DOCSLIB.ORG

Charles Babbage, Philosopher, Reformer, Inventor: a History of His Contributions to Nineteenth Century Science

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Charles Babbage, Philosopher, Reformer, Inventor: a History of His Contributions to Nineteenth Century Science AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF WALTER LYLE BELL for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Name) (Degree) in GENERAL SCIENCE presented ond; je4 /p74 (Major Department) (Date) Title: CHARLES BABBAGE, PHILOSOPHER, REFORMER, INVENTOR: A HISTORY OF HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE Red acted for Privacy Abstract approved James Bkrsiokes Spencer i This history concerns the scientific contributions of Charles Babbage (17 91-1 87 1) to mathematics, to the invention of calculating machines, and machine tools,to the development of scientific ideas through a wide variety of scientific investigations and his involvement in several different scientific reforms. Babbage considered himself a philosopher in the broadest sense of the word and looked upon the whole of science as his domain of inquiry.The broad speculative and philosophical aspects of his scientific inquiries; the theoretical and technical aspects of his work relating to mathematics and calcu lating machines; and his ideas concerning the development of science as a profession and the role of government inthe support of science will be examined in relation to his scientific career. Babbage began his scientific career in 1812, when, as an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, he joined with John Herschel (1792-1871), Edward Ffrench Bromhead (1789-1855), George Peacock (1791-1858), and other students to form the Analytical Society for the purpose of promoting the study of mathematical analy- sis and introducing the methods and notation of the differential calculus of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) to replace the fluxional calculus of Isaac Newton (1642-1716).Babbage and his friends were actually carrying out a reform movement begun by Robert Woodhouse (1773-1827), a professor at Cambridge, whose ideas had not gained much acceptance until the Analytical Society was formed. The mem- bers of the Society published mathematical works which utilized Leibnizian methods and notation; translated and supplemented an elementary calculus textbook by Sylvestre Franiois Lacroix (1765- 1843), a French mathematician; wrote and published three books of examples to accompany Lacroix's textbook; and gained control of the mathematical content at Cambridge by becoming moderators of the annual Senate House examinations and posing examination questions which made use of Leibnizian methods and notation.Through these activities the members of the Analytical Society were successful in achieving their mathematical reform by about 1822. Babbage and his associates continued to promote scientific reform throughout the eighteen twenties and thirties by attempting, unsuccessfully, two reforms in 1828 and 1830 of the Royal Society; by successfully reforming the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris which prior to 1811 had been the foremost work of its kind in Europe; and by forming new scientific societies.After Babbage and his associates were unsuccessful in attempting the reform of the Royal Society in 1830, David Brewster (1781-1839), a scientist and Vice- Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, assumed the leadership for the group and founded the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1831.Babbage participated in the British Association between 1832, when he was named a permanent trustee, and 1839 when he resigned because of an intrigue by another trustee of the Associa- tion. These reform activities and his mathematical researches form the first aspect of Babbage's career, between about 1812 and 1840. Babbage established a reputation as a first-rate mathematician through his work in the calculus of functions, in statistics, and in probability theory. As the result of his mathematical work, he was named Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a chair which Newton had held and which Babbage held from 1828 to 1839.Babbage was also instru- mental in the founding of a statistical section of the British Association in 1833.In 1834, the statistical section was established as a separate society, the London Statistical Society, and it was in this Society that Babbage remained active for the remainder of his life. A second aspect of Babbagets scientific career began about 1820 and was devoted to the development of automatic calculating machines. His first calculating machine, Difference Engine No. 1, was designed to calculate and print mathematical and astronomical tables. Babbage received a gold medal from the Astronomical Society of London in 1823 for the invention of Difference Engine No. 1.He worked upon this engine from 1823 to 1833, during which time he received support from the government. After 1833, following a dispute with his engineer, Joseph Clement, Babbage ceased work upon Difference Engine No.1 and began work upon a new calculating engine, the Analytical Engine.Babbage continued to negotiate with the government concerning Difference Engine No.1 until 1842, when the government formally withdrew its support of the engine. Babbage continued to work upon the Analytical Engine for the remainder of his life.This machine employed many of the features of modern digital computer s--punched cards for data and instructions; an arithmetical-logical unit; a unit to store instructions, data, and results; and a printing device for recording the results of the calcula- tions.In 1848, Babbage also drew up plans for a Difference Engine No. 2 based upon the improvements resulting from the development of the Analytical Engine.While none of the calculating machines