DOCSLIB.ORG

Calculation and Tabulation in the Nineteenth Century: Airy Versus

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Calculation and Tabulation in the Nineteenth Century: Airy Versus 1 Calculation and Tabulation in the Nineteenth Century: Airy versus Babbage Doron David Swade Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD University College London 2003 2 Abstract Charles Babbage (1791-1871) is widely recognised as the great ancestral figure in the history of computing. He designed the first automatic calculating engines and failed to realise a complete design in physical form. This thesis argues that historical accounts of Babbage’s work are based on a set of contemporary sources provided by Babbage himself and that the subsequent interpretation of the major movement to automate calculation and tabulation in the nineteenth century is dominated by Babbage’s own account of events. George Biddell Airy (1801-1891), Astronomer Royal for forty five years, consistently rejected arguments advocating the utility of the engines. Airy had a defining influence on the fate of the engines yet his views barely feature in the canon. Using new archival sources, Airy’s views are explored through a series of case studies: Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 1 and the Swedish calculating engine used at the General Register Office for the 1864 Life Table. In addition, his views on the use of calculating aids are explored using instances in which he was petitioned by inventors, specifically by Thomas Fowler and William Bell. The thesis situates Airy’s views in the context of manual methods used in the production of printed mathematical tables – techniques that automatic calculating engines were intended to replace – and in the context of contemporary expectations of the largely unbuilt engines. The treatment includes new work on the mathematical implications of the engines, specifically Babbage’s speculations on computation as a systematic method of solution, and presents a revisionist view of tabular errors as the primary motive for the development of the engines. 3 CONTENTS List of Illustrations 4 Introduction 8 PART I: TABLE MAKING 1. Calculation 29 2. Verification, and Generic Processes 73 PART II: BABBAGE AND THE UTOPIAN IDEAL 3. Babbage’s Expectations for his Engines 111 PART III: AIRY AND PRAGMATISM 4. Airy and Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 1 180 5. Airy, the Scheutzes, Fowler and Bell 240 Conclusions 302 Bibliography 317 Appendix I: “This is the Engine which Charles Built” 337 Appendix II: Airy’s Questionnaires 342 Appendix III: Illustrations 348 4 List of Illustrations: Appendix III 1. Charles Babbage (1791-1871). Daguerreotype by Antoine Claudet, 1847-51. (National Portrait Gallery). 348 2. George Biddel Airy (1810-1892). (Illustrated London News, 4 January 1868). 348 3. Charles Babbage, 1860. (Bernard Howarth-Loomes). 348 4. George Biddell Airy in old age (Amati Papers, Cambridge). 348 5. Page of tables from Thesaurus Logarithmorum by Von Vega, 1794 (Detail). (Science Museum). 349 6. Thesaurus Logarithmorum by Von Vega, 1794. (Science Museum).I 349 7. Pascal’s Calculator, 1642 (Replica). (Science Museum). 350 8. Johann Müller’s ‘Universal’ Calculator, 1784. (Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt). 350 9. De Colmar Arithmometer, c. 1890. (Science Museum). 350 10. Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 1 – Portion, 1832. (Science Museum). 351 11. Woodcut of Babbage Difference Engine No. 1, 1853, by B. H. Babbage. (Science Museum). 351 12. Scheutz Difference Engine by Bryan Donkin for the General Register Office, 1859. (Science Museum). 352 13. Prototype Difference Engine by Georg and Edvard Scheutz, 1843. (Nordiska Museet, Stockholm). 352 14. Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2, 2002. (Science Museum). 353 15. Stereotyping Punches for Difference Engine No. 2, 2002. (Science Museum). 353 16. Stereotype Mould in Plaster of Paris, Difference Engine No. 2, 2002. (Science Museum). 353 5 ‘I wish to god these calculations had been executed by steam' – Charles Babbage, 1821 ‘What shall we do to get rid of Mr. Babbage and his Calculating Machine?' – Sir Robert Peel, 1842 ‘I think it likely that he lives in a sort of dream as to its utility' – George Biddell Airy, 1842 ‘Professor Airey says the thing is a humbug; other scientific men say directly the contrary' – William Charles Macready, 1837 ‘There exists no memory except upon paper' – George Biddell Airy, 1854 ‘It is the Age of Machinery, in every outward and inward sense of that word’ – Thomas Carlyle, 1838 6 Abbreviations The following abbreviations are used in footnotes to refer to frequently cited sources. Biog. Airy, Wilfrid, ed. Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896. CDNB The Concise Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. 3 vols. CWB Swade, Doron. The Cogwheel Brain: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer. London: Little, Brown, 2000. Expo Babbage, Charles. The Exposition of 1851 or Views on the Industry, the Science, and the Government of England. 