If you read a fair amount of the Steampunk genre then you know who Charles Babbage is. If you don’t, you should give some a go sometime.
What Babbage is most known for is his Difference Engine and his Analytical Engine. The most entertaining bit about these two items is that they were the first programmable computers, built largely out of clockwork in the early 19th Century. And the Analytical engine was meant to run on steam as a powersupply. Hence, the influence on steampunk.
Actually, when I say they were “built” in the early 19th century that’s not exactly true. They were designed then, but Babbage, like DaVinci, was far too busy perfecting things to ever actually complete a project. But I have a suggestion.
The Analytical Engine was meant to run on steam. Steam can be quite polluting, depending on how it is generated. Perhaps a more environmentally amenable gas could be used to power this mechanical marvel; methane. And all we really need is a number of people on the Cabbage Soup Diet to power this engine. And thus we would have the Babbage Cabbage Analytical engine.
All of that for a bad joke. Surely, there is something wrong with me.
Tune in tomorrow for a little note on Art.
jeff | 11-Apr-07 at 12:33 pm | Permalink
Headline:
“Babbage Cabbage joke results in stabbage…”