Arrival of Babbage’s Difference Engine:
Introduction of Len Schustek, chairman of the board of the Computer History Museum. Arrival of Babbage’s Difference Engine, a 9,000-pound mechanical calculator. Successful operation of the machine after initial challenges.

Babbage’s Dream and Doran Swade’s Dream:
Babbage’s dream to build a machine for error-free mathematical calculations. Babbage’s design was never realized, leading to disappointment. Doran Swade’s dream to prove Babbage’s genius by building the Difference Engine.

Completion of the Difference Engine:
Doran Swade’s dream realized with the completion of two Difference Engines. The first engine finished in 2002 and displayed at the London Science Museum. The second engine finished in 2008 and showcased at the Computer History Museum.

Computer History Museum:
Mission to preserve and communicate the history of computing. Extensive collection of artifacts, documents, photos, videos, and oral histories. Physical exhibits and cyber exhibits on the information revolution. Recognition as the premier institution for preserving and communicating the history of computing.

Founding Fathers of Computing:
Charles Babbage as one of the founding fathers of the computing field. Significance of celebrating Babbage’s contributions and his creation.

Supporters of the Babbage Difference Engine Project:
Nathan Myhrvold for commissioning and loaning the second engine. London Science Museum and Doran Swade’s team for building the engines. Generous donors who contributed to the transportation and exhibit of the engine.

Appreciation for Supporters:
Acknowledgement of the contributions made by individuals and organizations. Gratitude for their support in bringing the Difference Engine to the Computer History Museum.

Overall Introduction:
Nathan Myhrvold briefly introduces the evening’s agenda, which includes presentations by Doran Swade on Babbage and Myhrvold’s own fascination with Babbage. After the presentations, there will be a Q&A session.

Nathan Myhrvold’s Introduction of Doran Swade:
Myhrvold praises Swade as a polymath and the world’s foremost Babbage scholar. He highlights Swade’s diverse background and accomplishments, including his tenure as Senior Curator of Computing at the Science Museum in London and his authorship of numerous books and articles.

Doran Swade’s Introduction:
Swade acknowledges Myhrvold’s generous remarks and shares an anecdote about Myhrvold’s enthusiasm for building a second Difference Engine in London. He acknowledges the time constraints imposed by Myhrvold and humorously suggests that the full story of Babbage would take four weeks to tell.

Swade’s Plan for the Presentation:
Swade outlines his plan for the presentation, which includes providing an overview of Babbage’s time, discussing his accomplishments and motivations, and introducing the Difference Engine Two, a replica of Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2.

Babbage’s Era:
Swade describes the Victorian era as a time of unprecedented engineering ambition and innovation, characterized by a frenzied sense of change and the emergence of new products and processes. He highlights the Industrial Revolution’s impact on society and the prevailing belief that mechanical explanations could exhaust all natural and human phenomena.

Mechanization of Mental Labor:
Swade introduces the concept of the mechanization of mental labor, particularly the mechanization of calculation. He notes that while machines of the Industrial Revolution were designed to replace physical labor, there was also an attempt to mechanize mental labor, which largely failed.

Babbage’s Vision of Intelligent Machines:
Babbage envisioned machines capable of producing thought, extending the industrial production model from physical labor to mental labor. His difference engines marked the birth of the concept of intelligent machines.

Babbage’s Personal Life:
Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore in 1814 against his father’s wishes. He experienced a tragic loss in 1827 when his father, wife, and two children passed away. Babbage never fully recovered from this tragedy and remained unmarried thereafter.

Babbage’s Controversial Nature:
In 1830, Babbage published a scathing attack on the Royal Society, criticizing its governance and impugning the integrity of its leaders. This act effectively ended his political career in the scientific community.

Babbage’s Rehabilitation and Recognition:
Babbage published “Economy of Machinery and Manufactures,” a significant work in economic history, which contributed to his rehabilitation. He was memorialized as an esteemed man of science in an oil painting by Lawrence.

Babbage’s Final Years:
Babbage’s later years were marked by disappointment and a sense of unfulfillment. He perceived himself as a failure despite his contributions to science and technology. A portrait from 1860 captures his venerable yet grumpy demeanor.

