On Mar 31, 2008, at 12:49 AM, karl wrote:
> Marcus Denker wrote:
>>
>> "One of the sad memories of my life is a visit to the celebrated  
>> mathematician and inventor, Mr Babbage. He was far advanced in age,  
>> but his mind was still as vigorous as ever. He took me through his  
>> work-rooms. In the first room I saw parts of the original  
>> Calculating Machine, which had been shown in an incomplete state  
>> many years before and had even been put to some use. I asked him  
>> about its present form. 'I have not finished it because in working  
>> at it I came on the idea of my Analytical Machine, which would do  
>> all that it was capable of doing and much more. Indeed, the idea  
>> was so much simpler that it would have taken more work to complete  
>> the Calculating Machine than to design and construct the other in  
>> its entirety, so I turned my attention to the Analytical Machine.'"
>>
>> "After a few minutes' talk, we went into the next work-room, where  
>> he showed and explained to me the working of the elements of the  
>> Analytical Machine. I asked if I could see it. 'I have never  
>> completed it,' he said, 'because I hit upon an idea of doing the  
>> same thing by a different and far more effective method, and this  
>> rendered it useless to proceed on the old lines.' Then we went into  
>> the third room. There lay scattered bits of mechanism, but I saw no  
>> trace of any working machine. Very cautiously I approached the  
>> subject, and received the dreaded answer, 'It is not constructed  
>> yet, but I am working on it, and it will take less time to  
>> construct it altogether than it would have token to complete the  
>> Analytical Machine from the stage in which I left it.' I took leave  
>> of the old man with a heavy heart."
>>
>>                                                                     
>> --    Lord Moulton
>> -- 
>> Marcus Denker  --  denker at iam.unibe.ch
>> http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~denker
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
> Made me think of the story of John Harrison, but he succeeded...
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison

Except that he did not succeed mostly because of administration and  
financial problems.

>
>
> Karl
>

	Mth