>> That's interesting, because Wikipedia claims there's a long documented
>> history of ideas similar to this one, starting with Archimedes...
>>
> Not always evidence they where actually built though.

There seems to be plenty of documentation of people who claim to have 
seen these devices in operation.

> And, again, its a
> matter of "size" and "complexity". Heck, even Babbage ran into the issue
> of, "I think this will work, but there is no way in hell I could ever
> build this thing."

No, that wasn't the problem. Babbage's problem was that he kept 
tinkering with the design. Always thinking up new ways to improve it. 
Eventually the workmen got hacked off with trying to build a design that 
changes every five minutes. Plus, I gather Babbage was not a patient 
man, and rather awkward to work with.

In a way, he seems to have been like me: Full of good ideas, but an 
incurable tinkerer, and never actually finished anything...

Post a reply to this message