were completed, the principles upon which they were based were fully demonstrated by the portion of Difference Engine No.1 which was assembled in 1833; by the advancement of the machine tool industry and mechanical,engineering through the development of new machine tools, new standards of tolerances and mechanical drawings, and a mechanical notation; and by the advanced principles employed in the Analytical Engine which was capable of calculating any function and was therefore an entirely general calculating machine. In addition to his reform activities, mathematical researches, and work with calculating engines, Babbage carried out many varied scientific experiments which were reported in publications throughout his career.Although he is remembered primarily for his work as a reformer and as an inventor of calculating machines, Babbage possessed broad interests and an inquiring intellect as demonstrated by such diverse publications as a book on life assurance societies, a paper on his invention of occulting signal lights for lighthouses, a paper on his experiments with magnetism, and a paper on the prin- ciples of turning and planing metals. 0 1975 WALTER LYLE BELL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Charles Babba,ge, Philosopher, Reformer, Inventor: AHiStory of His Contributions to Science by Walter Lyle Bell A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 1975 APPROVED: Redacted for Privacy Ass1 ciate Prossor ofHistory Science in charge of major Redacted for Privacy Head of the Department of General Science Redacted for Privacy Dean of Graduate School Date thesis is presented a-"ellie4/5)? /1,77 Typed by Clover Redfern for Walter Lyle Bell TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page PROLOGUE Biographical Sketch Purpose and Scope of the Study Acknowledgements PART I--INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE EFFORTS TO REFORM SCIENCE IN ENGLAND I.ROBERT WOODHOUSE, A CAUTIOUS REFORMER 2 State of Mathematics in England Woodhouse's Contributions to Reform William Henry Mau le Supports Reform II.. THE ANALYTICAL SOCIETY-- PURE D-ISM OR DOT-AGE? 25 Plan and Goals of the Society Contributions of Society Members to Mathematical Reform Reasons for a Successful Reform Opposition to Reform Critique and Reflections Upon the Reform III.THE EXTERNAL COTERIE--A LIBERAL SCIENTIFIC PARTY WITH ELITIST VIEWS 68 State of Science in England External Coterie Opposes President and Council of Royal Society Order of Bath--Recognition of a Civil and Scientific Elite Resistance to the External Coterie Reform of the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris IV. THE DECLINE OF SCIENCE IN ENGLAND--A CONTROVERSY 100 A Debate on the State of Science in England State of Chemistry State of Mathematics Reciprocal Relation of Science and Education Private and Governmental Support of Science Chapter Page Contributions of College and University Professors to Science A Relative Decline of Science V. THE FOUNDING OF A BRITISH SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY 126 Election of Davies Gilbert as President of the Royal Society Attempted Reform of the Royal Society in 1828 Duke of Sussex and John Herschel Vie for President of Royal Society External Coterie Declines Participation in Reform of Royal Society David Brewster Moves to Form a New Society Implications of the British Association to Science General Conclusions to Part I--Individual and Collective Efforts to Reform Science in England 165 PART IIBABBAGE'S CALCULATING ENGINES VI. BABBAGE's CALCULATING ENGINES 170 General Introduction 170 Speculative and Theoretical Considerations Relating to the 'Calculating Engines 173 VII. DIFFERENCE ENGINE NO. 1--ORIGIN AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT 187 Origin of Ideas for a Calculating Engine Preliminary Models Mechanical and Theoretical Design Importance as an Invention VIII. DIFFERENCE ENGINE NO. 1--THE ISSUE OF GOVERNMENTAL SUPPORT 206 Generating Public Support for the Engine Reception of Gold Medal from Astronomical Society Negotiations with Governmental Officials Attempts to Gain Long--range Governmental Support Moral Difficulties Chapter Page IX. REACTIONS TO
Load more

Recommended publications
  • JAMES Maccullagh (1809-1847)
    Hidden gems and Forgotten People ULSTER HISTORY CIRCLE JAMES MacCULLAGH (1809-1847) James MacCullagh, the eldest of twelve children, was born in the townland of Landahussy in the parish of Upper Badoney, Co. Tyrone in 1809. He was to become one of Ireland and Europe's most significant mathematicians and physicists. He entered Trinity College, Dublin aged just 15 years and became a fellow in 1832. He was accepted as a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1833 before attaining the position of Professor of Mathematics in 1834. He was an inspiring teacher who influenced a generation of students, some of whom were to make their own contributions to the subjects. He held the position of Chair of Mathematics from 1835 to 1843 and later Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy from 1843 to 1847. In 1838 James MacCullagh was awarded the Royal Irish Academy's Cunningham Medal for his work 'On the laws of crystalline reflexion'. In 1842, a year prior to his becoming a fellow of the Royal Society, London, he was awarded their Copley Medal for his work 'On surfaces of the second order'. He devoted much of the remainder of his life to the work of the Royal Irish Academy. James MacCullagh's interests went beyond mathematical physics. He played a key role in building up the Academy's collection of Irish antiquities, now housed in the National Museum of Ireland. Although not a wealthy man, he purchased the early 12th century Cross of Cong, using what was at that time, his life savings. In August 1847 he stood unsuccessfully as a parliamentary candidate for one of the Dublin University seats.