Babbage’s Transformation:
Babbage’s life trajectory shows a remarkable transformation from a radical student to a man of science and a sought-after socialite. As a student, he supported Napoleon and defended controversial propositions, risking his academic career. Later, he transitioned into a respected scientist and became known for his brilliance, originality, and fierce loyalties.

Babbage’s Entrepreneurial Climate:
In the 1850s, Babbage expressed his view of the entrepreneurial climate in England, emphasizing that people tended to focus on finding flaws and difficulties rather than embracing innovation.

Genesis of the Difference Engine:
In 1821, Babbage, frustrated by errors in manually calculated astronomical tables, conceived the idea of using steam-powered machinery to eliminate human error and increase production. Astronomers pressured the Greenwich Observatory to produce tables, leading Babbage to work on developing the Difference Engine.

Difference Engine Number One:
Babbage designed and developed the Difference Engine Number One for over 30 years, but only managed to build one-seventh of it. This partial engine is now a celebrated icon in the history of computing, representing the first successful automatic calculator.

Significance of the Difference Engine:
The Difference Engine marked a significant milestone as the first successful automatic calculator, allowing users to obtain results without understanding the underlying mathematical principles. It represented the first successful transference of human intelligence to machines, paving the way for autonomous and intelligent machines. Contemporaries of Babbage recognized the significance of the machine as a thinking device, highlighting its ability to perform mental processing tasks.

Circuit and Systems Functions:
The Difference Engine featured various advanced logic and systems functions, including parallel bus, microprogramming, pipelining, and binary latching, demonstrating Babbage’s ingenuity in mechanical engineering. The mention of serial USB was a test to check the audience’s attentiveness.

Babbage’s Vision and Struggles:
Babbage was frustrated by his inability to complete a functioning machine due to various factors such as controversies, disagreements, and financial issues. He was passionate about the potential of automatic computation and believed it was achievable.

Analytical Engine Features:
The analytical engine was a significant advancement in computational machinery, with features comparable to modern digital computers. It was designed to be programmable using punch cards, had a separation of control and data, and incorporated concepts like conditional branching, iterative looping, and microprogramming. The engine also offered features such as parallel processing, output in printed form, graph plotting, and the consideration of different number bases including binary.

Historical Significance:
Babbage’s contributions to computing go beyond being the first computer pioneer. He laid the foundation for the logical features and concepts that are essential in modern digital computers. His ideas were not mere hints or vague predictions but were explicitly embodied in the detailed designs of his machines.

Difference Engine Number Two:
The difference engine number two was a refined design with 8,000 parts, weighing several tons, and made of bronze, cast iron, and steel. It was designed to produce output in printed hard copy and stereotype plates for use in printing presses. The machine was programmable, allowing for variable line height, margin widths, and the ability to print in multiple columns.

Challenges in Constructing Babbage’s Designs:
The lack of standardization, choice of materials, and manufacturing methods in the 19th century presented challenges in constructing Babbage’s designs. Modern manufacturing techniques were used in the construction, but care was taken to ensure that the precision and materials matched what Babbage could have achieved.

Authenticity and Modifications:
Authenticity was a primary concern in constructing the difference engine. Modifications were made to ensure the machine could function, but these changes were reversible and followed Babbage’s design principles. The monolithic hardwired nature of the machine presented challenges in debugging, requiring a trial-and-error approach using a logic probe.

Conclusion:
Babbage’s analytical engine was a remarkable feat of engineering and conceptualization, embodying the essential logical features of modern digital computers. The construction of the difference engine number two provided insights into the challenges and complexities of building such a machine in the 19th century, highlighting Babbage’s visionary contributions to the field of computing.

Swade’s Interaction with Nathan:
Swade met Nathan in 1997 after a year of email correspondence. Nathan agreed to sponsor the construction of the Science Museum’s printer output apparatus and a duplicate for his collection.

Nathan’s Contribution:
Nathan funded the construction of the printer. Through his vision and generosity, the first engine was completed, and the duplicate is now at the Computer History Museum.

