Prototype Fragments from Babbage's First Difference Engine
Abstract
The Museum of the History of Science in Oxford owns a rare assembly related to Charles Babbage's first difference engine. But in addition to the conventional parts found in other fragments of the difference engine, this assembly also contains ``intruder parts'' that do not fit, but are closely related to the first difference engine. We believe that some of these parts are relics from a prototype of the first difference engine.