{"id":3308,"date":"2018-10-05T15:13:09","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T14:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/?p=3308"},"modified":"2018-10-05T15:13:09","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T14:13:09","slug":"re-engineering-history-a-playful-demonstration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/2018\/10\/05\/re-engineering-history-a-playful-demonstration\/","title":{"rendered":"Re-Engineering History: A Playful Demonstration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a fun fact for you: one of the world’s first computers was constructed out of Meccano! Built in 1934, engineer Douglas Hartree<\/a> created the Differential Analyser for about \u00a320 (which seems like a bargain to us).<\/p>\n

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A young Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in action. Maybe.<\/p><\/div>\n

Very excitingly, next week Special Collections & Archives are going to be hosting a reconstruction of this ground-breaking machine in our Reading Room! PhD student Tom Ritchie is the man behind this brave challenge, and he’s going to be hosting a very special event to explore the Differential Analyser next Tuesday (9th October). Intrigued? Why not come along and learn more?<\/p>\n

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The best thing to happen in Special Collections & Archives since we changed our Reading Room hours<\/p><\/div>\n

As an added bonus, you’ll be able to view related material from our wonderful collections on the day too. This will include items from our recently-explored Maddison Collection<\/a>, which charts the history of science from the 16th century to (almost) the present day. What more could you want on a Tuesday evening? Tea, coffee, and wine? Well we’ve got that covered too! (Just not near the books)<\/p>\n

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Like table football, but more useful<\/p><\/div>\n

‘Re-Engineering History’ takes place between Monday 8 – Thursday 11 October. The seminar, demonstration and Q&A is being held on Tuesday 9 October at 5.30pm in Special Collections and Archives.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Because the author of this blog is in no way a scientist, please visit the IS Science Team’s blog here<\/a> and Tom Ritchie’s excellent explanation here<\/a> to find out more about this very exciting project.<\/em><\/p>\n

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