Charles Babbage and his calculating engines : selected writings

by Charles Babbage

Other authorsPhilip Morrison (Editor), Emily Morrison (Editor)
Paper Book, 1961

Status

Available

Call number

510.78

Library's review

Indeholder "Introduction", "Note on the History of Punch Cards", "Bibliography", "Part I. Chapters from "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher" by Charles Babbage", " Preface", " Chapter II. Childhood", " Chapter III. Boyhood", " Chapter IV. Cambridge", " Chapter V. Difference Engine No. 1", "
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Chapter VIII. Of the Analytical Engine", " Chapter XIII. Recollections of Wollaston, Davy, and Rogers", " Chapter XIV. Recollections of Laplace, Biot, and Humboldt", " Chapter XV. Experience by Water", " Chapter XVI. Experience by Fire", " Chapter XVIII. Picking Locks and Deciphering", " Chapter XXV. Railways", " Chapter XXVIII. Hints for Travellers", " Chapter XXXIV. The Author's Further Contributions to Human Knowledge", "Part II. Selections from "Babbage's Calculating Engines"", " I. Babbage's Calculating Engine by Dr. Dionysius Lardner [From the Edinburgh Review, July, 1834, No, CXX.]", " II. Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage by L. F. Menabrea, With Notes upon the Memoir by the Translator, Ada Augusta, Countess of Lovelace [From the Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève, October, 1842, No. 82.]", " III. On the Application of Machinery to the Purpose of Calculating and Printing Mathematical Tables by Charles Babbage [A Letter to Sir Humphry Davy, Bart., President of the Royal Society, July 3, 1822.]", " IV. On the Theoretical Principles of the Machinery for Calculating Tables by Charles Babbage [From a Letter dated November 6, 1822, reprinted in Brewster's Journal of Science]", " V. Observations on the Application of Machinery to the Computation of Mathematical Tables by Charles Babbage [From the Memoirs of the Astronomical Society, December 13, 1822]", " VI. On the Division of Mental Labour by Charles Babbage [Chapter XIX, Economy of Manufactures and Machinery]", " VII. Calculating Engines by Charles Babbage [Chapter XIII, The Exposition of 1851]", " VIII. The Analytical Engine by Major-General H. P. Babbage [From the Proceedings of the British Association, 1888; Paper read at Bath, September 12, 1888]", " IX. On a Method of Expressing by Signs the Action of Machinery by Charles Babbage [From the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 2, 1826]", " X. Laws of mechanical notation by Charles Babbage", "Part III. Appendix of Miscellaneous Papers", " I. On the Age of Strata, as Inferred from the Rings of Trees embedded in Them by Charles Babbage", " II. List of Mr. Babbage's printed papers [from "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher"]", " III. General Plan of Engine No. 1. Plan 25, dated August 6, 1840", " IV. Plates VII-X [From the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 2, 1826]", " V. Table of contents [from "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher"].", "Index".

