Difference Engine No. 2
E587740
Difference Engine No. 2 is Charles Babbage’s later, more advanced mechanical calculating machine design, created in the 1840s to reliably compute and print mathematical tables.
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
computing machine design
ⓘ
difference engine ⓘ mechanical calculator ⓘ |
| basedOn | method of finite differences ⓘ |
| category |
19th-century computing device
ⓘ
historical calculator ⓘ |
| computesUsing |
base-10 representation
ⓘ
mechanical addition ⓘ mechanical carry propagation ⓘ |
| constructedBy | Science Museum, London NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| constructionStatus | not built in Babbage’s lifetime ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| demonstrates | feasibility of large-scale mechanical computation ⓘ |
| designedInPeriod | 1840s ⓘ |
| designer | Charles Babbage NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| documentedIn |
Babbage’s notebooks
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Science Museum technical reports NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| exhibitedAt |
Computer History Museum
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Science Museum, London NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| fieldOfUse |
astronomy
ⓘ
mathematics ⓘ navigation ⓘ |
| firstCompleteConstruction | 1991 ⓘ |
| follows | Difference Engine No. 1 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasApproximateDepth | 1 meter ⓘ |
| hasApproximateHeight | 3 meters ⓘ |
| hasApproximateWeight | 2.5 tonnes ⓘ |
| hasApproximateWidth | 2 meters ⓘ |
| hasPart |
control mechanism
ⓘ
decimal digit wheels ⓘ gear trains ⓘ printing mechanism ⓘ |
| inception |
1847
ⓘ
1849 ⓘ |
| isPartOf | history of computing ⓘ |
| materialUsed |
brass
ⓘ
steel ⓘ |
| maximumDigitsPerNumber | 31 ⓘ |
| maximumOrderOfDifferences | 7 ⓘ |
| notableFor |
error reduction in table production
ⓘ
improved efficiency over Difference Engine No. 1 ⓘ integrated printing of results ⓘ |
| numberOfColumns | 8 ⓘ |
| powerSource | manual crank ⓘ |
| purpose |
to compute mathematical tables
ⓘ
to print mathematical tables ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Analytical Engine
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Difference Engine No. 1 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.