Analytical Engine

history A design for a general-purpose digital computer

proposed by Charles Babbage in 1837 as a successor to his

earlier special-purpose Difference Engine.

The Analytical Engine was to be built from brass gears powered

by steam with input given on punched cards. Babbage could

never secure enough funding to build it, and so it was, and

never has been, constructed.

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(1998-10-19)