When it all started? Bashny.Net

«machine - not thinking being, it's just a machine that performs in his mortgaged»
Luigi Menabrea 1842 i>
Blockquote>
 

Yesterday I had an interesting dream. There I was interviewed and answered the standard questions in the spirit of the normal forms of databases. Suddenly stopped by an employee of some issue to my interviewer. Seeing that there is a process vzaimosprashivaniya, he decided to join the process and asked a simple question: "And when it all started?". Then, in the dream, I was a little confused, I remember only that was in Lord Byron's daughter named Ada, which is considered the first programmer on the first computer. Knowledge was the result of research the biography of Byron, and fix more as additional fact of his life, so anything specific I could not remember, because they do not know.

Returning to a material reality, I did not leave that question, and I decided to thoroughly determine the date, at least a year.
For the beginning I decided to create the first working computer and launch it, that is important, as the project was a lot of difference machines, us as important concrete result, namely fixed fact Computing Made machine.

The investigation goes back to Ada Lovelace.

So, re-read the article about Ada Lovelace and see that the first machine with which she worked was « Difference engine i>».

Thus the first computer called "Big Difference Engine Babbage," but whether it was built if it works and if so, when. The search goes toward Charles Babbage and his machine. On the first picture just shows a diagram of its archive.

Short biography of Charles Babbage Charles Babbidzh (Babbage) - English mathematician, born. December 26th. 1792 in Teygmaut (Teigumouth) in Devonshire, was educated at Cambridge University, graduating in 1814. From his scientific works are noteworthy extremely accurate and easy to use logarithmic tables («A table of the logaritbms of the natural numbers from 1 to 108060, "1827). Due to difficulties in the manufacture of such high precision tables, B. attacked the idea developed in his essay: «Letter to sir. H. Davy on the application of machinery to mathematical tables »(1822), make up for this particular machine. Receiving funds from the government for the construction of such a machine, B. to study the technical details, examined many mehanichsskih workshops in England and abroad, which resulted in his essay: «Economy of manufactures and machinery» (1832), Trans. to German. Friedberg under zaglav. «Ueber Maschinen and Fabrikwesen» (Berl., 1833). Conceived B. machine, which had the purpose of calculating and printing mathematical tables and sea, was to consist of two essentially different parts: the computed and printed. In 1828 it was proceed to the construction of the first part of the car, almost complete to 1833, when there was a break in work. Second, adapted for printing tables of the car was not even brought to the half, and the costs of its construction has already reached 17,000 f. v., and for a perfect closure of the enterprise required the same amount, the work has been completely abandoned. B. At this time, together with Herschel and Peacock translated into English - «Traité du calcul différentiel et du calcul intégral» Lacroix wrote «Comparativ view of the different institutions for the assurance of life» (1826) and many other important scientific respect of articles for «Philosophical Transactions», «Journal of Science» Breystera in others. periodicals. In 1828, B. was the chair of mathematics at Cambridge University, but left it in 1839. In his «Reflections on the decline of science in England» (1830), he spoke very pessimistic about the situation of science in England, to which again returned to his published about the exhibition 1851 essay: «The Exposition of 1851, or views of the industry, science and government of England »(1851). Autobiographical details about him placed in «Passages from the life of a philosopher» (1864). B. died in London on October 20, 1871


Go to the article about the car. See

«In 1823, the first grant was paid for the construction of what is now considered the first computer on earth and is known as the" Big Difference Engine Babbage. " Construction lasted ten years, machine design increasingly complicated, and in 1833 the funding was stopped. » Blockquote>
 Other sources also found alternative funding completion date - 1834. And no information about the first calculation. Strange. All was not as easy as we would like.

As this is a machine?

«Difference engine - a mechanical device invented by English mathematician Charles Babbage designed to automate the calculations by the approximation of functions by polynomials and the finite difference calculations. Ability approximate representation of polynomials in logarithms and trigonometric functions allows us to consider this machine as a fairly universal measuring instrument. » Blockquote>
 Yes, judging by the pictures and articles in Wikipedia - the more steampunk.

«Developing machine Babbage and do not represent all the difficulties associated with its implementation, and not only did not meet the promised three years, but nine years later was forced to suspend its work. However, part of the machine yet started to function and perform calculations with even greater precision than expected. » Blockquote>
 So the machine worked, albeit partially. From this it follows that it can really be considered the first computer.

In 1823, the UK government has provided a grant of Charles Babbage to build the machines. The first appearance of the presumed date of the car in 1832, once its development took nine years.

Date of the article confirmed the assembly model of this machine

«This model operates on principles very similar to Babbage's original designs, though the constraints of using only standard Meccano parts inevitably mean some aspects of the operation are somewhat different. The model can handle decimal numbers with up to four digits, and up to three orders of differences - similar in scope to the fragment of the original Difference Engine # 1 which Babbage actually realized in 1832. » blockquote>
 Although some sources say 1833 figures.

«... but by the beginning of 1833 fails to complete and test the machine, which can tabulate up to the fifth sign of the polynomials with constant second difference.» Blockquote>
 Og!

«In 1834 he published a paper by Dr. Dionysius Lardner" Computers Babbage, "which describes in great detail the principle and the device of the machine.» Blockquote>
 That must be where the exact dates. It remains to find the article.