"Introduction" handler om Charles Babbage og misforholdet mellem hans visioner og hvad man med rimelighed kunne lave mekanisk på den tid. I 1826 offentliggjorde han en logaritmetabel for tallene fra 1 til 108000 med stor vægt lagt på brugervenlighed.
"Note on the History of Punch Cards" handler om at Charles Babbage, John Herschel og George Peacock tidligt lavede en lille klub og tænkte at de ville forbedre verden. Det lykkedes sådan set, men Babbage blev ikke lykkelig og påstod på et tidspunkt at han aldrig havde haft bare en enkelt dag, hvor han var lykkelig.
"Bibliography" handler om ???
"Part I. Chapters from "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher" by Charles Babbage" handler om ???
" Preface" handler om ???
" Chapter II. Childhood" handler om små glimt fra barndommen, som fx at han blev væk fra sin barnepige.
" Chapter III. Boyhood" handler om ???
" Chapter IV. Cambridge" handler om ???
" Chapter V. Difference Engine No. 1" handler om ???
" Chapter VIII. Of the Analytical Engine" handler om ???
" Chapter XIII. Recollections of Wollaston, Davy, and Rogers" handler om ???
" Chapter XIV. Recollections of Laplace, Biot, and Humboldt" handler om ???
" Chapter XV. Experience by Water" handler om ???
" Chapter XVI. Experience by Fire" handler om ???
" Chapter XVIII. Picking Locks and Deciphering" handler om ???
" Chapter XXV. Railways" handler om ???
" Chapter XXVIII. Hints for Travellers" handler om ???
" Chapter XXXIV. The Author's Further Contributions to Human Knowledge" handler om ???
"Part II. Selections from "Babbage's Calculating Engines"" handler om ???
" I. Babbage's Calculating Engine by Dr. Dionysius Lardner [From the Edinburgh Review, July, 1834, No, CXX.]" handler om ???
" II. Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage by L. F. Menabrea, With Notes upon the Memoir by the Translator, Ada Augusta, Countess of Lovelace [From the Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève, October, 1842, No. 82.]" handler om ???
" III. On the Application of Machinery to the Purpose of Calculating and Printing Mathematical Tables by Charles Babbage [A Letter to Sir Humphry Davy, Bart., President of the Royal Society, July 3, 1822.]" handler om ???
" IV. On the Theoretical Principles of the Machinery for Calculating Tables by Charles Babbage [From a Letter dated November 6, 1822, reprinted in Brewster's Journal of Science]" handler om ???
" V. Observations on the Application of Machinery to the Computation of Mathematical Tables by Charles Babbage [From the Memoirs of the Astronomical Society, December 13, 1822]" handler om ???
" VI. On the Division of Mental Labour by Charles Babbage [Chapter XIX, Economy of Manufactures and Machinery]" handler om ???
" VII. Calculating Engines by Charles Babbage [Chapter XIII, The Exposition of 1851]" handler om ???
" VIII. The Analytical Engine by Major-General H. P. Babbage [From the Proceedings of the British Association, 1888; Paper read at Bath, September 12, 1888]" handler om ???
" IX. On a Method of Expressing by Signs the Action of Machinery by Charles Babbage [From the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 2, 1826]" handler om ???
" X. Laws of mechanical notation by Charles Babbage" handler om ???
"Part III. Appendix of Miscellaneous Papers" handler om forskellige artikler fra Babbages hånd.
" I. On the Age of Strata, as Inferred from the Rings of Trees embedded in Them by Charles Babbage" handler om dendrokronologi.
" II. List of Mr. Babbage's printed papers [from "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher"]" handler om en liste over publiserede artikler fra Babbages hånd.
" III. General Plan of Engine No. 1. Plan 25, dated August 6, 1840" handler om den overordnede plan for hans Differential Engine 1.
" IV. Plates VII-X [From the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 2, 1826]" handler om nogle af de meget komplicerede dele af maskinen.
" V. Table of contents [from "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher"]." handler om indholdet af hans selvbiografi.
"Index" er et opslagsregister.

Charles Babbage (26 december 1791 - 18 oktober 1871) var tændt af en hellig ild for at automatisere tabeludregning og trykning. Han satte ikke sit lys under en skæppe men skitserede en "analytisk maskine" med dele som man genser i moderne elektroniske computere, men her altså tænkt realiseret som en mekanisk maskine med alle de problemer med præcision og holdbarhed som det vil give. Maskinen blev aldrig bygget. Regeringen ville ikke udskrive en blanco-check til ham. Han døde som en bitter mand.
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Publication

New York : Dover, 1961.

Description

Charles Babbage, pioneer in the field of computing machines, is well known today as the development and dissemination of computers has made it clear that he was a man ahead of his time. For a large part of his life Babbage was chiefly interested in the calculating engine, but from his writings it is apparent that in addition to understanding the principles of the construction of computers, he had a clear insight into their potential applications and the way to use them. He was also a pioneer in the field of operations research, was interested in an amazingly broad range of subjects, and was one of the first people to obtain a government grant in support of research! The editors have written an introduction which serves as a coordinating preamble to some chapters from Babbage's "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher" along with selections from "Calculating Engines" and assorted miscellaneous papers, blending everything to produce a book which can be read with the ease of a novel and is certainly no less entertaining.… (more)

