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Related: WI Babbage's Difference Engine No 2 had been completed

First off you should probably give a thread more than six hours before you bump it. It's not polite, basically, unless you have new information to add.

Secondly, it's a big question. Odds are all it really helps is navigation tables at the beginning. More accurate charts for British military and merchant shipping is actually pretty important and a big bonus.

I like Difference Engine quite a lot (and despite the name it's actually about what if Babbage completed the Analytical Engine) but it isn't terribly realistic—however toned down versions are not unreasonable.

Off-hand I imagine dedicated versions are built for gunnery (as with WWII's firing computers) and various other purposes, but as a general use computing device the Analytical Engine is rather too slow at the beginning outside of a few areas.


I suppose the British Empire could get quite a boost—I don't know if they'd turn the shade of realist they'd need to break the US up, keep the Germans apart, and match the British Empire in the Difference Engine book… but I could see an Empire stronger for a time.
 
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