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Charles Babbage and His Calculating Engines: Selected Writings by Charles Babbage and Others
CONTENTS:
pt. I. Chapters from Passages from the life of a philosopher
pt. II. Selections from Babbage's Calculating engines
pt. III. Appendix of miscellaneous papers
pt. I. Chapters from Passages from the life of a philosopher
pt. II. Selections from Babbage's Calculating engines
pt. III. Appendix of miscellaneous papers
- GenresNonfiction
400 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1961
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March 25, 2025
This collection released relatively near the beginning of our computer age, gave a detailed introduction of Charles Babbage's thought and work on calculating machines to a wider public. Charles Babbage was a 19th century mathematician, scientist and inventor who dedicated much of his life and work to an effort to design and build complicated and automatic calculating machines. These machines would come to be seen as the precursors and heralds of the modern computer. This trend was already visible in the late 1940s, but this book made detailed accounts of his work available to a wider public.
The book is an excerpting of full chapters from Babbage's autobiography Passages from the Life of a Philosopher and then a subset of the essays originally published in 1889 in Babbage's Calculating Engines by Charles's son Major General Henry Provost Babbage. These give some sense of how Babbage's Difference Engine and Analytical Engine would have functioned, why they were constructed and what some of the implications for science and mathematics that were foreseen for them.
These include Babbage's own descriptions of his machines and those of others of particular interest is the detailed description of the Analytical Engine by L. F. Menabrea translated from the Italian with extensive notes by Ada Augusta, Countess of Lovelace. This description and the notes provides some of the most suggestive discussion of the Analytical Engine.
The excerpts of Babbage's autobiography and work not related to the Engines are an enjoyable survey of the the wide and rapacious nature of his scientific interests. This is interesting in its own right, but also as context for the design and attempted construction of these machines.
The introduction by Philip and Emily Morrison gives some historical context to Babbage and also charts his reception subsequently. It perhaps plays up the extent Babbage's eccentricities and conflicts with his contemporaries but is a useful starting point to understanding Babbage. It is also an interesting benchmark of the way Babbage has been popularly understood.
I read an old paperback that has been on my shelf for years, it hangs together okay, although the lamination on the colour peeled off over the years.
The book is an excerpting of full chapters from Babbage's autobiography Passages from the Life of a Philosopher and then a subset of the essays originally published in 1889 in Babbage's Calculating Engines by Charles's son Major General Henry Provost Babbage. These give some sense of how Babbage's Difference Engine and Analytical Engine would have functioned, why they were constructed and what some of the implications for science and mathematics that were foreseen for them.
These include Babbage's own descriptions of his machines and those of others of particular interest is the detailed description of the Analytical Engine by L. F. Menabrea translated from the Italian with extensive notes by Ada Augusta, Countess of Lovelace. This description and the notes provides some of the most suggestive discussion of the Analytical Engine.
The excerpts of Babbage's autobiography and work not related to the Engines are an enjoyable survey of the the wide and rapacious nature of his scientific interests. This is interesting in its own right, but also as context for the design and attempted construction of these machines.
The introduction by Philip and Emily Morrison gives some historical context to Babbage and also charts his reception subsequently. It perhaps plays up the extent Babbage's eccentricities and conflicts with his contemporaries but is a useful starting point to understanding Babbage. It is also an interesting benchmark of the way Babbage has been popularly understood.
I read an old paperback that has been on my shelf for years, it hangs together okay, although the lamination on the colour peeled off over the years.
Displaying 1 of 1 review