The Fulfillment of Agreements:
The presentation of the machine to Nathan fulfills a gentleman’s agreement between Sir Neil Cousins and Swade. The agreement was made through emails, and there were no formal contracts.

Swade’s First Meeting with Nathan:
Swade was uncertain about Nathan’s mathematical knowledge and asked if he could discuss polynomials. Nathan reacted graciously, despite his advanced mathematical education.

Delays in the Project:
The engine was delayed, and Swade knew Nathan was building a house. Nathan reassured Swade that he was not concerned about the delay and encouraged him to focus on the project’s completion.

Challenges of Building the Babbage Difference Engine:
The project to build the Babbage Difference Engine was challenging, with numerous setbacks and delays. Shipping the engine from London caused damage, requiring repairs and realignment. The production of the final piece, the stack of cams, was delayed due to errors, necessitating a restart of the process.

Doran Swade’s Role in the Project:
Doran Swade was instrumental in completing the Babbage Difference Engine. He displayed immense patience, encouragement, and understanding throughout the project. Swade’s management skills and ability to persevere in the face of difficulties were crucial to the project’s success.

Babbage’s Inability to Manage Complex Projects:
The project demonstrated that Babbage could have built the engine in his time if he had better project management skills. Babbage lacked the ability to manage a large and complicated project, leading to delays and difficulties in completing the engine.

Relevance to the Modern Computer Industry:
The project highlights the importance of project management and collaboration in modern technology development. The computer industry often neglects the past, discarding old machines as junk rather than valuing them as historical artifacts. Silicon Valley’s focus on the future and growth leads to a lack of appreciation for the history of computing.

Visual Aesthetics of Older Computers:
Older computers were often more visually interesting than modern computers, which are typically large beige boxes. Machines like the Cray-1, Cray-2, YMP, and XMP had visually appealing designs, especially when viewed internally.

Babbage’s Era:
In Babbage’s time, scientific instruments like telescopes and microscopes were considered works of art due to their intricate designs. Babbage’s Difference Engine, however, was enclosed in a plain ceramic case, concealing its intricate inner workings from view.

Babbage’s Anticipation of the Computing Era:
Babbage’s Difference Engine foreshadowed the advent of modern computing, envisioning machines that could perform calculations and think. His ideas were groundbreaking in an era where the notion of machines performing complex tasks was still foreign.

Challenges and Perseverance:
Babbage’s project faced numerous technological, managerial, and implementation obstacles. Despite the challenges, Babbage remained steadfast in his belief in the potential of his invention.

Babbage’s Influence on Modern Computing:
It took 150 years for Babbage’s dream of a computational machine to materialize. His writings and ideas laid the foundation for the development of modern computing technology.

The Difference Engine and Speculation:
The science fiction novel “The Difference Engine” explores an alternate history where Babbage’s invention revolutionized the Victorian era, creating a world infused with steam power, telegraphy, and computational technology.

Personal Reflections:
The speaker expresses pride and gratitude for being involved in the project, despite the challenges encountered along the way. He acknowledges the unwavering support of his mother throughout his endeavors.

Key Takeaways:
Babbage’s Difference Engine faced numerous design flaws, including redundant assemblies, omitted components, and inconsistent dimensions. These errors were not conceptual but rather practical engineering issues. The breakthrough in the restoration project came when the team realized that Babbage’s design was not infallible and that they could responsibly make alterations to ensure functionality. Babbage used conventional pen and paper drawings to design the engine, avoiding modern technology except for manufacturing processes. The project faced challenges in manufacturing the numerous identical parts required, as there was no established industry for such production at the time. The lack of infrastructure and a supportive ecosystem for precision engineering hampered Babbage’s efforts to realize his ambitious project. The concept of modular parts and interchangeable components was not prevalent during Babbage’s time, making it difficult to build complex machines with standardized parts. Current efforts are underway to prototype parts of the Analytical Engine, showcasing the potential for further exploration and restoration projects.

