PASSAGES FROM THE LIFE OF A PHILOSOPHER

Babbage, Charles

Edité par Longmans, Green, London, 1864

Pp. [iii]-496 (lacking half-title), frontispiece, occasional text figures, appendix, list of Babbage's printed papers; demy 8vo; twentieth century qr. leather, with earlier gilt lettered black leather title label on spine, marbled papered boards; all edges sprinkled red; a couple of tiny spots of foxing, the outer leaves faintly soiled; Longmans, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, London, 1864. First edition. *From the library of the Parliament of Victoria, with their ink stamp at head of title page, and slight signs of removal of a label or slip from lower free endpaper. Charles Babbage (1792-1871) is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer. He began his work on calculating numerical tables by machinery at Cambridge in 1812, and in 1823 was awarded the first gold medal bestowed by the Astronomical Society, for one of his early models. The frontispiece to this volume depicts part of his Difference Engine No. 1, which he began constructing in 1823, but eventually abandoned in 1842. This machine was intended for the calculation of tables of logarithms and similar functions, by repeated addition performed by trains of gear wheels. Babbage also planned a more ambitious Analytical Engine, to be programmed by punched cards (such as those used at the time in Jacquard looms), which was intended to perform and record different computations - but he was unable to complete this work using the mechanical devices available to him at the time. N° de réf. du vendeur 179171

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : PASSAGES FROM THE LIFE OF A PHILOSOPHER
Éditeur : Longmans, Green, London
Date d'édition : 1864
Edition : First Edition.