WI: The British fund and successfully build Babbage's Difference Engine?

I mean obviously you can say 'well this is a stretch' or 'that might not be the case' but it's a good old yarn and well worth reading, if only to be aware of the competition if you sought to do something TL wise yourself.
 
..and/ or Analytical Engine?

Aside from this being properly in the pre-1900's area:

1) The tables Babbage wanted the machines to calculate get done better.

2) Someone eventually realises that if the internal calculations are done in Binary instead of Decimal numbering the Engine can be made dramatically simpler and more reliable.

3) The smaller more reliable Engine develops all sorts of business uses. Still a big expensive machine but it is now in the mainframe category rather than the "the computer WAS a three story building and you needed to book six months ahead to use it" era.

At this point the butterflies start to grow to the size of eagles and the changes become hard to follow. Having this kind of power available will not result in business as usual. Science will have advanced faster than OTL as well as unpredictable changes in social structures, more accurate artillery tables might or might not make a difference to WWI, better calculations might make manufacturing better/cheaper/higher quality...

4) At some point electronics take over for the internal mechanism.
 

Morty Vicar

Banned
Aside from this being properly in the pre-1900's area:

opps, sorry! :eek:

1) The tables Babbage wanted the machines to calculate get done better.

2) Someone eventually realises that if the internal calculations are done in Binary instead of Decimal numbering the Engine can be made dramatically simpler and more reliable.

3) The smaller more reliable Engine develops all sorts of business uses. Still a big expensive machine but it is now in the mainframe category rather than the "the computer WAS a three story building and you needed to book six months ahead to use it" era.

At this point the butterflies start to grow to the size of eagles and the changes become hard to follow. Having this kind of power available will not result in business as usual. Science will have advanced faster than OTL as well as unpredictable changes in social structures, more accurate artillery tables might or might not make a difference to WWI, better calculations might make manufacturing better/cheaper/higher quality...

4) At some point electronics take over for the internal mechanism.

Tesla + computers = epic!! Might be worth exploring a TL. Quick plausibility check, would the Brits have realised the military significance and kept it secret? (thus somewhat limiting the speed of its development) ?
 
The main problem was Babbage himself; the man just could not stop tinkering with the machine's design long enough for one to get finished.
 
Jeremy Clarkson did a little documentary on Babbage if you can find it, he had some speculation about WI he finished his engine at the end.
 
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