Babbages Calculating Engine (3 results)
Language: English
Published by John William Parker., London., 1841
- Softcover
- First Edition
- Periodical
Seller: Tony Hutchinson, Seale, United KingdomTony Hutchinson
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Paper Cover. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. 8pp. 11 x 7 inch. An original complete edition of this weekly magazine. It is over 180 years old & may have light foxing or age discolouration. In the title line I have listed articles or pictures of specific interest in this issue. Most issues contain a mixture of general intere…st articles usually including visits to famous or exotic places, scientific, topographical, art, etc and some are illustrated with fine woodcuts. It has been disbound from a compilation and is therefore still unfolded and in nice clean condition - no deliberate marks. It will be despatched in a board back envelope.
Published by Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, 1831
- Hardcover
Seller: JF Ptak Science Books, Hendersonville, NC, U.S.A.JF Ptak Science Books
Contact seller5-star sellerHardcover. Condition: Fair. (BABBAGE) Herschel, John Frederick William. "Report On Mr. Babbage's Calculating Engine, Report of the Committee appointed by the council of the Royal Society, to consider the subject referred to in Mr. Stewart's Letter, relative to Mr. Babbage's Calculating Engine, and to report thereupon", in: Journ…al of the Franklin Institute, 1831, Vol. 7 (New Series), pp. 210-213 in the full volume of 430pp, two folding plates. Philadelphia: Franklin Institute, 1831. 1st Edition. This is a FAIR copy, only, though it could also be a good rebinding copy. This volume has a very domestic paper repair done to the spine and corner, and the front cover is nearly detached. There is also some light moderate foxing. That said, the text is crisp. [++] "John Herschel (1792-1871), distinguished astronomer, was a staunch supporter of the engines. He and Babbage met while undergraduates at Cambridge where they both studied mathematics." They remained lifelong friends: "In a letter to his widow Babbage described Herschel as 'one of the earliest and most valued friends of my life". --Computer History Museum website. [++] Herschel was the Chair of a committee appointed by the Council of the Royal Society, judging the efficacy of the difference engine/computing machine which Babbage was constructing using funds (at this point at about 6,000 pounds) allocated by the society. Herschel's statement and conclusion are as follows: "In judging the adequacy of Mr. Babbage's work to complete the objects for which it was intended, there are two distinct questions--the adequacy of the contrivance, and that of execution. On the former point every explanation has been afforded by Mr. Babbage, and both the drawings and the work executed have been unreservedly subjected to their discussion, and have been such as to excite a well grounded confidence. The movements are combined with all the skill and system which the most experienced workmanship could suggest. Finally taking into consideration all that has already been said, and relying not less on the talent and skill displayed by Mr. Babbage as a mechanician, in the prosecution of this arduous undertaking, for what remains, than on the matured and digested plan and admirable execution of what is to be accomplished, your committee have no hesitation in giving it their opinion, that in the present state of Mr. Babbage's engine, they do regard it as likely to fulfill the expectations entertained by its inventor.".
More images- Softcover
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 t…o 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.
