After weeks of not being able to make it, I finally spent a day at the Computer History Museum in Mountainview. It was one of the places I really wanted to visit before I head back home after the internship. The museum is currently home to a working model of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2, and has an exhibition about the history of computing called Revolution on display. Here is a collection of images of some of my favorite objects from the museum:
Analog computing machines such as the Difference Engine, and a great collection of slide-rules and mechanical calculators.
1. Printing apparatus from the Difference Engine No. 2
2. J. Amsler-Laffon’s Mechanical Integrator, 1883
3. Coptometer, Felt & Tarrant, 1890
4. Monroe LA5-160 Calculator, 1940s
And early digital computers like the UNIVAC and ENIAC, and a charming display of robotics.