Amazon.com's Best of 2001
What a difference a century makes. Doron Swade, technologyhistorian and assistant director of London's Science Museum,investigates the troubles that plagued 19th-century knowledge engineersin The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build theFirst Computer.

The author is in a unique position to appreciatethe technical difficulties of the time, as he led a team that built aworking model of a Difference Engine, using contemporary materials, intime for Babbage's 1991 bicentenary. The meat of the book is comprisedof the story of the first computing machine design as gathered from thetechnical notes and drawings curated by Swade. Though Babbage certainlyhad problems translating his ideas into brass, the reader also comes tounderstand his fruitless, drawn-out arguments with his funders. Swadehad it comparatively easy, though his depictions of the frustratingsearch for money and then working out how best to build the enormousmachine in the late 1980s are delightful.

It is difficult--maybeimpossible--to draw a clear, unbroken line of influence from Babbage toany modern computer researchers, but his importance both as the firstpioneer and as a symbol of the joys and sorrows of computing isunquestioned. Swade clearly respects his subject deeply, all the moreso for having tried to bring the great old man's ideas to life. TheDifference Engine is lovingly comprehensive and will thrill readerslooking for a more technical examination of Babbage's career. --RobLightnerBook Description
In 1821 an inventor and mathematician named Charles Babbage was reviewing a set of mathematical tables. After finding an excess of errors in the results, he exclaimed, "I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam." Thus began Babbage's lifelong enterprise to design and build a mechanical calculating engine-the world's first computer. Drawing on Babbage's original notes and designs, Doron Swade recounts both Babbage's nineteenth-century quest to build a calculating machine-the Difference Engine-and Swade's own successful attempt to build a replica for the bicentennial of Babbage's birth. Set against the tantalizing background of Victorian science and politics with a colorful cast of characters, The Difference Engine is a saga of ingenuity and will-and the dawning of a new age. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

One of the great accomplishments of the 19th century
Charles Babbage and John Herschel, the astronomer, were preparing tables for the astronomical society.They needed to check the work of computations by humans, by different computers.The need for tables was particulary important for navigators.The source of error in the tables was clear, human fallibility.The manual production of tables, calculation, transcription, typesetting, and proofreading created opportunities for error.The engine of change in 1821 was the steam engine.Charles Babbage wanted to produce a machine to produce error-free tables.

Babbage entered Trinity in 1810.He studied on his own the work of the French mathematicians.His father was a well-to-do London banker.Charles married and received from his father an allowance of three hundred pounds.In London he established himself in scientific circles.By the spring of 1822 he had a small working model of his first design.Computing devices of the time required manipulation and were limited as to the size of the numbers the devices could handle.Babbit first used the method of differences, addition, in his design.He sent a brief announcement to the Astronomical Society about his invention.He received a mandate from the government and was prepared to build a new machine.He hired Joseph Clement for precision engineering work.Clement and Babbage devised new tools and modified machines.There was a need to produce large numbers of similar parts.Babbage conceived of his machine when manufacturing was in transition.By 1826 Babbage was wholly absorbed in the design of his Difference Engine.The machine was eight feet by seven feet by three feet.

In 1826 Babbage published a book on life assurance.While traveling in Europe following the death of his wife, he learned of his election as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.He never resided in Cambridge and gave no lectures.Babbage expressed a view on the decline of science In England.Undoubtedly science was more professional in Prussia and France.Babbage's position alienated some of his supporters.In 1832 part of the engine was put on display in his drawing room.Clement was to leave the project.Work was not resumed.The Treasury Department spent more than seventeen thousand pounds on it.

There is a curious affinity between mathematics, mind, and computing.After the break with Clement, Babbage moved from the Difference Engine to the Analytical Engine.He devised the first automatic mechanisms for multiplication and division.He had in fact designed a general purpose four function calculator.In 1836 he opted for punch cards to control the engine.The Analytical Engine was never built.Babbage worked in isolation.With the Analytical Engine Babbage was seduced by the intellectual quest.

After twenty years the Treasury axed the Difference Engine and wrote off the expense.Between 1846 and 1849 Babbage designed Difference Engine No. 2.Maurice Wilkins believed the Analytical Engine was one of the great accomplishments of the 19th century.The Science Museum in Britain built a version of the Difference Engine No. 2 for an exhibit on Babbage.

Wonderful Engines
This book has 2 basic parts.First, is the discussion of Babbage's life and his computing engines.Second, is the author's modern-day story of attempting to complete Babbage's Difference Engine, a feat which Babbage himself was unable to do.I picked up this book for the first part.I wanted to learn about Babbage and how his engines worked.While the author gives a wonderful account of Babbage's life and methodology, he does not clearly describe HOW these engines function.I realize that the engines are extremely complex, but a chapter on the functioning of the Difference Engine trial piece and some diagrams on its operations would have been much appreciated. Unfortunately, as were Babbage's contemporaries, we are left mainly in dark as to how simply turning a crank can produce the necessary additions.The author also never fully explains the "method of finite differences" upon which the function of the difference engine is based.

