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 

Logic Machines and Diagrams

I just got from Amazon a little known book by Martin Gardner called Logic Machines and Diagrams. The cover shows Ramon Llull's diagram, which was the cover to the prototype copy of Machinamenta. Here's the first paragraph of the foreword: 

If the various branches of discovery were to be measured by their relative antiquities, then of all scientific pursuits the mechanization of thought must be the most respectable. The ancient Babylonians had mechanical aids to reckoning, and in Plato's time geometers were already building machines to support formal derivations. 

I think this is going to be my kind of book!