Difference engine in Second Life

On this day in 1822, Charles Babbage proposed the use of a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society, some 186 years later and a replica of one of Babbage’s machines can be found in the  Virtual World mod Second Life:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Highlands/230/126/38

Second Life Difference Engine created by Independent State of Caledon resident Paul Churchill

Update 2024: Although ‘The Independent State of Caledon’ is still active and very much alive inside Second Life the Caledon Highlands sim is no more and I was unable to track down the difference engine in world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine

“On Mr. Babbage’s new machine for calculating and printing mathematical and astronomical tables…”

Some 186 years later and a replica of one of Babbage’s machines can be found in a Virtual World:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Highlands/230/126/38

Second Life Difference Engine created by Independent State of Caledon resident Paul Churchill

Update 2024: Although ‘The Independent State of Caledon’ is still active and very much alive inside Second Life the Caledon Highlands sim is no more and I was unable to track down the difference engine in world.

see also: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_Mr._Babbage%27s_new_machine_for_calculating_and_printing_mathematical_and_astronomical_tables

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Other Second Life related pages can be found here

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