2 ed. London: John Murray, 1851. G&F Lindgren, Michael. Glory and Failure: The Difference Engines of Johann Müller, Charles Babbage, and Georg and Edvard Scheutz. Trans. McKay, Craig G. 2 ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, [1987], 1990. GoS Morrell, Jack, and Arnold Thackray. Gentlemen of Science: Early Years of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981. LEC Collier, Bruce. The Little Engines that Could've: The Calculating Engines of Charles Babbage. 2 ed. New York: Garland, [1970], 1990. Notice Fowler, Hugh. "Biographical Notice of the late Mr. Thomas Fowler, of Torrington with some account of his inventions." Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Arts 7 (1875): pp. 171-178. 7 Passages Babbage, Charles. Passages from the Life of a Philosopher. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1864. PC Hyman, Anthony. Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982. Works Campbell-Kelly, Martin, ed. The Works of Charles Babbage. 11 vols. London: William Pickering, 1989. 8 Introduction Another age must be the judge – Charles Babbage, 1837. The starting point of this work lies in curatorial life in a museum, in this case the Science Museum, London, where I worked as curator of computing for fourteen years. The central article of faith in museums is a belief in the primacy of original artefacts. Physical artefacts are the explanandum of curatorial life, and history is one of the main discourses that curators invoke to ‘explain’ artefacts and articulate their meanings. The cultural environment of object-rich museums and the constituencies from which curators are recruited encourage a technocentric approach to history, especially in science museums. This has certainly been the case in the past, though noticeably less so latterly, as history graduates have taken their place alongside science and engineering graduates, reflecting perhaps the cultural and intellectual movements of relativism and contextualisation that began to occupy the methodological high ground in the 1960s and 1970s. However, the internalist legacy, though weakened, is not dead, and to some the thesis that ‘machines make history’, the rallying call of the technological determinist, still operates as a subjective presupposition even to those with a self-conscious knowledge of the narrowness of this view.1 Physical artefacts, specifically the mechanical relics, incomplete assemblies, and a large technical archive are the material legacy of 1 The quoted phrase is borrowed from the title of Robert Heilbroner’s classic paper “Do Machines Make History?”. See Heilbroner ([1967], 1994). For a discussion of the ‘tenacious grip [of technological determinism] on the popular and academic imagination’ see Bimber (1994), p. 80. Introduction 9 Charles Babbage’s efforts to build his calculating engines. This material provided the initial stimulus for this work. Charles Babbage (1791-1871) is widely recognised as the great ancestral figure in the history of computing.2 He famously invented computers – vast automatic mechanical calculating engines – and equally famously failed to build them. Genius and failure are inextricably linked with his name. He failed despite substantial government funding, decades of design and development, the benefit of the finest engineering, and the social advantages of an affluent and well- connected Victorian gentleman of science. Summary histories of computing overwhelmingly ascribe the reasons for Babbage's failures to the limitations of Victorian mechanical engineering. Martin Davis, for example, writes, ‘Babbage never succeeded in constructing his engine, in large part because of the limitations of nineteenth century technology'.3 A history of the Science Museum published in 1957 states that ‘[Babbage's] ideas were eminently sound and it was only the backwardness of light-engineering and instrument-making techniques . which robbed him of the success he deserved'.4 Nathan Rosenberg, in Perspectives on Technology, writes, ‘Babbage's failure to complete his ingenious scheme was due to the inability of contemporary British metal-working to deliver the components which were indispensable to the 5 machine's success'. 2 There has been confusion about the date and location of Babbage’s birth. He is variously reported as being born in London, Teignmouth or Totnes in 1791 or 1792. Hyman resolved this by reference to parish baptismal records and established that Babbage was born in Walworth, Surrey on 26 December 1791. See PC, p. 11. Errors continue in secondary sources as well as many biographical reference works. 3 Davis
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Galileo and the Telescope
