Babbage proposed a mechanical engine that
could be programmed to calculate and print continually. The British
government invested heavily in the research and development of the scheme as
did Babbage who spent much of his own fortune. He invested decades in
the research, and development that produced many drawings and parts but no
complete machine.
The government eventually stopped investing, and Babbage died a bitter man.
Hollerith successfully completed the Census Tabulator in 1890 and
demonstrated he could dramatically improve the census delivery time.
Governments
around the world lined up to buy his technology.
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Charles Babbage Engines
1822-42
This could be
considered a project failure because the prototype was never finished.
- In 1822 he built a mechanical
calculator difference engine for creating tables for banking and
insurance, navigation, engineering.
- In 1832 he designed first
analytical engine with punched cards (data storage), mechanical
calculator; the first programmable computer.
- In 1842 the government gave
up on the project and stopped funding it.
- He went to his grave a bitter
man.
- Before 1991 the view was that
engineering standards of the time were too low to build the engine.
- The 1991 reconstruction
project successfully completed Difference Engine No 2.
- The reconstructed engine
worked as intended proving he was not an eccentric and his plans could
be fulfilled.
- Conclusions about the
project:
- His failure was not due to
engineering imprecision.
- Being a perfectionist he in
sourced everything, didn’t work to plan and lacked project
management skills.
- He had fought with his chief
engineer over project control.
- His lacked the skill to
influence political/scientific figures, whose support was key to his
success. Public relations and diplomacy were not his strong points.
- Lesson is brilliant
technology needs talented communicators to market it to fulfill its
potential. Hi-tech wizardry isn't enough.
Herman Hollerith
Computer 1890
This could be
considered a project success because the prototype was ready for the 1890
census and put into production.
- In 1879 he was hired at the U.S.
Census Office and began working on mechanization of census.
- He leveraged Jacquard loom
punch card technology.
- In 1884 he filed with Patent
Office
- He developed an electrical
tabulator and sorter that used punch cards to process the 1890 census.
- Census delivered in half the
time and rechecked result.
- In 1896 he founded Tabulating
Machine Company the forerunner to IBM.
- Conclusions about project:
- He worked towards a problem
he was completely familiar with and knew the scope of.
- He closely defined the
extent of the problem and the required solution. This made his
objectives very clear.
- He leveraged existing and
proven technologies were he could.
- He double checked the census
to prove the accuracy of the technology.
- Every government in the
world with census requirements wanted the technology.
- He was able to effectively
market, build, and sell the technology around the world.
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