Mechanical computers: Turing Machine and Analytical Engine

Hello,

I want to see (and show!) a completely mechanical (let's say: wooden)
Turing machine in action. And also the never built Analytical Engine
of Charles Babbage. I have in mind how the mechanical Turing machine
should work (all axes, gears, belts, and punch cards) and there are
loads of detailed sketches of Babbage for his machine (which never
came to life because of friction problems presumably).

What I would like to achieve is an impressive animation - as realistic
as possible - which gives one a feeling of how such mechanical
computing machines would work. It is for educational purposes. For
comparison sakes I'd also like to 4D-visualize Babbages Analytical
Engine and Konrad Zuses Z3.

The problem is: I am a physicist and philosopher and have nothing to
do at all with CAD. So I am looking in the CAD community if there is
someone around who would like to spend some time in designing such a
machine.

Anyone interested? Or knows someone who might be interested?

Thanks in advance
hps

 

I believe that a modern day Babbage machine was built a few years ago. I
seem to remember reading an article about it. Might have been in Scientific
American, Smithsonian, or Invention and Technology.

Jerry Steiger

 

I think I recall that too (but only now since you mentioned it)
so try the archives at Scientific American.
Must have been about a decade or more ago.


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q="Scientific+American"+babbage

 

Check with the museum where one copy is on display: http://www.computerhistory.org/

(I think it was Larry Ellison who had the copy made, though I might
have that wrong.)
"Only two devices were built from Babbage’s designs, and one of them
is currently on display at the “Computer History Museum” in Mountain
View, California. "

 

Nathan Myrvohld from Microsoft funded the copy @ CHM.

 

Hi folks,

thanks a lot for your hints!

I gathered what seemed to be gathering-worthy (have a re-look at it!):

http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/ (great VIDEO!)
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=150-year-old-computer-babbage
(great SLIDESHOW!)

You guessed what I am looking for!

Now let me introduce to you the genuine idea:

Creating a CAD-based toolkit for defining

- abstract machines (like Turing, Babbage, register (abacus vs. von
Neumann vs. Harvard architecture), Wolfram automatons, ...)
- transforming abstract definitions into concrete mechanical (sic!) 3D-
models which visualize the processes going on in these maschines

Since the processes take place on very different levels, creating
these models virtually is an issue! Think of a merge of the above
VIDEO and SLIDESHOW, with random access to systemic and geometric view
points.

SolidWorks might - or might not - be the right tool for this. Maybe
Mathematica or MathWorks (SimMechanics) could provide better
solutions? (Your opinion is appreciated.)

Very best regards

Hans-Peter

 

That's silly.

IF you want to play with such get a computational simulation
package of some sort & watch the bits flip.

 

IFit's silly: why do some people spend so much time and money in
implementing mechanical simulations?

- Nathan Myrvohld (OK: in honor of Babbage's merits and for historical
reasons)
- Ira Gilbert, Jacques Cohen: A simple hardware model of a Turing
machine: its educational use (http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?
id=569940)
- Tim Robinson: Babbages Analytical Engine (http://www.meccano.us/
analytical_engine/index.html)

It's my own experience: physical simulations are much more suggestive
than mere flipping bits - if they are well done. It is about computing
*machines*.

I understand your point: the principles can in principle be
demonstrated with flipping bits. But why is this NOT silly: "Just look
at the formal definitions!" (you could say.)

Hans-Peter

 

Hobby & history & museum buffs.

You don't need "suggestive". You need understanding.

Or take a few classes in computer science.

BTW, For a few things analog computers may still be better.

For you: Buy a few old desktop mechanical calculators &
take them apart. Check Ebay, etc.