Engines in the classroom

Sometimes, when I read about nanotechnology using rod logic, I smile... because I remember playing with it back in the sixth grade.

25 years ago, in junior high (middle) school, one of the classrooms had a science kit that was essentially a very simple Babbage engine. It was mostly composed of red plastic rods and little white plastic pegs that could be attached to the rods. One set up the pegs according to the manual, turned the wheel on the side, and operations fell out.

So when I think of one of these things on a scale where each peg is a single atom of carbon or silicon, I just have to giggle a bit.