Fingers Crossed for 2021 ...

2020 was the worst! COVID kept the museum closed for much of the year and a mains water pipe bursting causing a flood kept us closed for the rest.
We're hoping to re-open in the next few months ... fingers crossed! Read More >>>

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Babbage's Analytical Engine Operates For The First Time

21st January 1888
Babbage's Analytical Engine Operates For The First Time

Babbage's Analytical Engine Passes the First Test

The Analytical Engine of Charles Babbage was never completed in his lifetime, but his son Henry Provost Babbage built the mill portion of the machine from his father's drawings, and on January 21, 1888 computed multiples of pi to prove the adequacy of the design. Perhaps this represents the first successful test of a portion of a modern computer. Recently a portion of his earlier machine, the Difference Engine, was sold at auction by Christies of London to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.