    Galileo and the Telescope A Discussion of Galileo Galilei and the Beginning of Modern Observational Astronomy ___________________________ Billy Teets, Ph.D. Acting Director and Outreach Astronomer, Vanderbilt University Dyer Observatory Tuesday, October 20, 2020 Image Credit: Giuseppe Bertini General Outline • Telescopes/Galileo’s Telescopes • Observations of the Moon • Observations of Jupiter • Observations of Other Planets • The Milky Way • Sunspots Brief History of the Telescope – Hans Lippershey • Dutch Spectacle Maker • Invention credited to Hans Lippershey (c. 1608 - refracting telescope) • Late 1608 – Dutch gov’t: “ a device by means of which all things at a very great distance can be seen as if they were nearby” • Is said he observed two children playing with lenses • Patent not awarded Image Source: Wikipedia Galileo and the Telescope • Created his own – 3x magnification. • Similar to what was peddled in Europe. • Learned magnification depended on the ratio of lens focal lengths. • Had to learn to grind his own lenses. Image Source: Britannica.com Image Source: Wikipedia Refracting Telescopes Bend Light Refracting Telescopes Chromatic Aberration Chromatic aberration limits ability to distinguish details Dealing with Chromatic Aberration - Stop Down Aperture Galileo used cardboard rings to limit aperture – Results were dimmer views but less chromatic aberration Galileo and the Telescope • Created his own (3x, 8-9x, 20x, etc.) • Noted by many for its military advantages August 1609 Galileo and the Telescope • First observed the
    [Show full text]
  • Logarithms – a Journey of Their Tables to All Over the World 1
    Logarithms – a Journey of their Tables to all over the World 1 Klaus Kühn, Nienstädt (Germany) 2 1 Introduction These days, nobody expects anything really new on the subject of logarithms. Surprisingly, however, there is still something to be written, something to be reviewed or something to be looked at again with fresh eyes. The history of logarithms has been described and dealt with on many occasions and is very clear. Nevertheless there are unnecessary discussions from time to time about who invented logarithms. Undeniably, a 7-place logarithmic table called "Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio" was published in 1614 for the very first time by John Napier (1550 – 1617). 6 years later "Aritmetische und Geometrische Progreß Tabulen / sambt gründlichem Unterricht / wie solche nützlich in allerley Rechnungen zugebrauchen / und verstanden werden soll " (translation see 3) was published by Jost Bürgi (1552 - 1632) – also known as Joost or Jobst Byrgius or Byrg. He published logarithms to 8 places; however this table failed to catch on because there were no instructions for its use included as mentioned. In the eyes of some of today’s contemporaries Bürgi is regarded as the inventor of logarithms, because he had been calculating his logarithms years before Napier, but he only published them on the insistence of Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630). There is no information on the time it took John Napier to finish calculating his logarithms but in those times it would have been a matter of many years. The theories of the Babylonians (about 1600 B.C.), Euclid (365 – 300 B.C.), and Archimedes (287 – 212 B.C.) had already begun to move in the logarithmic direction.
    [Show full text]
  • Mister Mary Somerville: Husband and Secretary
    Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Mister Mary Somerville: Husband and Secretary Journal Item How to cite: Stenhouse, Brigitte (2020). Mister Mary Somerville: Husband and Secretary. The Mathematical Intelligencer (Early Access). For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2020 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1007/s00283-020-09998-6 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk Mister Mary Somerville: Husband and Secretary BRIGITTE STENHOUSE ary Somerville’s life as a mathematician and mathematician). Although no scientific learned society had a savant in nineteenth-century Great Britain was formal statute barring women during Somerville’s lifetime, MM heavily influenced by her gender; as a woman, there was nonetheless a great reluctance even toallow women her access to the ideas and resources developed and into the buildings, never mind to endow them with the rights circulated in universities and scientific societies was highly of members. Except for the visit of the prolific author Margaret restricted. However, her engagement with learned institu- Cavendish in 1667, the Royal Society of London did not invite tions was by no means nonexistent, and although she was women into their hallowed halls until 1876, with the com- 90 before being elected a full member of any society mencement of their second conversazione [15, 163], which (Societa` Geografica Italiana, 1870), Somerville (Figure 1) women were permitted to attend.1 As late as 1886, on the nevertheless benefited from the resources and social nomination of Isis Pogson as a fellow, the Council of the Royal networks cultivated by such institutions from as early as Astronomical Society chose to interpret their constitution as 1812.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cambridge Mathematical Journal and Its Descendants: the Linchpin of a Research Community in the Early and Mid-Victorian Age ✩
