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HISTORY of SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY: SERIES THREE: Part 1, Babbage HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: SERIES THREE: Part 1, Babbage THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Series Three: The Papers of Charles Babbage, 1791-1871 Part 1: Correspondence and Scientific Papers from the British Library, London Contents listing PUBLISHER'S NOTE BRIEF BIOGRAPHY BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY CONTENTS OF REELS LISTING BY CORRESPONDENT HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: SERIES THREE: Part 1, Babbage Publisher's Note “The idea of a digital computer is an old one. ... Babbage had all the essential ideas....” Alan Turing Alan Turing’s comment confirms the importance of Babbage to the History of Computing. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (aged 24) in 1816 - the same year in which Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was written - Babbage showed that a machine could be created which could replicate certain areas of human thought. Babbage designed first the Difference Engine (an automatic mechanical calculating machine) and then the Analytical Engine (a pioneer digital computer). His designs included a central processing unit (“the Mill”), memory (“the Store”), variables, operators and a printer to output conclusions. The design was one thing, actually constructing the machines with the available technology proved to be extremely difficult. Notwithstanding substantial grants from the Royal Society and the British Government Babbage failed to create either. That glory was left to the Swedish printer, Georg Scheutz, who won a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition for constructing the Difference Engine. A close friend and collaborator in much of his work was Augusta Ada Byron, later the Countess of Lovelace, who was the only child of Lord Byron. She was confident of the importance of the machine, stating that “We may most aptly say that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.” The metaphor was appropriate, for Babbage used a card reader inspired by the punched cards used on Jacquard loom. Augusta Ada Byron wrote the first computer programme for the engine (to calculate Bernoulli numbers) and the programming language ADA is named after her. Babbage knew that his ideas were ahead of his time, commenting in Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864): “The discovery of the Analytical Engine is so much in advance of my own country, and I fear even of the age, that it is very important for its success that the fact should not rest on my unsupported testimony.” It is for his ideas that Babbage is revered today, laying down the foundations for the computer more than 100 years before the creation of the electronic version that we now take for granted. Babbage’s interests and achievements were not limited to the field of computing. Other areas in which he made a distinct contribution are: Mathematics - his work on the calculus of functions helped to found a new branch of analysis. He was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge from 1828 to 1839, and founded the Royal Statistical Society of London in 1834. Magnetism - his work with Herschel in 1825 deepened our knowledge of this area and resulted in the invention of the asatic needle. Operational Research - Babbage has been called the founder of operational research. He made acute analyses of the pin- making industry and the printing trade and his examination of the Post Office resulted in Sir Rowland Hill introducing the Penny Post in Britain. Astronomy - he played a prominent role in founding the Royal Astronomical Society in 1820 and served in many of the key posts of the Society. The heliograph was one of his inventions. Insurance - Babbage wrote the first thorough treatise on actuarial theory and published the first reliable life tables. Ideas - other inventions included the first speedometer, the cow-catcher for locomotives, and a pioneer ophthalmoscope. He also suggested the use of a standard railroad gauge, designed occulting lights for lighthouses and explored the use of tree rings as a record of climate change. His work on the Difference Engine did much to advance the machine tool industry, and Joseph Whitworth, his foreman, introduced the first standard screw threads. Scientific Organisations - Babbage helped to found the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1831 and was a corresponding member of scientific bodies throughout the world including the Paris Academy of Moral Sciences and the American Academy. At Humboldt’s behest he attended the Congress of Savants in Berlin in 1828. Friends and correspondents included Sir George Airy, Antonio Alessandri (President of the Academy of Sciences, Bologna), André Marie Ampère, Vincenzio Antinori (Director of the Natural History Museum, Florence), Joseph Banks, Jean Baptiste Biot, George Boole, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Christian Bunsen, Augusta Ada Byron (later King), Julia Margaret Cameron, Count Cavour, Richard Cobden, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Angela Burdett Coutts, Charles Darwin, Augustus De Morgan, Charles Dickens, Maria Edgeworth, Michael Faraday, Laurent Feuillet (Librarian, Institut de