alternatehistory.com

The difference engine and analytical engines were designed in the 1820’s and 1830’s, but building them was impractical due to the expense involved, and tolerances that were very difficult to meet at the time. I'm assuming that, in the timeline I'm rebooting, that there is a serious push to build them.

Does anyone know enough about 1870’s manufacturing technology to assess how hard it would be to build them in the late 1870’s? Money is available—how much are we talking about? The cost of a house? The cost of a destroyer? Of a battleship—or a division of battleships?

Ultimately, the USA wants multiple difference engines, along with some analytical engines, at the Naval Observatory in DC, or a different facility if need be. If it proves practical, others will be sold to defray the costs, or perhaps sold at subsidized costs to universities with good mathematics and astronomy departments.

Would the machines be better off somewhere with less heat and humidity—like a deep underground room where the temperature and humidity are nearly unchanging?


The United States is REALLY wanting the capabilities that these machines could offer, specifically for computing orbits of anything and everything that can be detected. Congress, of course, wants them built in the USA.

The timeline I’m rebooting features a meteor impact that leaves a crater almost a mile across where the town of Lincoln, NH had been, in 1876 in New Hampshire, and there’s a resulting serious concern about the possibility of more…

The funds for the computing engines were voted out in haste shortly after the disaster; a knee jerk reaction in Congress has given the navy plenty of funds to build these machines. I’m more concerned about how hard it will be to build, than if the funds will keep flowing; assume that they will, even if it means fewer shore batteries or Gatling guns, or an increase in revenue tariffs.

The need is there, the funds are there--BUILD THEM!

(Even though some might put the meteor impact in ASB, the questions about the technology are relevant for many timelines, so I put it here.)
Top