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector Historia Mathematica 31 (2004) 455–497 www.elsevier.com/locate/hm The Cambridge Mathematical Journal and its descendants: the linchpin of a research community in the early and mid-Victorian Age ✩ Tony Crilly ∗ Middlesex University Business School, Hendon, London NW4 4BT, UK Received 29 October 2002; revised 12 November 2003; accepted 8 March 2004 Abstract The Cambridge Mathematical Journal and its successors, the Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal,and the Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, were a vital link in the establishment of a research ethos in British mathematics in the period 1837–1870. From the beginning, the tension between academic objectives and economic viability shaped the often precarious existence of this line of communication between practitioners. Utilizing archival material, this paper presents episodes in the setting up and maintenance of these journals during their formative years. 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Résumé Dans la période 1837–1870, le Cambridge Mathematical Journal et les revues qui lui ont succédé, le Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal et le Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, ont joué un rôle essentiel pour promouvoir une culture de recherche dans les mathématiques britanniques. Dès le début, la tension entre les objectifs intellectuels et la rentabilité économique marqua l’existence, souvent précaire, de ce moyen de communication entre professionnels. Sur la base de documents d’archives, cet article présente les épisodes importants dans la création et l’existence de ces revues. 2004 Elsevier Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes on the Parish of Mylor, Cornwall
    C.i i ^v /- NOTES ON THE PARISH OF MYLOR /v\. (crt MVI.OK CII r RCII. -SO UIH I'OKCil AND CROSS O !• ST. MlLoKIS. [NOTES ON THE PARISH OF MYLOR CORNWALL. BY HUGH P. OLIVEY M.R.C.S. Uaunton BARNICOTT &- PEARCE, ATHEN^UM PRESS 1907 BARNICOTT AND PEARCE PRINTERS Preface. T is usual to write something as a preface, and this generally appears to be to make some excuse for having written at all. In a pre- face to Tom Toole and his Friends — a very interesting book published a few years ago, by Mrs. Henry Sandford, in which the poets Coleridge and Wordsworth, together with the Wedgwoods and many other eminent men of that day figure,—the author says, on one occasion, when surrounded by old letters, note books, etc., an old and faithful servant remon- " " strated with her thus : And what for ? she " demanded very emphatically. There's many a hundred dozen books already as nobody ever reads." Her hook certainly justified her efforts, and needed no excuse. But what shall I say of this } What for do 1 launch this little book, which only refers to the parish ot Mylor ^ vi Preface. The great majority of us are convinced that the county of our birth is the best part of Eng- land, and if we are folk country-born, that our parish is the most favoured spot in it. With something of this idea prompting me, I have en- deavoured to look up all available information and documents, and elaborate such by personal recollections and by reference to authorities.
    [Show full text]
  • Edgar Buckingham: Fluorescence of Quinine Salts
    Bull. Hist. Chem., VOLUME 27, Number 1 (2002) 57 EDGAR BUCKINGHAM: FLUORESCENCE OF QUININE SALTS John T. Stock, University of Connecticut Malaria, an often-fatal disease, has been a worldwide factured from cinchona trees that are cultivated in South plague for several thousand years. The discovery of America and in the Far East. the efficacy of substances present in the bark of vari- It must have been known ous cinchona trees, native since ancient times that certain to the Andes, provided substances appear to have one some relief. A real anti- color when viewed by transmit- malarial drug was not ted light and another when available until 1820, when viewed obliquely. Mineralo- Joseph Baptiste Caventou gists recognize a type of fluor- (1795-1877) and Josephe spar, pale green when viewed Pelletier (1788-1842) iso- against the light, but appearing lated quinine from the blue when viewed at an angle bark (1). Eighty years af- to the light. Unrefined petro- ter their discovery, a statue leum shows the same kind of honoring these chemists effect, as do certain substances was erected in Paris (Fig. when in solution. Fluorescein, 1). used both in the laboratory as Other workers estab- an indicator and industrially for lished the formula for qui- the location of leaks in waste nine, showed that it acts as water systems, is a familiar ex- a diacid base, and that it ample. Another is quinine or, is a methoxy derivative of because of its low solubility in a companion alkaloid, cin- water, one of its salts. The so- chonine. The elucidation lution, colorless when viewed of the structure of these directly, appears blue when compounds, largely due to viewed at an angle to the inci- the work of Wilhelm dent light.
