The famous and prolific nineteenth-century mathematician, engineer and inventor Charles Babbage (1791–1871) was an early pioneer of computing. He planned several calculating machines, but none was built in his lifetime. On his death his youngest son, Henry P. Babbage, was charged with the task of completing an unfinished volume of papers on the machines, which was finally published in 1889 and is reissued here. The papers, by a variety of authors, were collected from journals including The Philosophical Magazine, The Edinburgh Review and Scientific Memoirs. They relate to the construction and potential application of Charles Babbage's calculating engines, notably the Difference Engine and the more complex Analytical Engine, which was to be programmed using punched cards. The book also includes correspondence with members of scientific societies, as well as proceedings, catalogues and drawings. Included is a complete catalogue of the drawings of the Analytical Engine.

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Product details
- Date Published: May 2010
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781108000963
- length: 388 pages
- dimensions: 297 x 210 x 20 mm
- weight: 0.93kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Statement of the circumstances attending the invention and construction of Mr Babbage's calculating engines
2. Sketch of the analytical engine, invented by Charles Babbage L. F. Menabrea
3. Babbage's calculating engine Dionysius Lardner
4. Excerpts from 'Passages from the Life of a Philosopher'
5. Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables
6. A letter to Sir Humphry Davy on the application of machinery to the calculating and printing mathematical tables
7. On the theoretical principles of the machinery for calculating tables
8. Observations on the application of machinery to the computation of mathematical tables
9. Address of Henry Thomas Colebrooke on presenting the gold medal to Charles Babbage, 13th July, 1823
10. On Mr Babbage's new machine for calculating and printing mathematical tables Francis Baily
11. Minutes of the Council of the Royal Society, 12th February, 1829
12. Report of the committee appointed by the Council of the Royal Society, February 1829
13. On a method of expressing by signs, the action of machinery
14. Laws of mechanical notation
15. Mechanical notation Henry P. Babbage
16. Scheutz's difference engine, and Babbage's mechanical notation
17. Sur la machine Suédoise, de Messrs. Scheutz
18. Observations addressed to the President and Fellows of the Royal Society, 30th November, 1865
19. Letter of General Menabrea, to the editor of Cosmos, 20th April 1855
20. Report to the Council of the Royal Society on the calculating engine of M. Scheutz
21. Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, January, 1857
22. Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, April, 1857
23. Analytical engine, catalogue of 386 notations
24. Classed catalogue of the notations of the analytical engine
25. Catalogue of the drawings of the analytical engine
26. List of other drawings of the analytical engine
27. List of scribbling books
28. Part of Chapter XIX, Economy of machinery and manufactures, 1832
29. Excerpt from the ninth Bridgewater treatise
30. Excerpt from the Exposition of 1851
31. Proceedings of the British Association, 1878
32. Proceedings of the British Association, 1888 Henry P. Babbage
Conclusion.
Look Inside
Author
Charles Babbage
Editor
Henry P. Babbage
Contributors
Charles Babbage, L.F. Menabrea, Dionysius Lardner, Henry Thomas Colebrooke, Francis Baily, Henry P. Babbage