Steampunk city-sized computers

"When the vast extent of a machine sufficiently large to include all words and sequences is considered, we observe at once the absolute impossibility of forming one for practical purposes, in as much as it would cover an area exceeding probably all London, and the very attempt to move its respective parts upon each other, would inevitably cause its own destruction."

From The process of thought adapted to words and language, by Alfred Smee, 1851