The Null Device

Retrocomputing peripherals: forget old IBM iron; they've now built a printer for the Difference Engine, from Babbage's own drawings. (BBC News)

The printer is astonishingly advanced. It automatically prints the results of a calculation and can be programmed by the user to present information in different ways... "You can arrange how many columns the results appear in... you can even arrange the height between the lines, the space between columns and leave gaps between lines to make the results easier to read. The lines also wrap."

The apparatus not only provides a printed paper record but also produces stereotype plates for use in a conventional printing press.

To think: had Babbage or one of his contemporaries completed the Engine and the printer, the information age would have arrived in the Victorian Era. All they'd need would be a telegraph modem and there could have been an actual Victorian Internet.

¶ babbage difference engine retrocomputing 0