Sail and Babbage’s Analytical Engine: what they have in common

1. Step 1. Sail — is part of — Sailing ship. Sails drive the ship.
2. Step 2. Sailing ship — uses — Mercator projection. Navigating along straight rhumb lines.
3. Step 3. Mercator projection — uses — Gutenberg printing press. Maps were printed in large numbers.
4. Step 4. Gutenberg printing press — works like — Jacquard loom. An analogy, not proven influence: both set type and a chain of punched cards are a replaceable pattern that a machine reproduces over and over.
5. Step 5. Jacquard loom — inspired — Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Babbage borrowed Jacquard’s punched cards directly for entering operations and data; Ada Lovelace compared the machine to the Jacquard loom.

Open Evothings