    [Show full text]
  • Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy 1
    Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy 1 CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER IX. CHAPTER X. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER IX. CHAPTER X. Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy The Project Gutenberg EBook of Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy 2 License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy Author: George Biddell Airy Release Date: January 9, 2004 [EBook #10655] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR GEORGE AIRY *** Produced by Joseph Myers and PG Distributed Proofreaders AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY, K.C.B., M.A., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., HONORARY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, ASTRONOMER ROYAL FROM 1836 TO 1881. EDITED BY WILFRID AIRY, B.A., M.Inst.C.E. 1896 PREFACE. The life of Airy was essentially that of a hard-working, business man, and differed from that of other hard-working people only in the quality and variety of his work. It was not an exciting life, but it was full of interest, and his work brought him into close relations with many scientific men, and with many men high in the State.
    [Show full text]
  • Analytical Engine, 1838 ALLAN G
    Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, 1838 ALLAN G. BROMLEY Charles Babbage commenced work on the design of the Analytical Engine in 1834 following the collapse of the project to build the Difference Engine. His ideas evolved rapidly, and by 1838 most of the important concepts used in his later designs were established. This paper introduces the design of the Analytical Engine as it stood in early 1838, concentrating on the overall functional organization of the mill (or central processing portion) and the methods generally used for the basic arithmetic operations of multiplication, division, and signed addition. The paper describes the working of the mechanisms that Babbage devised for storing, transferring, and adding numbers and how they were organized together by the “microprogrammed” control system; the paper also introduces the facilities provided for user- level programming. The intention of the paper is to show that an automatic computing machine could be built using mechanical devices, and that Babbage’s designs provide both an effective set of basic mechanisms and a workable organization of a complete machine. Categories and Subject Descriptors: K.2 [History of Computing]- C. Babbage, hardware, software General Terms: Design Additional Key Words and Phrases: Analytical Engine 1. Introduction 1838. During this period Babbage appears to have made no attempt to construct the Analytical Engine, Charles Babbage commenced work on the design of but preferred the unfettered intellectual exploration of the Analytical Engine shortly after the collapse in 1833 the concepts he was evolving. of the lo-year project to build the Difference Engine. After 1849 Babbage ceased designing calculating He was at the time 42 years o1d.l devices.
    [Show full text]
  • Disciplinary Culture
    Disciplinary Culture: Artillery, Sound, and Science in Woolwich, 1800–1850 Simon Werrett This article explores connections between science, music, and the military in London in the first decades of the nineteenth century.1 Rather than look for applications of music or sound in war, it considers some techniques common to these fields, exemplified in practices involving the pendulum as an instrument of regulation. The article begins by exploring the rise of military music in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and then compares elements of this musical culture to scientific transformations during 1 For broad relations between music and science in this period, see: Myles Jackson, Harmonious Triads: Physicians, Musicians, and Instrument Makers in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006); Alexandra Hui, The Psychophysical Ear: Musical Experiments, Experimental Sounds, 1840–1910 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012); Emily I. Dolan and John Tresch, “‘A Sublime Invasion’: Meyerbeer, Balzac, and the Opera Machine,” Opera Quarterly 27 (2011), 4–31; Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900–1933 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004). On science and war in the Napoleonic period, see for example: Simon Werrett, “William Congreve’s Rational Rockets,” Notes & Records of the Royal Society 63 (2009), 35–56; on sound as a weapon, Roland Wittje, “The Electrical Imagination: Sound Analogies, Equivalent Circuits, and the Rise of Electroacoustics, 1863–1939,” Osiris 28 (2013), 40–63, here 55; Cyrus C. M. Mody, “Conversions: Sound and Sight, Military and Civilian,” in The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, eds. Trevor Pinch and Karin Bijsterveld (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp.
