Babbage Difference Engine No 1 calculating engine
Made by Clement, Joseph in England, 1822-1833.
Summary
96/203/1
A calculating engine consisting of six ferrous metal shafts supporting various bronze wheels with engraved numbers, cogs and cams all mounted on a mahogany base.
Two pages of hand written instructions for calculating engine.
Two pages of hand written instructions for calculating engine.
Dimensions
300 mm
380 mm
Production
The Difference Engine No1 was designed by Charles Babbage between 1822 and 1833 after which the project was abandoned. The mechanism demonstrated in the specimen was probably designed in the early stages. He designed the engine to automatically calculate and print mathematical tables, used at the time for complex calculations relating to navigation, surveying, astronomy, annuities etc.
The engine used the Method of Finite Differences to generate successive values of a polynomial function.
In order to construct the parts new tools and manufacturing techniques had also to be developed. Most of the parts were eventually made but the machine was never assembled.
While he was working on the Difference Engine he started to think about a machine that could be more versatile. When the Difference engine project was abandoned he went on to design most of the Analytical Engine which was in effect a programmable mechanical computer with the same architecture as a modern electronic computer. Certain innovations he developed for the Analytical Engine were late incorporated into a more efficient difference engine, Difference Engine No2.
The parts for the Difference Engine were made by Joseph Clement who was a highly skilled toolmaker and tradesman.
The unassembled parts of the Difference Engine were inherited by Henry Provost Babbage after the death of his father in 1871. In 1879 he assembled 5, 6 or 7 specimen pieces (accounts in the writings of Henry differ). These pieces were to demonstrate the addition and carry mechanism of the engine. One he gave to the Whipple Musuem, Cambridge; one to University College, London (now at the Science Museum); one to Harvard College in America; and one to Charles Whitmore Babbage, Henry's nephew who took it to New Zealand. Others are unaccounted for.
The engine used the Method of Finite Differences to generate successive values of a polynomial function.
In order to construct the parts new tools and manufacturing techniques had also to be developed. Most of the parts were eventually made but the machine was never assembled.
While he was working on the Difference Engine he started to think about a machine that could be more versatile. When the Difference engine project was abandoned he went on to design most of the Analytical Engine which was in effect a programmable mechanical computer with the same architecture as a modern electronic computer. Certain innovations he developed for the Analytical Engine were late incorporated into a more efficient difference engine, Difference Engine No2.
The parts for the Difference Engine were made by Joseph Clement who was a highly skilled toolmaker and tradesman.
The unassembled parts of the Difference Engine were inherited by Henry Provost Babbage after the death of his father in 1871. In 1879 he assembled 5, 6 or 7 specimen pieces (accounts in the writings of Henry differ). These pieces were to demonstrate the addition and carry mechanism of the engine. One he gave to the Whipple Musuem, Cambridge; one to University College, London (now at the Science Museum); one to Harvard College in America; and one to Charles Whitmore Babbage, Henry's nephew who took it to New Zealand. Others are unaccounted for.
Clement, Joseph 1822-1833
Babbage, Charles
Source
Purchased 1996
6 June, 1996
Cite this Object
Babbage Difference Engine No 1 calculating engine 2017, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, accessed 20 August 2017, <https://ma.as/150269>
{{cite web |url=https://ma.as/150269 |title=Babbage Difference Engine No 1 calculating engine |author=Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences |access-date=20 August 2017 |publisher=Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Australia}}