Babbage's Calculating Engine [in vol CXX of The Edinburgh Review].
- Softcover
- Used
Seller: Henry Sotheran Ltd, London, United KingdomHenry Sotheran Ltd
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Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Company for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman.1834. 8vo. 2 vols bound in one, nos. CXIX and CXX of The Edinburgh Review, April - July 1834. Half brown calf, marbled boards, gilt rules and lettering to spine, marbled; pp. ii,1-262; ii, 263-545 (Babbage on pp.263 - 327), diagrams to text; spine with vertical crack and recently repaired to front hinge, occasional foxing especially to first and last few leavesFirst edition of Volume 59 of The Edinburgh Review. Scarce. Dionysius Lardner's long article on the calculating machine, written with the guidance of Babbage, came after a series of successful lectures that he gave in Edinburgh. It takes the form of a review of seven articles on the machine, including Babbage's own papers of 1822 and the Royal Society's report of 1829. Lardner, editor of the 133-volume Cabinet Cyclopedia, was a well-known speaker and populariser of science, and his adoption of Babbage's cause seemed advantageous to the great mathematician.However, Lardner made a tactical error that meant that the machine did not receive the public funding Babbage sought. In order to make the subject palatable to a general audience, he concentrated on the machine's ability to correct errors in printed mathematical tables. While this was a valid view, and echoed Babbage's own 1822 papers which he wrote just as his project to build the machine was grinding to a halt, it also fatally underplayed the true mathematical potential of the engine to open up new avenues in computation. Lardner's presentation of the machine became the accepted interpretation, and one that was open to attack: "The utility of the Engines as a solution to table making was resoundingly rejected by experts in England and on the Continent: by George Biddell Airy in England, by Nils Selander in Sweden, and by Joseph Leverrier in France. By identifying the value of the Engines as the practical utility of eliminating errors in the production of tables, Lardner forced the Engine's advocates to defend the machine from a position of weakness" (Doron D. Swade, "Automatic Computation: Charles Babbage and Computational Method", The Rutherford Journal).Nevertheless, as a record of the workings of this wonderful machine in a manner intelligible to the general reader, and as a survey of Babbage's thought, this is still a crucial and fascinating paper.…
Seller Inventory # 2124185
Bibliographic details
- Title
- Babbage's Calculating Engine [in vol CXX of The Edinburgh Review].
- Author
- [LARDNER, Dionysius & Charles BABBAGE].
- Publication year
- 1834
- Binding
- Soft cover
Henry Sotheran Ltd
London, United Kingdom
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The longest established antiquarian booksellers in Europe. Founded in York in 1761, established in London in 1815, Henry Sotheran Limited has a long and distinguished history. For over 260 years, we have been offering unsurpassed opportunities to collectors and enthusiasts, from the purchase of the libraries of Laurence Sterne in 1768, and Charles Dickens in 1870, to the complete stock and copyright of the ornithologist and publisher John Gould. Throughout our history we have prided ourselves on the quality and condition of our books, and our friendly service. Our premises in the heart of London's Cecil Court area are spacious and elegantly appointed, and we welcome regular clients and passers-by alike to wander in and browse our stock in a relaxing and convivial atmosphere.…
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