HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015706.jpg
1.24 MB
Extraction Summary
1
People
4
Organizations
2
Locations
2
Events
0
Relationships
2
Quotes
Document Information
Type:
Book excerpt / document production attachment
File Size:
1.24 MB
Summary
This document appears to be a page (page 16) from a book or article titled 'Are the Androids Dreaming Yet?' regarding the history of computing and artificial intelligence. It details the history of mechanical calculators and Charles Babbage's Analytical and Difference Engines. The document includes images of antique calculators and bears a Bates stamp 'HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015706', indicating it was part of a document production to the House Oversight Committee, likely as an attachment to a larger correspondence or file.
People (1)
| Name | Role | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Charles Babbage | Inventor/Mathematician |
Mentioned as the conceiver of the first programmable computing machine, The Analytical Engine.
|
Organizations (4)
| Name | Type | Context |
|---|---|---|
| The Admiralty |
Organization for whom the Difference Engine was designed to calculate tide tables.
|
|
| London Science Museum |
Location housing a copy of the Difference Engine No.2.
|
|
| Computer History Museum |
Location in California housing a copy of the Difference Engine No.2.
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| House Oversight Committee |
Implied by the Bates stamp 'HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015706'.
|
Timeline (2 events)
1886
Charles Babbage conceived the first programmable computing machine (Note: The text states 1886, though historically Babbage died in 1871).
Unknown
20th Century
Enthusiasts built a working model of Difference Engine No.2.
Unknown
Dedicated band of enthusiasts
Locations (2)
| Location | Context |
|---|---|
|
Location of the Science Museum.
|
|
|
Location of the Computer History Museum.
|
Full Extracted Text
Complete text extracted from the document (1,135 characters)
16 Are the Androids Dreaming Yet?
of these skills were lost in the Dark Ages but, once the Renaissance was underway in the 16th and 17th centuries, complex mechanical clocks were devised that were capable of predicting the motions of the planets to a high degree of precision. Mechanical, hand-cranked calculators appeared in the mid-18th century, and in 1886 Charles Babbage conceived the first programmable computing machine, The Analytical Engine. It was designed to read programs from cards, and used cogs and wheels to perform the calculations. His first machine – The Difference Engine – was designed to help the Admiralty calculate tide tables, but Babbage realized he could generalize it to compute almost any function. He ran out of money to complete any of his machines, but in the 20th century a dedicated band of enthusiasts built a working model of Difference Engine No.2. One copy sits in the London Science Museum and another in the Computer History Museum in California. These difference machines are not Turing complete and his Analytical Engine has never been built.
19th Century Calculators
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015706
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