Babbage's Difference Engine

And, really, what steampunk or computer historian wouldn’t love a machine like this? ¹  The difference engine is a mechanical calculator theorized by J. H. Müller in 1786 and realized by Charles Babbage in 1855.  Babbage himself designed analytical engines and mechanical computers.

As awesome as Babbage’s difference engines are…  my hat is off to Thingiverse citizen qwertyzzz18.  Qwertyzzz18 is uploading, piece by piece, a DIY 3D printable difference engine to Thingiverse.  Babbage dealt with theory – and qwertyzzz18 is making them accessible.  Even if you travel out to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, no one is going to let you take it apart, turn the pieces over, or change out parts.²  Now anyone with a Thing-O-Matic can print out the parts and build their very own.³

Untitled by qwertyzzz18

This thing brought to you by

1. Photo courtesy of Luigi Rosa [↩]
2. Or create a mashup with a gangsta. [↩]
3. And, really, how meta would it be to print a computer to run your 3D printer to have it print a computer??? [↩]