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

xxxviii, 400 p.; 20.2 cm

ISBN

0486200124 / 9780486200125

Local notes

Omslag: Edmund Gillon
Omslaget viser et billede af Charles Babbage med en del af hans maskine i baggrunden
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Dette eksemplar var lånt fra Roskilde Universitetsbibliotek, der havde klistret ca en sjettedel af forsiden til med mærkater

Side xviii: By the use of toothed wheels on shafts, not much different in principle from the familiar figure wheels of the mileage indicator on an auto speedometer, the Difference Engine can carry out the operations exemplified above. In the present frontispiece, the first table entry is set at the bottom of the column of figure wheels at the right; column B is the central vertical set of wheels, column A the left-hand vertical shaft. Turning the crank once presents a new figure in the table column, the other columns taking their proper values. In the machine as designed, but never constructed, the number indicated in the table column would each time be transmitted through a set of levers and cams to a collection of steel punches, which would then be in position for stamping the number on a copper engraver's plate. The plate was moved with each turn of the mechanism so that the punched number would appear in the proper place on the printed page. Mechanically all this was far from simple. Recall that standardized machine parts, without hand-fitting, were yet a rarity. Clocks, which most closely resembled this type of mechanism, were still principally hand-fitted. Babbage's plans were on a grand scale—one of his most conspicuous failings—and called for no less than twenty-place capacity, up to differences of the sixth order. The variety and number of bolts and nuts, claws, ratchets, cams, links, shafts, and wheels may be imagined! All of these parts were designed with skill and care, with supplementary mechanism intended to minimize wear, prevent improper registration, and so on. Some of the modern practices of instrument design were foreshadowed, and there is no doubt that the technical devices used were superior for their time. The presence of gauges, of a shaper, of a kind of embryonic turret lathe, of die-cast pewter gear wheels and the pressure molds in which they were made, is evidence enough of that. Babbage even studied the action of cutting tools, and rationalized tool-grinding. But perhaps the very care and thoroughness of the design was its greatest weakness, for it was far from completion when the controversy which ended its financial support became the cause of its postponement after years of work. And the rise of Babbage's own interest in a far grander (and still more unrealizable) project at last killed the Difference Engine. Its state at death was most incomplete, but all the drawings, and a considerable number of the tools, gauges, jigs, and a quite respectable amount of development of methods and machinery had been completed. Precise information cannot be found, but a reasonable estimate would seem to show that Babbage's engine would have cost about fifty times what the similar though more modest Swedish version sold for in the fifties. It would have been some two tons of novel brass, steel, and pewter clockwork, made, as nothing before it, to gauged standards.
Side xx: What Babbage saw after his work with the Difference Engine was a really grand vision. He had early conceived the notion he picturesquely called "the Engine eating its own tail" by which the results of the calculation appearing in the table column might be made to affect the other columns, and thus change the instructions set into the machine. On this insight, and after a striking mathemetical digression into difference functions new to mathematics, and suggested only by the operation of the engine, he built a great program. It was nothing less than a machine capable of carrying out any mathematical operation instead of only the simple routine of differences we have inspected. Such a machine would need instructions both by setting in initial numbers, as in the Difference Engine, and also far more generally by literally telling it what operations to carry out, and in what order. Capable of repeated additions, of multiplication which is hardly more than that, and of reversing the procedure for subtraction and division, the arithmetical unit would do these operations upon command. It would work on previously obtained intermediate results, stored in the memory section of the Engine, or upon freshly found numbers. It could use auxiliary functions, logarithms, or similar tabular numbers, of which it would possess its own library. It could make judgments by comparing numbers and then act upon the result of its comparisons —thus proceeding upon lines not uniquely specified in advance by the machine's instructions. All this, which forms the backbone of modern computing development, was to be carried out wholly mechanically with not even a simple electrical contact anywhere in the machine, nor, of course, a tube or a relay. The scale, as usual, was grand. The memory was to have a capacity of a thousand numbers of fifty digits—respectable even by today's standards. Of course the speed of today was wanting. The multiplication which takes not a millisecond in the fast electronic giants of today, and some seconds in a punch-card business machine installation, would have taken the Analytical Engine two or three minutes.

Pages

xxxviii; 400

Library's rating

Rating

½ (2 ratings; 4.5)

DDC/MDS

510.78
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