Passages from the Life of a Philosopher - Charles Babbage

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which, in his opinion, could be pursued for terminating the questions relative to the Difference Engine; namely,

       1st. The Government might desire Mr. Babbage to continue the construction of the Engine, in the hands of the person who has hitherto been employed in making it.

       2ndly. The Government might wish to know whether any other person could be substituted for the Engineer at present employed to continue the construction;—a course which was possible.

       3rdly. The Government might (although he did not presume that they would) substitute some person to superintend the completion of the Engine instead of Mr. Babbage himself.

       4thly. The Government might be disposed to give up the undertaking entirely.

      He also stated to the Duke of Wellington, the circumstances which had led him to the invention of a new Engine, of far more extensive powers of calculation; which he then observed did not supersede the former one, but added greatly to its utility.

      At this period, the impediments relating to the Difference Engine had been partially and temporarily removed. The chief difficulty would have been either the formation of new arrangements with the Engineer, or the appointment of some other person to supply his place. This latter alternative, which was of great importance for economy as well as for its speedy completion, Mr. Babbage had carefully examined, and was then prepared to point out means for its accomplishment. {87}

      The duration of the Duke of Wellington’s Administration was short; and no decision on the subject of the Difference Engine was obtained.

      On the 15th of May the Difference Engine was alluded to in the House of Commons; when the Chancellor of the Exchequer did Mr. Babbage the justice to state distinctly, that the whole of the money voted had been expended in paying the workmen and for the materials employed in constructing it, and that not one shilling of it had ever gone into his own pocket.

      About this time several communications took place between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Mr. Babbage, respecting a reference to the Royal Society for an opinion on the subject of the Engine.

      A new and serious impediment to the possibility of executing one of the plans which had been suggested to the Duke of Wellington for completing the Difference Engine arose from these delays. The draftsman whom Mr. Babbage had, at his own expense, employed, both on the Difference and on the Analytical Engine, received an offer of a very liberal salary, if he would enter into an engagement abroad, which would occupy many years. His assistance was indispensable, and his services were retained only by Mr. Babbage considerably increasing his salary.

      The Chancellor of the Exchequer then pointed out reasons why he should feel himself bound to look to the completion of the first machine, before he could propose to Parliament to enter on the consideration of the second: and he proposed to refer to the Royal Society for their opinion, authorizing them, if they thought fit, to employ any practical mechanist or engineer to assist them in their inquiries. The Chancellor of the Exchequer concluded with expressing his readiness to communicate with Mr. Babbage respecting the best mode of attaining that result.

      From these statements it is evident that Mr. Babbage had failed in making his own views distinctly understood by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. His first anxiety, when applying to Lord Melbourne, had been respecting the question, whether the Discoveries with which he was then advancing might not ultimately supersede the work already executed. His second object had been to point out a possible arrangement, by which great expense might be saved in the mechanical construction of the Difference Engine.

      Those views of improved machinery for making calculations {89} which had appeared in but faint perspective in 1834, as likely to lead to important consequences, had, by this time, assumed a form and distinctness which fully justified the anticipations then made. By patient inquiry, aided by extensive drawings and notations, the projected Analytical Engine had acquired such powers, that it became necessary, for its further advancement, to simplify the elements of which it was composed. In the progress of this inquiry, Mr. Babbage had gradually arrived at simpler mechanical modes of performing those arithmetical operations on which the action of the Difference Engine depended; and he felt it necessary to communicate these new circumstances, as well as their consequences, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

      On the 20th of January, 1836, Mr. Babbage wrote, in answer to the communication from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that he did not, on re-examining the statement addressed to the Duke of Wellington, perceive that it contained any application to take up the new or Analytical Engine; and he accompanied this reply by a statement relative to the progress of the Analytical Engine, and its bearing upon the Difference Engine belonging to the Government. The former, it was said,

      “Is not only capable of accomplishing all those other complicated calculations which I had intended, but it also performs all calculations which were peculiar to the Difference Engine, both in less time, and to a greater extent: in fact, it completely supersedes the Difference Engine.”

      The Reply then referred to the statement laid before the Duke of Wellington in July, 1834, in which it was said,

      “That all the elements of the Analytical were essentially different from those of the Difference Engine;”

      and that the mechanical simplicity to which its elements had now been reduced was such, that it would probably cost more {90} to finish the old Difference Engine on its original plan than to construct a new Difference Engine with the simplified elements devised for the Analytical Engine.

      It then proceeded to state that—

      “The fact of a new superseding an old machine, in a very few years, is one of constant occurrence in our manufactories; and instances might be pointed out in which the advance of invention has been so rapid, and the demand for machinery so great, that half-finished machines have been thrown aside as useless before their completion.

      “It is now nearly fourteen years since I undertook for the Government to superintend the making of the Difference Engine. During nearly four years its construction has been absolutely stopped, and, instead of being employed in overcoming the physical impediments, I have been harassed by what may be called the moral difficulties of the question. It is painful to reflect that, in the time so employed, the first Difference Engine might, under more favourable circumstances, have been completed.

      “In making this Report, I wish distinctly to state, that I do not entertain the slightest doubt of the success of the Difference Engine; nor do I intend it as any application to finish the one or to construct the other; but I make it from a conviction that the information it contains ought to be communicated to those who must decide the question relative to the Difference Engine.”

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