    [Show full text]
  • Duncan F. Gregory, William Walton and the Development of British Algebra: ‘Algebraical Geometry’, ‘Geometrical Algebra’, Abstraction
    UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) "A terrible piece of bad metaphysics"? Towards a history of abstraction in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century probability theory, mathematics and logic Verburgt, L.M. Publication date 2015 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Verburgt, L. M. (2015). "A terrible piece of bad metaphysics"? Towards a history of abstraction in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century probability theory, mathematics and logic. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:29 Sep 2021 chapter 9 Duncan F. Gregory, William Walton and the development of British algebra: ‘algebraical geometry’, ‘geometrical algebra’, abstraction 1. The complex history of nineteenth-century British algebra: algebra, geometry and abstractness It is now well established that there were two major factors that contributed to the revitalization and reorientation of British mathematics in the early- and mid-nineteenth-century.1 Firstly, there was the external influence consisting of the dedication of the members of the anti-establishment Analytical Society to the ‘Principle of pure D-ism in opposition to the Dot-age of the University’.
    [Show full text]
  • Differential Calculus and by Era Integral Calculus, Which Are Related by in Early Cultures in Classical Antiquity the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus
    History of calculus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 1/1/10 5:02 PM History of calculus From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia History of science This is a sub-article to Calculus and History of mathematics. History of Calculus is part of the history of mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. The subject, known Background historically as infinitesimal calculus, Theories/sociology constitutes a major part of modern Historiography mathematics education. It has two major Pseudoscience branches, differential calculus and By era integral calculus, which are related by In early cultures in Classical Antiquity the fundamental theorem of calculus. In the Middle Ages Calculus is the study of change, in the In the Renaissance same way that geometry is the study of Scientific Revolution shape and algebra is the study of By topic operations and their application to Natural sciences solving equations. A course in calculus Astronomy is a gateway to other, more advanced Biology courses in mathematics devoted to the Botany study of functions and limits, broadly Chemistry Ecology called mathematical analysis. Calculus Geography has widespread applications in science, Geology economics, and engineering and can Paleontology solve many problems for which algebra Physics alone is insufficient. Mathematics Algebra Calculus Combinatorics Contents Geometry Logic Statistics 1 Development of calculus Trigonometry 1.1 Integral calculus Social sciences 1.2 Differential calculus Anthropology 1.3 Mathematical analysis
    [Show full text]
  • Formal and Informal Networks of Knowledge and Etheldred Benett's
    Journal of Literature and Science Volume 8, No. 1 (2015) ISSN 1754-646X Susan Pickford, “Social Authorship, Networks of Knowledge”: 69-85 “I have no pleasure in collecting for myself alone”:1 Social Authorship, Networks of Knowledge and Etheldred Benett’s Catalogue of the Organic Remains of the County of Wiltshire (1831) Susan Pickford As with many other fields of scientific endeavour, the relationship between literature and geology has proved a fruitful arena for research in recent years. Much of this research has focused on the founding decades of the earth sciences in the early- to mid-nineteenth century, with recent articles by Gowan Dawson and Laurence Talairach-Vielmas joining works such as Noah Heringman’s Romantic Rocks, Aesthetic Geology (2003), Ralph O’Connor’s The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856 (2007), Virginia Zimmerman’s Excavating Victorians (2008) and Adelene Buckland’s Novel Science: Fiction and the Invention of Nineteenth-Century Geology (2013), to explore the rhetorical and narrative strategies of writings in the early earth sciences. It has long been noted that the most institutionally influential early geologists formed a cohort of eager young men who, having no tangible interests in the economic and practical applications of their chosen field, were in a position to develop a passionately Romantic engagement with nature, espousing an apocalyptic rhetoric of catastrophes past and borrowing epic imagery from Milton and Dante (Buckland 9, 14-15). However, as Buckland further notes, this argument – though persuasive as far as it goes – fails to take into account the broad social range of participants in the construction of early geological knowledge.
    [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]
  • James Clerk Maxwell
    James Clerk Maxwell JAMES CLERK MAXWELL Perspectives on his Life and Work Edited by raymond flood mark mccartney and andrew whitaker 3 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries c Oxford University Press 2014 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition published in 2014 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2013942195 ISBN 978–0–19–966437–5 Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only.
