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>> I spent half an hour on Wikipedia and couldn't really find the
>> information I was looking for. I figured somebody here might know.
>
> Ah, yes, p.o-t as a meta-search engine, one of the best there is.
You know it's true. ;-)
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>> And, obviously, no mention on whether Babbage himself knew it existed.
>> ;-)
>
> Electricity as such he knew about, even if only as static electricity.
> At that point in time small efficient electromotors were not available,
> nor was there a distribution grid
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents). It would not have been a
> viable choice, even less than the gears.
OK. Well that's essentially what I was asking.
Even more than whether it was "feasible", I was wondering whether it's
an idea that anyone would have even thought of. Did people know enough
about electricity to realise that you could use it to transmit information?
> IMHO asking about a connection of the analytic machine and electricity
> is as sensible as asking why the first combustion engines did not use a
> computer to adjust the timing. Something very wrong with the order of
> historic events. But I assume you asked because you didn't know the
> order of events.
Yeah. I vaguely gather that Babbage was a mad Victorian inventor. And
I've heard the telegraph described as "the Victorian internet", so...
(When I first heard about the Analytical Engine, I had assumed it
pre-dated the discovery of electricity, but clearly that isn't strictly
true.)
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On 07/04/2011 04:57 AM, Invisible wrote:
>>> And, obviously, no mention on whether Babbage himself knew it existed.
>>> ;-)
>>
>> Electricity as such he knew about, even if only as static electricity.
>> At that point in time small efficient electromotors were not available,
>> nor was there a distribution grid
>> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents). It would not have been a
>> viable choice, even less than the gears.
>
> OK. Well that's essentially what I was asking.
>
> Even more than whether it was "feasible", I was wondering whether it's
> an idea that anyone would have even thought of. Did people know enough
> about electricity to realise that you could use it to transmit information?
yes Marconi... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guglielmo_Marconi
>
>> IMHO asking about a connection of the analytic machine and electricity
>> is as sensible as asking why the first combustion engines did not use a
>> computer to adjust the timing. Something very wrong with the order of
>> historic events. But I assume you asked because you didn't know the
>> order of events.
>
> Yeah. I vaguely gather that Babbage was a mad Victorian inventor. And
> I've heard the telegraph described as "the Victorian internet", so...
>
> (When I first heard about the Analytical Engine, I had assumed it
> pre-dated the discovery of electricity, but clearly that isn't strictly
> true.)
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>> Even more than whether it was "feasible", I was wondering whether it's
>> an idea that anyone would have even thought of. Did people know enough
>> about electricity to realise that you could use it to transmit
>> information?
>
> yes Marconi... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guglielmo_Marconi
...who apparently died exactly one century after the Analytical Engine
was designed...
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On 04/07/2011 08:57 AM, Invisible wrote:
> Even more than whether it was "feasible", I was wondering whether it's
> an idea that anyone would have even thought of. Did people know enough
> about electricity to realise that you could use it to transmit information?
It appears the earliest telegraph experiments happened somewhere around
this time-frame. I don't know how widely-known they were at the time though.
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On 04/07/2011 12:34 PM, Invisible wrote:
> On 04/07/2011 08:57 AM, Invisible wrote:
>
>> Even more than whether it was "feasible", I was wondering whether it's
>> an idea that anyone would have even thought of. Did people know enough
>> about electricity to realise that you could use it to transmit
>> information?
>
> It appears the earliest telegraph experiments happened somewhere around
> this time-frame. I don't know how widely-known they were at the time
> though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fax#History
--
Regards
Stephen
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On 04/07/2011 7:27 PM, Stephen wrote:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fax#History
>
Andrew, you often post links to cartoons so here is one from me. :-)
http://www.secretlifeofmachines.com/secret_life_of_the_fax_machine.shtml
--
Regards
Stephen
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http://acarol.woz.org/difference_engine.html
Oh you have *got* to be kidding me! o_O
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Ooo, look:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/contents.html
I just read the report of the committee advising against building the
Analytical Engine. It always seems like such a short-signed decision.
Like they had no idea what the possibilities of the machine were.
However, on reading the report (with all its amusing language), it
appears that the /actual/ reasons where:
1. The designs are unfinished.
2. It is unknown whether the design would actually work properly.
3. It is unknown what the machine would cost to build.
4. It is unknown how quickly the machine would wear out.
These are actually pretty valid objections, really...
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Invisible <voi### [at] dev null> wrote:
> http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/contents.html
That page looks so 90's that it hurts my eyes.
--
- Warp
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