JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post Overall Post 5124
This is a fine and understanding obituary of Charles Babbage--it appeared in Nature on 9 November 1871, just two weeks after
the death of the Great Man on 20 October, and I include the article in full below. You'll see that a lot of attention is paid to the
Difference and Analytical Engines, and how much attention they received from Babbage and how much money the
government spent on it. It was a failure as a working/practical/applicable enterprise, the writer states (which was true) , but the
thinking that went into the machines were not. That Babbage didn't see the completion of the computer projects wasn't necessarily
his fault, and to me seems to say that time will out. The obit writer (Lockyer, the founding editor of the journal?) was positively
convinced of the clarity and precision of Babbage's thinking and writing, and convinced of his genius.
"THERE is no fear that the worth of the late Charles Babbage will be over-estimated by this or any generation. To the majority of
people he was little known except as an irritable and eccentric person, possessed by a strange idea of a calculating machine, which
he failed to carry to completion. Only those who have carefully studied a number of his writings can adequately conceive
the nobility of his nature and the depth of his genius."
"Mr. Babbage, relinquishing all notions of completing the Difference machine, bestowed all his energies upon the designs of the
wonderful Analytical Engine. This great object of his aspirations was to be little less than the mind of a mathematician embodied
in metallic wheels and levers...Nothing but a careful study of the published accounts can give an adequate notion of the vast
mechanical ingenuity lavished by Mr. Babbage upon this fascinating design. Although we are often without detailed explanations
of the means, there can be little doubt that everything which Mr. Babbage asserted to be possible would have been theoretically
possible."
"The engine was to possess a kind of power of prevision, and was to be so constructed that intentional disturbance of all the loose
parts would give no error in the final result."
"Although for many years Mr. Babbage entertained the intention of constructing this machine, and made many preparations, we
can hardly suppose it capable of practical realisation. Before 1851 he appears to have despaired of Its completion, but his
workshops were never wholly closed. It was his pleasure to lead any friend or visitor though these rooms and explain their contents.
No more strange or melancholy sight could well be seen. Around these rooms in Dorset Street were the ruins of a life time of the
most severe and ingenious mental labours perhaps ever exerted by man. The drawings of the machine were alone a wonderful result
of skill and industry; cabinets full of tools, pieces of mechanism, and various contrivances for facilitating exact workmanship,
were on every side, now lying useless."
Read the rest of the obituary:
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