    [Show full text]
  • Computer History – the Pitfalls of Past Futures
    Research Collection Working Paper Computer history – The pitfalls of past futures Author(s): Gugerli, David; Zetti, Daniela Publication Date: 2019 Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000385896 Rights / License: In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection. For more information please consult the Terms of use. ETH Library TECHNIKGESCHICHTE DAVID GUGERLI DANIELA ZETTI COMPUTER HISTORY – THE PITFALLS OF PAST FUTURES PREPRINTS ZUR KULTURGESCHICHTE DER TECHNIK // 2019 #33 WWW.TG.ETHZ.CH © BEI DEN AUTOREN Gugerli, Zetti/Computer History Preprints zur Kulturgeschichte der Technik #33 Abstract The historicization of the computer in the second half of the 20th century can be understood as the effect of the inevitable changes in both its technological and narrative development. What interests us is how past futures and therefore history were stabilized. The development, operation, and implementation of machines and programs gave rise to a historicity of the field of computing. Whenever actors have been grouped into communities – for example, into industrial and academic developer communities – new orderings have been constructed historically. Such orderings depend on the ability to refer to archival and published documents and to develop new narratives based on them. Professional historians are particularly at home in these waters – and nevertheless can disappear into the whirlpool of digital prehistory. Toward the end of the 1980s, the first critical review of the literature on the history of computers thus offered several programmatic suggestions. It is one of the peculiar coincidences of history that the future should rear its head again just when the history of computers was flourishing as a result of massive methodological and conceptual input.
    [Show full text]
  • Turing's Influence on Programming — Book Extract from “The Dawn of Software Engineering: from Turing to Dijkstra”
    Turing's Influence on Programming | Book extract from \The Dawn of Software Engineering: from Turing to Dijkstra" Edgar G. Daylight∗ Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands [email protected] Abstract Turing's involvement with computer building was popularized in the 1970s and later. Most notable are the books by Brian Randell (1973), Andrew Hodges (1983), and Martin Davis (2000). A central question is whether John von Neumann was influenced by Turing's 1936 paper when he helped build the EDVAC machine, even though he never cited Turing's work. This question remains unsettled up till this day. As remarked by Charles Petzold, one standard history barely mentions Turing, while the other, written by a logician, makes Turing a key player. Contrast these observations then with the fact that Turing's 1936 paper was cited and heavily discussed in 1959 among computer programmers. In 1966, the first Turing award was given to a programmer, not a computer builder, as were several subsequent Turing awards. An historical investigation of Turing's influence on computing, presented here, shows that Turing's 1936 notion of universality became increasingly relevant among programmers during the 1950s. The central thesis of this paper states that Turing's in- fluence was felt more in programming after his death than in computer building during the 1940s. 1 Introduction Many people today are led to believe that Turing is the father of the computer, the father of our digital society, as also the following praise for Martin Davis's bestseller The Universal Computer: The Road from Leibniz to Turing1 suggests: At last, a book about the origin of the computer that goes to the heart of the story: the human struggle for logic and truth.
    [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]
  • 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]
  • 3 the Invention of the Concertina
    3 The Invention of the Concertina Introduction Having outlined the concertina’s place within the broad history of modern free-reed instruments, I now discuss in detail the circumstances surrounding its appearance and first commercial production. I seek to identify the intentions of its creator, the influences upon its form and the degree of innovation involved. In doing so I hope to address two popular, yet contrasting, views on the invention of the concertina. Firstly, I wish to challenge the view commonly held by enthusiasts of the instrument, including many of my informants, that its invention was the one-off, brilliant creation of an eccentric scientific genius. The concertina was first produced some time during the 1830s by Wheatstone and Co. of London and it is clear that its conception and design were the responsibility of Charles Wheatstone. It is, however, too easy to apply a “heroic” view of invention which clouds proper understanding of innovation in the nineteenth century and over-elevates individual achievements. As the previous chapter described, the concertina was just one of a number of new free-reed products to emerge from an extended period of research and innovation in musical instrument design and manufacture. I wish to emphasise here that it was also just one part of a line of innovations by its creator, who was also an outstanding teacher, experimenter and pioneering inventor in acoustics, optics, electricity, telegraphy and other fields. Secondly, while popular tradition privileges this single aspect of Wheatstone’s work, writers on scientific matters have tended to regard his activities in the musical field as an interesting sideline, engaged in while bearing early responsibility for the family music business but abandoned on maturity for pressing work in other, more important fields.
    [Show full text]