage was born on December 26, 1792 in London (England) in a family that worked as a banker and loved mathematics. He built this machine but was not noticed by the current British government, despite having won many prestigious awards before. He died in London on October 18, 1871, and the latter was preserved by his son.