Abstract
Almost as soon as he started work on his Difference Engine in 1822 Babbage became dissatisfied with its limitations. In particular he wished to avoid the need to have the highest order of difference constant, in order to be able to use the machine directly for transcendental functions as well as algebraic functions of up to the sixth order. He does not seem to have paid much attention to this problem until 1834, after Clement had withdrawn from the project and work on the Difference Engine had been suspended. However Babbage then began to investigate the design of a multiplication mechanism and of means for connecting the accumulator to the highest order difference, so that the latter would not have to remain constant. He referred to this as “the engine eating its own tail”, a scheme which Wilkes has described as a form of digital differential analyser [1].
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Notes
Wilkes(1971).
The description of the evolution of the Analytical Engine is derived mainly from the detailed analysis by Collier (1970) of information in the Buxton Collection of manuscripts at Oxford, and Babbage’s sketchbooks and drawings at the Science Museum.
Babbage, C. (1835).
It is interesting to note that as a boy Clement had learnt to use a hand loom, and later had designed a power loom (Smiles (1908)).
Quoted by Wilkes (1971).
Babbage, C. (1864).
Babbage, C. (1864).
Letter to Babbage from William Gravatt, dated 3 Feb. 1860, quoted by Collier (1970).
Babbage, H. P. (1888).
Both of the machines put together by Henry Babbage are now in the Science Museum.
What little is known about Ludgate is documented in Randell (1971).
Ludgate (1914).
The main accounts of the life and work of Torres y Quevedo are d’Ocagne (1937) and Torres-Quevedo (1951 a, 1951 b).
Anon (1915).
C. Babbage: “Passages from the Life of a Philosopher,” p. 129.
R. Taylor’s “Scientific Memoirs,” 1843, vol. iii., p/691.
E. Taylor’s “Scientific Memoirs,” 1843, vol. iii., p. 694.
loc. cit., p. 696.
C. Babbage: “Passages from the Life of a Philosopher,” p. 450.
For further notes on the prohlem of the carrying of tens, see C. Bahhage: “Passages from the Life of a Philosopher,” p. 114, &c.
G. Babbage: “Passages from the Life of a Philosopher,” p. 131.
The times given include that required for the selection of the Variables to be operated on.
See Report Brit. Assoc, 1878, p. 100.
R. Taylor’s “Scientific Memoirs,” 1843, vol. iii., p. 696.
Communication in public session by the author on 26 June 1920.
Machines á Calculer by L. Torres. (Mémoires présentés par divers savants étrangers à l’Académie des Sciences de l’Institut de France, 2nd series, vol. 32, no. 9, 20pp. + 5 plates).
Essais sur l’automatique. Sa définition. Étendue théorique de ses applications byL. Torres y Quevedo, Revue Générale des Sciences, 15 Nov. 1915, pp. 601–611, 1 plate.
See description in La Nature, 13 Jun. 1914, pp. 56 – 61: Les automates: Le joueur d’échecs automatique de M. Torres y Quevedo, by H. Vigneron.
Essais sur l’automatique. Sa définition. Étendue théorique de ses applications by L. Torres y Quevedo, Revue Générale des Sciences, 15 Nov. 1915, pp. 601 – 611, 1 plate.
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Babbage, C., Merrifield, C.W., Babbage, H.P., Ludgate, P.E., y Quevedo, L.T., Couffignal, L. (1973). Analytical Engines. In: Randell, B. (eds) The Origins of Digital Computers. Texts and Monographs in Computer Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-96242-4_2
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