The first attempts to mechanize the production of numerical tables were remarkable in conception coming at a time when a "computer" was in fact a person rather than a machine. This book is the first to provide a unified picture of the difference engines that were the mechanical predecessors of today's digital computer, to emphasize them as part of the history of numerical tables, and to give equal weight to the technical and social aspects of their creation.Lindgren analyzes the difference engines of Muller and Babbage and the mathematical principles on which they are based, tells the story of how Georg and Edvard Scheutz learned about Babbage's engine, discusses the design and operation of the Scheutzs' machine, and tells why Babbage failed technically and the Scheutzes failed commercially. The often detailed technical descriptions bring to light the inventors' own ways of thinking as work on the engines progressedMichael Lindgren is Curator at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm.
- ISBN10 0262121468
- ISBN13 9780262121460
- Publish Date 28 June 1990
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 23 January 2015
- Publish Country US
- Publisher MIT Press Ltd
- Imprint MIT Press
- Edition 2nd ed.
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 416
- Language English