Come see this brief theater-lobby live demonstration, using a digital simulation.

Charles Babbage invented his Difference Engine in 1821: an automatic calculating machine, complete with a printing apparatus. Though it wasn’t fully realized for 200 years, it is recognized as one of the great intellectual achievements of the 19th century – along with Babbage’s Analytical Engine, which has many essential features found in the modern computer. And the Difference Engine is the inciting event for the play, Ada and the Engine. How did it work?