From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
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From: Mark Eichin <eichin@cygnus.com>
Subject: Re: Any ADA tutors out there?
Date: 1997/06/07
Message-ID: <xe1g1uuds4q.fsf@maneki-neko.cygnus.com>#1/1
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References: <01bc709b$bf199d60$fc5e0b26@ajsys> <3395065E.B0@sprintmail.com>
 <iRn2GFAuFSmzEwAL@walsh.demon.co.uk>
Organization: Cygnus Solutions, Eastern USA
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1997-06-07T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


>Charles Babbage. Babbage designed a mechanical computer, but could never
>build it, because 19th century Britain just did not have the precision
>machine-tooling necessary to fabricate the fine gears it would require.

I just double checked this, and the "Difference Engine 2" that was
replicated in 1991 was built with 1830's technology; to quote a paper
by Ralph Merkle, http://nano.xerox.com/nanotech/mechano.html,

> ... Remarkably, it was designed in the early 1800's. A working model
>of the simpler Difference Engine No. 2 was recently built by the British
>Museum of Science from Babbage's original blueprints using parts that would
>have been available in the 1800's, both in terms of the materials used and the
>precision of the milling[31].

While this doesn't indicate that the more advanced Analytical Engine
could have actually been built at that level, it does seem to pave the way...