JF Ptak Science Books (This is a null post, carried over from the bookstore section of this blog--I'm sharing it in the bookseller format to simply share the info on this fascinating machine.)
W. Stanley Jevons, On the Mechanical Performance of Logical Inference, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1870, pp 497–518. This is an extract from the volume, containing the entire article, plus its three engraved plates showing the works and interior of the machine. This is very tastefully bound in paper covered boards with a paper spine label. This is the first description of the one the preeminent.
Jevons was a polymath and one of my favorite thinkers of the 19th century. He worked across many fields but seems to be remembered today mostly and unfortunately for his theory of the relationship between sunspots and economics cycles. He is not so well known as the inventor of one of the earliest pre-modern computers and particularly for it being the fastest machine of its kind ever invented.
“In 1870 a British scholar, W.S. Jevons, built the first computer designed to solve logical problems. Inspired by Boole and Babbage, Jevons built a mechanical device implementing automated deduction...”--Paul Amblard, “A Finite State Description of the Earliest Logical Computer: The Jevons’ Machine”, in the Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science book series (SECS, volume 434)
“The creation of analog computing devices is both relevant and significant to the development of modern computers, but was there no early pure mechanical digital apparatus, given the advent of Boolean logic and Venn diagrams in the 19th century? One individual in particular began a small, but significant movement that transformed digital theory into mechanical devices that, while lacking the sophistication and power of later electronic digital computers, did, nevertheless, function in a digital mode. The person responsible was the Englishman W. Stanley Jevons (1836–1882).”--George Buck and Stephen Hunka, "W. Stanley Jevons, Allan Marquand, and the Origins of Digital Computing" in IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 21, No. 4, 1999.
“Jevons' fame as the inventor of a logic machine has tended to obscure the important role he played in the history of both deductive and inductive logic. He was one of the pioneers of modern symbolic logic, and ...deserves far more recognition than it has today, as an important treatise on the philosophy and methods of science. At a time when most British logicians ignored or damned with faint praise the remarkable achievements of George Boole, Jevons was quick to see the importance of Boole's work as well as many of its defects.”--JAN Lee, “W. Stanley Jevons”, in IEEE computer pioneer series online.
“Jevons considers some techniques and devices to facilitate these endeavours, such as a ‘Logical slate’ (the logical alphabet engraved upon a school writing slate). Nevertheless, when more than six terms are involved, it becomes almost impossible to solve the problem. To facilitate this kind of reasoning Jevons developed a logical abacus, which operates on simple mechanical principles. It can be seen as one of the first computers.”--Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
“Stanhope's work inspired William Stanley Jevons to construct his "logic piano," the best known logic machine of the nineteenth 1 century...The logic piano was a box approximately three feet high. A faceplate above the keyboard displayed the entries of the truth table. Like a piano, the keyboard had black-and-white keys, but here they were used for entering premises. As the keys were struck, rods would mechanically remove from the face of the piano the truth-table entries inconsistent with the premises entered on the keys.”--William Aspary, “Logic Machines” (a chapter in Computing Before Computers).
“... he was able to devise a logic machine—a sort of motional from of the later digrammatic scheme of John Venn. Jevons’’ “logical piano”(as he eventually called it in preference to his earlier terms “abacus,”“abecedarium” and “alphabet”)...The machine earned much acclaim, especially after its exhibition at the Royal Society in 1870. At present it is on display in the Oxford Museum of the History of Science. Although its principal value was as an aid to the teaching of the new logic of classes and propositions, it actually solved problems with superhuman speed and accuracy, and some of its features can be traced in modern computer designs.”--Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography (online)
See also: See B. Randell, “From Analytical Engine to Electronic Digital Computer: The Contributions of Ludgate, Torres, and Bush,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 4, no. 9, 1992, pp. 327-341; B. Randell, ed., The Origins of Digital Computers: Selected Papers. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1973; S. Augarten, Bit by Bit: An Illustrated History of Computers. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1984; . M. Gardner, Logic Machines and Diagrams. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1983; C.S. Peirce, “Logical Machines,” Amer. J. Psychology, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 165–170, 1877.
One last bit: on the "Logical machine" v "logical piano": Martin Gardner stated that Jevons often referred to the device as a logical piano, though the term is not used by Jevons himself, and there is no reference or bibliographical notice given by Gardner.
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