Babbage’s Analytical Engine: A Challenging Endeavor:
The analytical engine’s complexity exceeds that of the difference engine, requiring extensive extrapolation. Funding considerations may prioritize Nathan’s lunch with Tim over the project. Part of the analytical engine, the printing apparatus, is already functional due to its shared design with the difference engine.

Babbage’s Influence on Computing:
Babbage’s failed attempt to build the analytical engine may have discouraged others from pursuing similar projects, leading to a period of stagnation in computing. The feasibility of building a computer with relays in 1910 is acknowledged, with examples like Conrad Zeus’s relay machines in the 1930s and 40s. The extent of Babbage’s negative influence is debated, as the lack of need or demand for computing may have been a significant factor. An instance of Babbage’s negative impact is presented: Thomas Fowler’s calculator project was denied funding due to the government’s negative experience with Babbage.

Reliability of Babbage’s Engine:
The operational reliability of Babbage’s engine is confirmed, with the London machine running since 1991 with minimal resets. Adjustments and debugging are necessary to achieve this reliability, as out-of-spec parts and marginal situations can lead to jams and breakages. The engine’s reliability increases over time as bugs are resolved.

Comparison with Early Computers:
Early computers, such as ENIAC and IAS, were highly unreliable due to manufacturing limitations and the high number of vacuum tubes. Babbage’s engine, once adjusted, is considered reliable in comparison to these early computers.

Babbage’s Overbuilt Design:
Babbage’s insistence on perfection and overbuilding led to a complex and expensive design. The engine’s seventh-order polynomials and 31 decimal digits were excessive for practical applications. A more pragmatic approach, prioritizing functionality and usability over excessive precision, could have led to earlier adoption and success.

Babbage’s Impact on the Computing Industry:
Babbage’s approach of finding early adopters and lead customers is still relevant in the modern technology industry. While being an early adopter can be risky, being the last customer can also be disadvantageous.

Babbage’s Financial Struggles and Government Funding:
Babbage received initial funding from the government for his Difference Engine project. However, the project encountered difficulties, leading to cost overruns and delays. Babbage’s insistence on perfection and his unwillingness to compromise on design contributed to the challenges.

Government’s Decision to Withdraw Funding:
The government eventually withdrew funding for the Difference Engine in 1842. This decision was influenced by the perception that the project was becoming increasingly expensive and impractical. Babbage’s failure to clearly communicate the project’s progress and potential benefits also contributed to the government’s decision.

Babbage’s Personal Wealth and Support:
Despite the withdrawal of government funding, Babbage continued to pursue his work on the Analytical Engine. He was able to do so thanks to his personal wealth, inherited from his father, which allowed him to self-fund his projects. Babbage’s financial independence gave him the freedom to explore his ideas without relying on external funding.

Babbage’s Offer of a New Design:
After the government withdrew funding, Babbage designed a new version of the Difference Engine, which he offered to the government. This new design was more efficient and required fewer parts. However, the government declined Babbage’s offer, likely due to a combination of financial constraints and skepticism about the project’s feasibility.

Preservation of the Analytical Engine Drawings:
The drawings for the Analytical Engine remained intact because they never went into production. This allowed the project to be revived in modern times, leading to the successful construction of a working model of the Analytical Engine.

Babbage’s Legacy:
Despite the challenges he faced, Babbage’s work on the Analytical Engine laid the foundation for modern computing. His ideas and concepts have had a profound impact on the development of computer science and technology.

Babbage’s Perspective on Patents:
Despite the existence of a patent system in the United States, Babbage, due to his strong belief that scientific discoveries should be for public benefit, would never patent his inventions. His friend Wollaston, who initially kept secret the process of annealing aluminum, redeemed himself in Babbage’s eyes by revealing the secret before his death.

Individual Inventors and Patents:
In the 19th century, patents were primarily held by individuals, and the concept of companies employing inventors for R&D did not exist. Inventors were recognized as a legitimate job classification until 1910, after which they were categorized as office workers.

Babbage’s Dispute with Clement:
Babbage’s chief engineer, Clement, requested compensation for moving his practice closer to Babbage’s workshops. The dispute escalated due to Babbage’s principled stance and Clement’s ownership of the tools and drawings for the Difference Engine. This conflict led to a prolonged impasse and ultimately contributed to Babbage’s shift in focus to the Analytical Engine.

