TITLE: Babbage
NAME: Douglas Eichenberg
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: Douge@ppe.com
WEBPAGE: n/a
TOPIC: History
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING
JPGFILE: babbage.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    POVRay v3.1

TOOLS USED: 
    Moray v3.1

RENDER TIME: 
    27h 4m 47s

HARDWARE USED: 
    400 MHz PII/Windows NT/64Mb

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

        The British-born mathematician Charles 
Babbage (1792-1871), a prolific and eccentric
inventor, is credited with the design for the first
digital computer.  Called an "analytical engine," the
device stored data in columns of wheels, each wheel 
being capable of being moved to one of 10 positions.
Each position thus corresponded to one decimal digit.
The machine was programmed by a series of punched
cards.  By moving a lever forward and back numerical
problems could be computed in a cumulative manner by
the series of wheels.
        He visualized his computer incorporating a
memory bank, comparing results, and printing out
required data.  It was also to modify its own program
and process data accordingly.  Babbage devoted the final
37 years of his life to its development.  
        In the end, he was embittered by what he felt 
was a lack of recognition for the importance of his 
work and disappointed by his failure to bring his 
principles within sight of completion.  The fact was
that he was attempting the impossible with the means at
his disposal.  The concept and the principles behind
the "analytical engine," on the other hand, were 
absolutely sound.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

        I used an (as yet) unregistered version of 
Moray.  The scene contains 2761 frame level objects, 
6 area lights, and 4 point lights.  The model of the 
analytical engine is roughly 20 units wide by 40 units 
long by 60 units high.  The walls in the background, 
although appearing to be only a few feet away, are 
actually about 1500 units away.  I originally put them 
that far back because the shadows created by all the 
lights were too distracting; later I went through and 
assigned a fade distance to each light.  The unseen 
ceiling in the image is made of reflective aluminum, 
and a pair of reflective bronze walls are placed
just behind the camera, parallel to the front and side
faces of the analytical engine (ie. opposite the visible
wooden walls); these three walls reflect some of the light
back into the scene, as well as causing subtle reflections 
that help make the metal look more realistic.  Radiosity 
was left on for the rendering, which may have caused some 
additional color changes.  Also, there is a small amount 
of iridescence in the bronze metal that the analytical 
engine is made of.  The table and the walls are made of 
the same wood material, but only the table is reflective.
All in all, the toughest part was the lighting, which 
took the same amount of time as creating the model 
(about a month).


