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From: drw@cullvax.UUCP (Dale Worley)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: \"C\" vrs ADA (really Babbage)
Message-ID: <1493@cullvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Aug-87 09:59:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: cullvax.1493
Posted: Wed Aug 26 09:59:12 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Aug-87 04:24:04 EDT
Organization: Cullinet Software, Westwood, MA, USA
Lines: 19

henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes:
> [Babbage's] early Difference
> Engine used interchangeable parts many years before Eli Whitney "invented"
> this concept.

I question this.  Whitney worked with interchangable parts around
1800, Babbage was late 1800's.  But during most of this period, the
only people who used interchangable parts were rifle manufacturers for
the military.  The price was insanely high, but being able to
interchange parts in the field was worth it to the military.  Rifle
manufacture probably drove measuring technology and machining
technology for much of the century.

Dale
-- 
Dale Worley    Cullinet Software      ARPA: cullvax!drw@eddie.mit.edu
UUCP: ...!seismo!harvard!mit-eddie!cullvax!drw
Apollo was the doorway to the stars - next time we should open it.
Disclaimer: Don't sue me, sue my company - they have more money.