Saturday, January 3, 2009

Steampunk Babbage Day in Mountain View, CA


Some crazy Victorian engineering enthusiasts have built an actual Babbage Engine on the designs of the Brilliant, if persnickity, Charles Babbage. The machine is elegant, beautiful, digital, efficient and calculates numbers to 32 decimal places without the use of electricity.

The machine itself is one of 2 in existence (the other is housed in a dark, neglected, corner of the Science Museum in London. We were there. Very sad.) and it will only be available for public viewing until May 2009. After that it disappears into a private collection (and the livingroom of one of the Captains of Industry, Nathan Myhrvold of Microsoft fame.)

So we're planning a field trip... And... to honor Babbage and all that might have been, we're making it a Steampunk Event!

Join us at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View for a little Tech History and then off to the Green Lantern for Chinese Food and socializing.

When:
Saturday, January 17 at 2:00 pm then Dinner at 5:00 pm (when the Museum closes)

Where:
The Computer History Museum- 1401 N Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043
The Green Lantern- 1477 Plymouth St. Mountain View, CA 94043

What to Wear:
Come show off your best Steampunk/Mad Scientist/Dr. Horrible/Victorian Adventurer/Time Traveler outfits or slum it as a Modern Californian.

What to Bring:
A little money for dinner. (The Museum is free (Donations accepted). The Green Lantern Menu is HERE.)
Small children
Friends
Family
Cameras (for the inevitable photo op)

Join us for the whole day, just the museum or just dinner. We always want to see you!

Note to People Taking Public Transit- We can easily pick you up at the Mountain View Caltran Station. Its a straight shot to the museum and we have a (micro) mini van.

As Always- Everyone is Welcome!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

For the curious who can't make it, there are some good photos of this on Wired. It's an amazing contraption!