France), Jean Fourier (Secretary l’Académie des Sciences), Sir John Franklin, W E Gladstone, Caroline Herschel, Sir John Herschel, Friedrich Humboldt, Joseph Ingersoll (US Minster in London), William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Sir Charles Lyell, Frederick Marryat, RN, Harriet Martineau, Luigi Menabrea, John Stuart Mill, James Nasmyth, Caroline Norton, Giovanni Plana, Lambert Quetelet (Secretary, Brussels Academy), George Rennie, P M Roget (Secretary, The Royal Society), John Ruskin, Lord John Russell, Nassau Senior, Sir James South, Jared Sparks (President of Harvard College), Harriet Beecher Stowe, Otto von Struver, Charles Sumner, W M Thackeray, Friedrich Trendelenburg, Georg Ursin, Henry Warburton (Secretary, Geological Society) and Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. A complete index of correspondents is featured in this Guide (page 19 and following). This project makes available all of the Babbage Papers from the British Library. There are twenty volumes of correspondence (11,003ff in total) with leading scientists and mathematicians throughout the world, interspersed with drafts of his own letters. The correspondence with Augusta Ada Byron (later King) is particularly substantial and worthy of note. There are four further volumes of scientific papers covering: “Essays on the philosophy of Analysis”; papers on astronomy, including correspondence with the Herschels, miscellaneous notes on mechanical drawing, lighthouses and occulting lights and geology; and papers on cyphers and deciphering, mathematical recreations and investigations of the laws of the game of tic-tac-to. Babbage’s correspondence makes it clear that he was not just a brilliant mind, endlessly producing new schemes and inventions, but he was also a catalyst - inspiring colleagues with suggestions and helping them to make connections. The collection is an important resource for studying the History of Computing, the History of Mathematics, 19th Century HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: SERIES THREE: Part 1, Babbage Scientific Institutions, Charles Babbage, the Herschels, Augusta Ada Byron and Women in Science. <back HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: SERIES THREE: Part 1, Babbage Brief Biography Charles Babbage was born in Teignmouth, Devon, on 26 December 1792. The son of a banker (Benjamin Babbage) he made the acquaintance of Frederick Marryat (later author of the Hornblower books) while at school. He went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1810, where he was a contemporary of John Herschel and George Peacock. He founded the Analytical Society there in 1812 to reform the British interpretation of calculus and to advance the study of mathematics. He worked in the fields of probability, algebra, geometry and infinite series and invented the calculus of functions. He later transferred to Peterhouse College, and graduated in 1814. In June 1814 he married Georgiana, aged 22. Over the next 13 years she bore him 8 children, sadly culminating in her death in 1827, aged 35. He bought a house at 5 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, London in 1815 (this remained his residence until 1827). He made his first contribution to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1815, writing on the calculus of functions. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1816. He received his MA degree in 1817. He played a prominent part in founding the Astronomical Society in 1820 and acted successively as Secretary, Vice-President, Foreign Secretary and Member of Council. He worked closely with Herschel on magnetism and in 1820 started his work on mechanical computation. By 1822 Babbage had completed his design for the Difference Engine and he started work on creating it with a Government grant in 1823. From 1827 to 1839 Babbage served as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, but did not lecture. In 1827 his wife and father both died and Babbage moved to 1 Dorset Street, Manchester Square, London, where he built extensive workshops and furnaces. Acting on medical advice he went to Europe in 1828 where he attended the Congress of Savants in Berlin organised by Humboldt. He also studied European factories and his classic work on operational research - On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures - was published in 1832 as a result. The Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, was given a tour of the works concerning the Difference Engine in 1829 and made a further grant. In 1830 Babbage ran into difficulties with Joseph Clement, his Engineer, and work on the Engine ceased. He started the design for the Analytical Engine in 1834 but could not interest Lord Melbourne, the new Prime Minister, in the new machine. In all £17,000 of public money had been spent on the project, as well as at least £6,000 from Babbage’s own pockets. On 11 November 1842 Prime Minister Robert Peel delegated his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Goulburn, to tell Babbage that the Government could no longer support the project. Babbage stood twice for Parliament in 1832 and 1834 as the Whig candidate for Finsbury, but was unsuccessful. His friend and collaborator, Augusta Ada Byron (1815-1852), later King, then Lovelace, died in 1852.
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