{"id":3134,"date":"2012-07-24T11:40:16","date_gmt":"2012-07-24T10:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/?p=3134"},"modified":"2012-07-24T11:41:14","modified_gmt":"2012-07-24T10:41:14","slug":"3134","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/2012\/07\/3134\/","title":{"rendered":"John Graham-Cunning on Charlges Babbage&#8217;s machines, and other things"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><object width=\"526\" height=\"374\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><param name=\"bgColor\" value=\"#ffffff\" \/><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talk\/stream\/2012X\/Blank\/JohnGrahamCumming_2012X-320k.mp4&amp;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/JohnGrahamCumming_2012X-embed.jpg&amp;vw=512&amp;vh=288&amp;ap=0&amp;ti=1517&amp;lang=en&amp;introDuration=15330&amp;adDuration=4000&amp;postAdDuration=830&amp;adKeys=talk=john_graham_cumming_the_greatest_machine_that_never_was;year=2012;theme=tales_of_invention;theme=technology_history_and_destiny;event=TEDxImperialCollege;tag=TEDxFeatured;tag=computers;tag=engineering;tag=history;tag=technology;tag=tedx;&amp;preAdTag=tconf.ted\/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\" \/><param name=\"pluginspace\" value=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><embed width=\"526\" height=\"374\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" allowScriptAccess=\"always\" wmode=\"transparent\" bgColor=\"#ffffff\" flashvars=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talk\/stream\/2012X\/Blank\/JohnGrahamCumming_2012X-320k.mp4&amp;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/JohnGrahamCumming_2012X-embed.jpg&amp;vw=512&amp;vh=288&amp;ap=0&amp;ti=1517&amp;lang=en&amp;introDuration=15330&amp;adDuration=4000&amp;postAdDuration=830&amp;adKeys=talk=john_graham_cumming_the_greatest_machine_that_never_was;year=2012;theme=tales_of_invention;theme=technology_history_and_destiny;event=TEDxImperialCollege;tag=TEDxFeatured;tag=computers;tag=engineering;tag=history;tag=technology;tag=tedx;&amp;preAdTag=tconf.ted\/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;\" pluginspace=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He is a pretty cool guy himself: <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Graham-Cumming\">http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Graham-Cumming<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charles_Babbage\">http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charles_Babbage<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"cite_ref-lee95_36-0\"><\/a><a name=\"cite_ref-passages_37-0\"><\/a><a name=\"cite_ref-BBH_38-0\"><\/a> \u201c<strong>In 1838, Babbage invented the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pilot_%28locomotive%29\">pilot<\/a> (also called a cow-catcher), the metal frame attached to the front of locomotives that clears the tracks of obstacles.<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charles_Babbage#cite_note-lee95-36\">[37]<\/a> He also constructed a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dynamometer_car\">dynamometer car<\/a> and performed several studies on <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel\">Isambard Kingdom Brunel<\/a>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Great_Western_Railway\">Great Western Railway<\/a> in about 1838.<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charles_Babbage#cite_note-passages-37\">[38]<\/a> Babbage&#8217;s eldest son, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Benjamin_Herschel_Babbage\">Benjamin Herschel Babbage<\/a>, worked as an engineer for Brunel on the railways before emigrating to Australia in the 1850s.<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charles_Babbage#cite_note-BBH-38\">[39]<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nice!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=On_the_Economy_of_Machine_and_Manufacture&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1\">On the Economy of Machine and Manufacture<\/a>, Babbage described what is now called the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Babbage_principle&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1\">Babbage principle<\/a>, which describes certain advantages with division of labour. Babbage noted that highly skilled\u2014and thus generally highly paid\u2014workers spend parts of their job performing tasks that are &#8220;below&#8221; their skill level. If the labour process can be divided among several workers, it is possible to assign only high-skill tasks to high-skill and high-cost workers and leave other working tasks to less-skilled and lower-paid workers, thereby cutting labour costs. This principle was criticised by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karl_Marx\">Karl Marx<\/a> who argued that it caused labour segregation and contributed to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Social_alienation\">alienation<\/a>. The Babbage principle is an inherent assumption in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Frederick_Winslow_Taylor\">Frederick Winslow Taylor<\/a>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Scientific_management\">scientific management<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cool.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Also mentioned is <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ada_Lovelace\">http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ada_Lovelace<\/a> &#8211; Never heard of her.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"cite_ref-22\"><\/a><a name=\"cite_ref-23\"><\/a>\u201cLovelace died at the age of thirty-six, on 27 November 1852,<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ada_Lovelace#cite_note-22\">[23]<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Uterine_cancer\">uterine cancer<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bloodletting\">bloodletting<\/a> by her physicians.<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ada_Lovelace#cite_note-23\">[24]<\/a> She was buried, at her request, next to her father at the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Church_of_St._Mary_Magdalene,_Hucknall\">Church of St. Mary Magdalene<\/a> in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hucknall\">Hucknall<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nottingham\">Nottingham<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another death caused by bloodletting. -.-<\/p>\n<p>And another mention is <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Indian_logic\">http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Indian_logic<\/a>. Never heard of that.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>The official website to the plan of building the engine is <a href=\"http:\/\/plan28.org\/\">http:\/\/plan28.org\/<\/a>. I wanted to contact him and suggest to him that he make a kickstarter account, but <a href=\"http:\/\/jgc.org\/contact.html\">he left no email, only a Twitter<\/a>, <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">and i dont use Twitter.<\/span> Apparently, it is possible to tweet <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jgrahamc\/\">him<\/a> a message without an account, which i did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; He is a pretty cool guy himself: http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Graham-Cumming &nbsp; http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charles_Babbage \u201cIn 1838, Babbage invented the pilot (also called a cow-catcher), the metal frame attached to the front of locomotives that clears the tracks of obstacles.[37] He also constructed a dynamometer car and performed several studies on Isambard Kingdom Brunel&#8216;s Great Western Railway in about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1917],"class_list":["post-3134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-logic-philosophy","tag-mathematics-philosophy","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3134"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3137,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134\/revisions\/3137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}