    [Show full text]
  • A Bibliography of Publications By, and About, Charles Babbage
    A Bibliography of Publications by, and about, Charles Babbage Nelson H. F. Beebe University of Utah Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB 155 S 1400 E RM 233 Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090 USA Tel: +1 801 581 5254 FAX: +1 801 581 4148 E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] (Internet) WWW URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ 08 March 2021 Version 1.24 Abstract -analogs [And99b, And99a]. This bibliography records publications of 0 [Bar96, CK01b]. 0-201-50814-1 [Ano91c]. Charles Babbage. 0-262-01121-2 [Ano91c]. 0-262-12146-8 [Ano91c, Twe91]. 0-262-13278-8 [Twe93]. 0-262-14046-2 [Twe92]. 0-262-16123-0 [Ano91c]. 0-316-64847-7 [Cro04b, CK01b]. Title word cross-reference 0-571-17242-3 [Bar96]. 1 [Bab97, BRG+87, Mar25, Mar86, Rob87a, #3 [Her99]. Rob87b, Tur91]. 1-85196-005-8 [Twe89b]. 100th [Sen71]. 108-bit [Bar00]. 1784 0 [Tee94]. 1 [Bab27d, Bab31c, Bab15]. [MB89]. 1792/1871 [Ynt77]. 17th [Hun96]. 108 000 [Bab31c, Bab15]. 108000 [Bab27d]. 1800s [Mar08]. 1800s-Style [Mar08]. 1828 1791 + 200 = 1991 [Sti91]. $19.95 [Dis91]. [Bab29a]. 1835 [Van83]. 1851 $ $ $21.50 [Mad86]. 25 [O’H82]. 26.50 [Bab51a, CK89d, CK89i, She54, She60]. $ [Enr80a, Enr80b]. $27.95 [L.90]. 28 1852 [Bab69]. 1853 [She54, She60]. 1871 $ [Hun96]. $35.00 [Ano91c]. 37.50 [Ano91c]. [Ano71b, Ano91a]. 1873 [Dod00]. 18th $45.00 [Ano91c]. q [And99a, And99b]. 1 2 [Bab29a]. 1947 [Ano48]. 1961 Adam [O’B93]. Added [Bab16b, Byr38]. [Pan63, Wil64]. 1990 [CW91]. 1991 Addison [Ano91c]. Addison-Wesley [Ano90, GG92a]. 19th [Ano91c]. Addition [Bab43a]. Additions [Gre06, Gre01, GST01].
    [Show full text]
  • Former Fellows Biographical Index Part
    Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002 Biographical Index Part Two ISBN 0 902198 84 X Published July 2006 © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 22-26 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2PQ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 PART II K-Z C D Waterston and A Macmillan Shearer This is a print-out of the biographical index of over 4000 former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh as held on the Society’s computer system in October 2005. It lists former Fellows from the foundation of the Society in 1783 to October 2002. Most are deceased Fellows up to and including the list given in the RSE Directory 2003 (Session 2002-3) but some former Fellows who left the Society by resignation or were removed from the roll are still living. HISTORY OF THE PROJECT Information on the Fellowship has been kept by the Society in many ways – unpublished sources include Council and Committee Minutes, Card Indices, and correspondence; published sources such as Transactions, Proceedings, Year Books, Billets, Candidates Lists, etc. All have been examined by the compilers, who have found the Minutes, particularly Committee Minutes, to be of variable quality, and it is to be regretted that the Society’s holdings of published billets and candidates lists are incomplete. The late Professor Neil Campbell prepared from these sources a loose-leaf list of some 1500 Ordinary Fellows elected during the Society’s first hundred years. He listed name and forenames, title where applicable and national honours, profession or discipline, position held, some information on membership of the other societies, dates of birth, election to the Society and death or resignation from the Society and reference to a printed biography.
    [Show full text]
  • Reconstructing the Lost Contours of Charles Hutton
    Reconstructing the lost contours of Charles Hutton Karen Rann a, David Fairbairn b, *, Ella Southern c a Queens University, Belfast, UK; [email protected] b Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; [email protected] c Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; [email protected] * Corresponding author Keywords: Historical land surveying, contour mapping This study reports on an historical investigation of map-making practice and achievement from the late 18th century, and attempts to reconstruct the practices and outcomes of an innovative surveying and mapping exercise, using historical data and contemporary geospatial data handling. The episode involves the processing of data captured as part of an extensive project by the then (British) Astronomer Royal, Maskelyne, in the mid 1770s, to measure the gravitational attraction and density of the earth. This experiment was conducted on the isolated mountain of Schiehallion in Central Scotland, and resulted in several differing approaches to calculating the mass of the mountain, and determining and interpreting the resultant effect on gravity measurements on its slopes. In order to do this, an accurate determination of “the figure and dimensions of the hill” (Maskelyne, 1775) was required. The survey work was undertaken under Maskelyne’s supervision by his previous assistant, Barrow, and local surveyor, Menzies. The data collected included astronomical observations to establish latitudinal positions, lengths of fixed base lines (one to the north of the mountain and one to the south), a standard traverse around the mountain to establish fixed points, and transects/vertical profiles radiating from those points. The land surveying techniques were known and widely used, although at the time having only been recently documented, in the book ‘A Treatise on Mensuration’.
    [Show full text]