Looking Back

How revolutionary is the CherryPal? It helps to look back ... waaay back.

We have a great resource in the Bay Area, the Computer History Museum, now in Mountain View, on what was formerly the campus for Silicon Graphics [SGI]. A lesson right there in How Things Change.

If you are anywhere within visiting distance, and have an interest in computers, or history, or life in general, do visit this fine institution while the Babbage Engine is on display. It's an amazing creation whose story encapsulates the quest that has driven computer development.

Back in 19th century England, with a young Victoria on the throne and people just getting used to those new-fangled steam driven trains and factories, Charles Babbage was frustrated with the errors he found in the published mathematical tables of the time. These tables were used for navigation, and errors had life or death consequences.

Babbage conceived a difference engine that would mechanically calculate these sums and print out the results, thus skipping any operator error in typesetting by hand. His story is fascinating; he dined out on his theories in the best circles of London and got funding for his project. The first difference engine was constructed; the second was never completed.

"History" had assumed inferior Victorian production techniques had doomed the project. The reconstruction on view today deliberately used 19th century technology that was available at the time, proving that Babbage was more the victim of poor project management than inferior machining. Visit the fine web site where much more accurate and detailed accounts are available!

I was amazed by the size, the precision, and the sheer mechanical beauty of this creation. It's bigger than a standard bedroom. It weighs five tons. And it is gorgeous in motion. The giant brass rods move like double helixes, meshing their cogs and grinding out data, which is then set in type and printed at the end of the machine.

After gaping at this wonder, hubby and I moved through the permanent exhibits. It's a trip down memory lane for us, since computers have been at the center of our lives for the last 25+ years. (We weren't around when the moth got in the UNIVAC, originating the term "bug" for a computer error, but recognized many others at a remove or two.) It made me think how computers and calculating engines have touched the lives of everyone through the years.

How did we get from computers the size of a room to a CherryPal no bigger than a book? Visit the Computer History Museum and discover for yourelf. Whether you grew up with party phone lines, transistor radios, faxing, texting, or Twitter, you'll find much to marvel at. And you'll have a fresh perspective on what a marvel a CherryPal can be.