«... on this work was inspired by their article by Dr. Dionysius Lardner in the" Edinburgh Review "in 1834" Computers Babbage ".» Blockquote>
 So we must find a scan of this release, or at least its transcription.

«" Edinburgh Review "(eng. Edinburgh Review) - one of the most influential British magazines of the XIX century. Original edition came out from 1802 to 1929, then in 1984 the name was to use the magazine "New Edinburgh Review" (eng. New Edinburgh Review), fronted since 1969. Currently, the magazine is included in the magazine network Eurozine. » Blockquote>
 First found in the archives of the scan: The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal: for July, 1834, ....... January, 1835, vol. LX (in the usual numbers this 60). Release date 1835, probably not what we want, but we know the approximate number of the issue - 59 or 58, it is unlikely 57 - respectively LIX, LVIII or LVII.

Archive scan magazine which supposedly have the full version of the article i>

Looking for a treasured article ...

In the course of doing it turns out that this issue has two other minor releases, with other numbering. First - CXXI ​​(121), with the release date - October, 1834. The second - CXXII (122), with a release date of January, 1935.

To find an article Lardner must learn Latin spelling of his name. Is located. English name of Dionysius Lardner written as Dionysius Lardner. Funny that no article about it on the Russian-language wiki, only the English language. In the future, the original name is useful to search for his articles in the archives.

Along the way, find the first scan of the article in a very poor quality and only one page.

Scan one page article Dionysius Lardner on a computer Babbage i>

Hardly can see that in the article there are only two dates: 1836 and 1835. According to information received, they do not suit us, but all can be. What is more important, we can see the page number, title, and a month in the top right corner! Obviously this is the month of issue numbers - July - October hence does not suit us.

So:
Page Number - 282 The exact title of the article - Babbage's Calculating Engine Month - July
 Indeed, if you look a complete reversal found earlier release, you can see that on the left write the year of issue, and the right month.

Turn magazine «The Edinburgh Review» i>

It remains to find release The Edinburgh Review for July 1984 year. We also help number LIX and CXX.

While the search for the desired release is not obtained, we turn to other sources.

In a more reputable (at least in appearance) work pops fact once again confirms the date of the first build and run the machine as 1832.

And one more confirmation, incidentally learned about the existence tulmeykera named Joseph Clement, whom Babbage hired to actually make my first car (the same one first). Thus, there is another important person in this whole story, which actually brought the first computer project Babbage.

«Joseph Clement (1779-1844) was amongst the finest toolmakers of his generation, both gifted and inventive, winning acclaim and awards for innovations in machine tools. Clement was a toolmaker as well as a first-rate draftsman - a rare combination - and was hired by some of the great pioneering engineers of the day, including Joseph Bramah and Henry Maudsley. Babbage hired Clement sometime in the mid-1820s to make Difference Engine No.1. Babbage designed and sketched the mechanisms and Clement made them, often devising specialized tools. The collaboration was close and it is impossible to say how much of the detailed implementation is Clement's and how much Babbage's. Clement made the 'beautiful fragment' - the demonstration piece for Difference Engine No. 1 delivered to Babbage in 1832 - one of the finest examples of precision manufacture of the time. In a real sense Clement was the first computer engineer. » Blockquote>
 In the end I managed to find the coveted No. The Edinburgh Review. Below is a link to the archive with the pdf-s, there is open «The_Edinburgh_Review_Or_Critical_Journal Vol. LIX .pdf ». The article begins on page 263 and ends at 327. Unfortunately the article is no information about the date of the first run of the machine, merely states that from 1829 to early 1833 the development process was slow and intermittent, while not stopped. Nevertheless, the document is an important and interesting, and plays an important role not only in the life of Babbage, but also in the history of our entire IT-industry.

In this investigation is complete, totally and completely convinced that it all started in 1832, the year. In addition to the date, and now I can even tell the whole story, but that's another dream. Of course, I would like to know the exact date of the demonstration caught on this fact: «A small demonstration assembly was built and delivered to Babbage by Clement in 1832.», and ideally to know not only the exact date, but in no mood were Joseph and Charles, and what specific calculations were made.

P.S. Suddenly the name came Johann Helfrich Müller with his first designs of difference machines, which may use Babbage. Maybe he really is the creator of the first machine, and not Babbage? Perhaps delve into this issue as some other time.

Sources h4> Archive with pdf-s and pictures - yadi.sk/d/dNQu6p3wb8if4

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Лавлейс, _Ada
ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Разностная_машина_Чарльза_Бэббиджа
www.meccano.us/difference_engines/rde_1/
history-computer.com/MechanicalCalculators/18thCentury/Muller.html
habrahabr.ru/post/80800/
habrahabr.ru/post/80334/
https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/ЭСБЕ/Баббидж, _Charlz
www.many-books.org/auth/506/book/56631/gibson_uilyam/mashina_razlichiy/read/86
www.computerhistory.org/babbage/dionysiuslardner/
www.computerhistory.org/babbage/josephclement/
www.sophiararebooks.com/pages/books/2605/charles-babbage/babbages-calculating-engines-being-a-collection-of-papers-relating-to-them-their-history-and

Source: habrahabr.ru/post/236389/