Back when men were men, and calculators weighed five tons

Charles Babbage was a 19th century chap, credited with having invented the first mechanical computer, and was also the father of Ada Lovelace, considered by some to have been the first computer programmer (avant la lettre).

In 1991, London’s science museum created a working replica of his original Difference Engine (as it was called, a name which served as title for a decent SF/detective novel by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson), and now a model based on Babbage’s Difference Engine #2 is set to be unveiled in May.

The first recreation weighed 3 tons, and #2 is set to weigh in at a healthy 5 tons.

The guy in the photo is not Babbage, but looks sufficiently crazy to have designed a 5 ton calculator.