Active mechanical logic gates

[KeithB]

Too bad Ms. Lovelace is not around to program it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine

Babbage is the source of two of my sigs:
"Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all."

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

Also, for a version of what might have happened if the Difference Engine had worked:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Difference_Engine