Challenges in Building the Difference Engine:
Simulators were not used in the construction of the Difference Engine; instead, traditional pen and paper drawings and modern manufacturing techniques were employed. The most surprising aspect of the engine was its sophisticated design, which included mechanisms to prevent deliberate or inadvertent derangement during calculations.

Significance of the Difference Engine:
The Difference Engine was named based on the mathematical principle of finite differences, which allowed for the calculation of polynomials using repeated addition, eliminating the need for complex multiplication and division operations. This method was commonly used by manual computers for sub-tabulation and provided a foundation for various engineering calculations, including strength of materials and fluid flow.

Inspiration and Discouragement from Babbage:
Babbage’s brilliance and contributions to computing are undeniable, yet his failure to construct a functional Difference Engine highlights the challenges of innovation. Learning from both successes and near-misses in the technology industry is essential.

Babbage’s Lasting Impact:
Babbage’s vision of automatic machines capable of complex calculations paved the way for the information technology industry. Despite not achieving his ultimate goal, Babbage’s ideas resonated and inspired future generations. The celebration of his legacy focuses on the broader impact of his work and its relevance in the present.

Size and Scale of the Difference Engine:
The precise reasons for the Difference Engine’s scale remain uncertain. Babbage’s intuitive understanding of mechanical limitations influenced the machine’s design. The size allowed for a security mechanism to ensure integrity and prevent errors.

Comparison to Other Calculators:
Commercial calculators developed after Babbage were simpler and smaller. Arithmometers, for example, were practical devices for basic calculations. Babbage’s Difference Engine was intended for large-scale industrial calculations, not everyday use.

Babbage’s Wide Range of Inventions:
Babbage invented various devices beyond the calculation engine, including the first ophthalmoscope, a seismograph, a tide-powered ship, the first tic-tac-toe device, a mechanical email delivery system, shoes for walking on water, and a cow catcher for railways. He conceived many of these inventions while working alone, with limited collaboration or recognition.

Ada Lovelace’s True Legacy:
Ada Lovelace is often celebrated as a prophet of the computer age, the first computer programmer, and a brilliant mathematician who collaborated with Babbage in conceiving the analytical engine. However, she was not a brilliant mathematician by Babbage’s standards and had limited mathematical training. Lovelace’s involvement with the analytical engine occurred after Babbage had already conceived of it, and her contributions were more in understanding and explaining its potential rather than influencing its design.

Debunking Common Misconceptions:
Lovelace was not the first computer programmer. She did not collaborate with Babbage in conceiving the analytical engine. She was not a brilliant mathematician but a mathematical novice.

Ada Lovelace, the First Programmer:
Ada Lovelace is known as the first programmer, but this is a misconception. She was the first person to publish an algorithm, a stepwise process for finding a solution, but the examples were Babbage’s. Lovelace collaborated with Charles Babbage on the Analytical Engine.

From Calculation to Computation:
Lovelace saw a fundamental transition from calculation to computation. Calculation manipulates numbers for quantity, while computation manipulates symbols according to rules.

Lovelace’s Vision:
Lovelace saw that a quantity could represent something other than a number, such as a letter or a note. She envisioned the Analytical Engine weaving patterns of numbers, like a Jacquard loom weaving patterns of leaves and flowers. Lovelace was a prophet of the computer age and anticipated Alan Turing’s work on computation.

Babbage’s Limited Vision:
Babbage saw the Analytical Engine as an algebra machine, a general-purpose tool for manipulating symbols. He did not see the potential of quantities representing non-numeric values.

Lovelace’s Legacy:
Lovelace’s insights into computation and her vision of the Analytical Engine’s capabilities make her a pivotal figure in the history of computing. She should be celebrated for her fundamental contribution to the transition from calculation to computation.

Additional Information:
The Colossus was the first machine to manipulate quantities representing letters of the German alphabet. Mark Richards produced a book of exquisite photographs that were available for purchase at the event.