The computer that took 153 years to turn on.
Charles Babbage (1791-1871), computer pioneer, designed the first automatic computing engines. He invented computers but failed to build them. The first complete Babbage Engine was completed in London in 2002, 153 years after it was designed. Difference Engine No. 2, built faithfully to the original drawings, consists of 8,000 parts, weighs five tons, and measures 11 feet long. We invite you to learn more about this extraordinary object, its designer Charles Babbage and the team of people who undertook to build it. Discover the wonder of a future already passed.
Production
8,000 hand-built parts finally assembled after 153 years.
Cinematography
Gleaming brass machinery shot like sacred relics.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Babbage's brain was preserved in alcohol after his death—apparently we needed to double-check his genius.
The completed engine now lives at London's Science Museum, where it actually runs calculations—take that, every skeptic who called Babbage delusional.
US
