Quiz.

[Ihavenojob]

330m

Very very close, a little bit more.

 

[JohnD]

350mm

 

[Ihavenojob]

350mm

Near, a bit high now, midway between your last 2 answers

 

[JohnD]

340mm

 

[Ihavenojob]

340mm

Close enough, 341 mm, Honister Pass, Cumbria, Dec 5 2015

 

[JohnD]

In the 1820's, Charles Babbage designed Difference Engines, a sort of self-automated calculator for preparing and printing logarithmic tables for ships navigators, and Analytical Engines, a sort of programmable computer. Both operated mechanically.

Funding was by the Government, and dried up before either project could be completed, although machines were subsequently built using his designs, and work. The cost of manufacturing, fitting and assembling the machines was enormous.

A hundred years later, another invention would have made it (relatively) cheap and easy. What was it?

 

[Ihavenojob]

Transistor

 

[JohnD]

Nope

I mean, building mechanical machines to his ideas.

 

[Mottie]

CAD?

 

[JohnD]

In the 1920's?

Nope.

 

[EddieM]

In the 1820's, Charles Babbage designed Difference Engines, a sort of self-automated calculator for preparing and printing logarithmic tables for ships navigators, and Analytical Engines, a sort of programmable computer. Both operated mechanically.

Funding was by the Government, and dried up before either project could be completed, although machines were subsequently built using his designs, and work. The cost of manufacturing, fitting and assembling the machines was enormous.

A hundred years later, another invention would have made it (relatively) cheap and easy. What was it?

Slide rule.

 

[Ihavenojob]

Assembly lines

 

[JohnD]

Nope

Nope

Flowline production would have been a good idea if they went into mass production, but who needs more than one?

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

Thomas Watson, president of IBM, 1943

 

[Mottie]

CAD?

In the 1920's?

Nope.

Didn’t see that bit.

Turing machine?

 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Wireless mouse.