The Engine is a fictional device described in the 1726 satirical novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. It is possibly the earliest known reference to a device in any way resembling a modern computer.
The Engine is a device that generates permutations of word sets. It is found at the Academy of Projectors in Lagado and is described thus by Swift:
“... Every one knew how laborious the usual method is of attaining to arts and sciences; whereas, by his contrivance, the most ignorant person,...
