Page "Difference engine" Paragraph 9

During the 1980s, Allan Bromley, an associate professor at the University of Sydney, Australia, studied Babbage's original drawings for the Difference and Analytical Engines at the Science Museum library in London.

This work lead the Science Museum to construct a working difference engine No. 2 from 1989 to 1991, under Doron Swade, the then Curator of Computing.

This was to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Babbage's birth.

In 2000, the printer which Babbage originally designed for the difference engine was also completed.

The conversion of the original design drawings into drawings suitable for engineering manufacturers ' use revealed some minor errors in Babbage's design ( possibly introduced as a protection in case the plans were stolen ), which had to be corrected.

Once completed, both the engine and its printer worked flawlessly, and still do.

The difference engine and printer were constructed to tolerances achievable with 19th-century technology, resolving a long-standing debate whether Babbage's design would actually have worked.

( One of the reasons formerly advanced for the non-completion of Babbage's engines had been that engineering methods were insufficiently developed in the Victorian era.