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From: dant@tekla.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: \"C\" vrs ADA (really Babbage)
Message-ID: <2326@zeus.TEK.COM>
Date: Sun, 30-Aug-87 03:57:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: zeus.2326
Posted: Sun Aug 30 03:57:24 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Aug-87 20:26:32 EDT
References: <1493@cullvax.UUCP> <8512@utzoo.UUCP>
Sender: news@zeus.TEK.COM
Reply-To: dant@tekla.UUCP (Dan Tilque)
Organization: First National Security Trust Bar and Grill
Lines: 28

>> >, > = Henry Spencer
>> = someone else

>> > [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...
>
>Please check your references; unless I am much mistaken, Whitney was circa
>the US Civil War (1860s) while Babbage was *early* 1800s.
>

You're both both right and wrong.  Whitney actually came up with his idea
of interchangeable parts in the late 18th century.  He had a moderately
famous demonstration of this in 1801.  This demonstation was with muskets,
not rifles.

Babbage first got his ideas for mechanical calculators in 1812 or 1813.

One thing they both had in common was having to develop new machining
techniques and tools to put their ideas into practice.


---
Dan Tilque
dant@tekla.tek.com  or dant@tekla.UUCP