Quote: Babbage's analytical engine punched tables with x,y pairs; could verify that attendant brought the correct card

Quotation

I explained that the Tables to be used must ... be computed and punched on cards by the machine, in which case they would undoubtedly be correct. I then added that when the machine wanted a tabular number, say the logarithm of a given number, that it would ring a bell and then stop itself. ... [p. 59] [The attendant brings the appropriate card, and] the Engine itself takes care that the right card is brought to it by verifying the number of that card by the number of the card which is demanded. The Engine will always reject a wrong card by continually ringing a loud bell and stopping itself until supplied with the precise intellectual food it demands.   Google-1   Google-2

Published before 1923

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