Did Babbage’s Analytical Engine truly work from what he envisioned it to be?
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Well, he envisioned it to be reprogramable. The one he built didn’t. He designed a programmable one, but it was built long after his death. It did print out tables like he wanted it to.
It was never actually built, so it’s not entirely clear. [At least one emulator exists](https://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/aem/), but that’s not the same thing as building the original mechanical device. The site has some pages talking about the challenges of building an emulator for a machine that never had any hardware.
The emulator does seem to work. But again, the emulator isn’t necessarily subject to the constraints of a physical mechanical device. So while a perfect analytcal engine does indeed work, we don’t really know how much physical imperfection the designs can tolerate and still function.
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