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

1. Step 1. Weighing bowl — is part of — Kitchen scale. A platform for goods.
2. Step 2. Kitchen scale — has part — Spring. The load stretches a spring.
3. Step 3. Spring — is part of — Automaton. The mainspring stores the energy.
4. Step 4. Automaton — inspired — Jacquard loom. Vaucanson, the maker of automata, built an automatic loom whose ideas Jacquard used.
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.

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