The most amazing part of the book is the overview of Babbage's design for the Analytical Engine- the first programmable computer.It is amazingly similar in concept to today's modern computers, but it uses motion through metal gears and cams, instead of electricity through logic gates and wires. I expected to be bored by the modern-day story, but I actually was interested in the process of reconstructing this 19th century machine.It was enlightening to see how the same problems Babbage faced 150 years before troubled engineers today.

Overall, I recommend this book for those curious about Babbage and his engines. However, the writing seems jerky and unorganized in parts, and there is little technical description of the engines' functionality.

Doron Swade's Quest to Build a Difference Engine
This is the first book I've read on Charles Babbage, but I imagine that there are others that are better.First, this book seems to assume you've already read a book or two about Babbage before.It almost has an apologetic tone and seems to be an answer to what, I assume, have been slights against Babbage and his work.Second, this book is as much about the author and his quest to build a Difference Engine as it is about Babbage himself.If you want to hear about dealing with office politics in an British museum, you may find this interesting.

All in all, this is a fairly dry read.It was interesting at points, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it for your first book on Babbage.

History - What a story
I enjoyed this book very much.It was refreshing to step away from the technical library and read more about the people, machines, trials, and triumphs that occured as far back as the early 1800's.

Though it all you learn about a man who had such vision.His execution could be faulted for many reasons.But in the end the machine works!I can not wait to see the Difference Engine myself someday.

Hard to follow
I bought this book hoping to gain a better knowledge of Charles Babbage and of course entertainment.The knowledge part was delivered but I found this book a very hard read.Do not expect to laugh occasionally because the story is very dry.The book also assumes that the reader is very familiar with British history, which I am not.From a factual standpoint it does deliver but its layout and the storyline make it an awful reference resource. ... Read more

Book Description
Charles Babbage, "the grandfather of the modern computer," did not live to see even one of his calculating machines at work. A dazzling genius with vision extending far beyond the limitations of the Victorian age, Babbage successfully calculated a table of logarithms during his years at Cambridge University, allowing mathematical calculations to be executed with extreme precision. Only the possibility of human error prevented complete accuracy, and Babbage understood that the only way to attain perfection is to leave the human mind entirely out of the equation. He devoted most of his life and spent most of his private fortune and government stipend trying to improve his difference engines and analytical engines.Bruce Collier and James MacLachlan chronicle Babbage's education and scientific career, his remarkably active social life and long string of personal tragedies, his forays into philosophy and economics, his successes and failures, and the biggest disappointment of his life-- his ingenious inventions were centuries ahead of the primitive capabilities of Victorian technology. ... Read more

Book Description
In 1815, there weren't any computers. Electricity hadn't yet been discovered as a way to make things run. Calculating sums of numbers had to be done by hand. One mistake would mean adding everything up all over again. But English scientist Charles Babbage was planning to change all that. He planned to use his knowledge of mathematics and engineering to build a machine that would be able to work out the most complicated sums instantly. But someone would have to give it the right program to follow. Women weren't supposed to know mathematics in his day. But Ada, Countess of Lovelace, was one of the best mathematicians. She became the first computer programmer. And Charles Babbage could become the father of computing—if only he could overcome the biggest problem of all. It wasn't the lack of electric power. It wasn't the lack of modern equipment. Before he could succeed, Charles Babbage had to conquer the greatest problem of all—himself. ... Read more

Book Description

This book discusses the career of Charles Babbage (1791-1871), British advocate of the systematic use of science in industry and creator of machines that were precursors of the modern computer. Babbage used his immense personal charm and vitality in an attempt to change the thinking of contemporary industrialists who had little use for the higher reaches of science. Shifting his own energies from pure mathematics, he planned engines that would "calculate by steam": the Difference Engines, designed to compute tables according to the method of finite differences, and the more complex Analytical Engines, forerunners of the modern computer.

Almost forgotten and then rediscovered in the middle of the twentieth century, the Analytical Engines are among the great intellectual achievements of humankind. This biography of their polymathic inventor gives a convincing account of his tragic personal life and his important place in the history of science.

Customer Reviews (3)

Babbage as a man of extraordinary breadth
While Babbage is rightly mentioned in any book covering the history of the computer, he is often wrongly presented as somewhat of a crank. His life is generally described as that of a genius whose ideas were far ahead of the times and as a person who spent enormous amounts of personal and public funds in single-minded attempts to build machines that never worked. In fact, he was a man of extraordinary breadth and depth of interest, and his original difference engine worked very well. Furthermore, it can be strongly argued that the economic gains due to the fast and precise computations performed by his difference engine and the improvements in machining accuracy more than returned the public investment in the project.
Hyman does an excellent job in describing the totality of the life of Babbage. Even though I have read a great deal about the history of computing, until I encountered this book I had no idea that he was also a talented commentator on the social, economic and political changes taking place in England at that time. The industrial revolution was in high gear and Babbage was one of the leaders. His interests in all things mechanical are well documented as well as his numerous writings.
Babbage was also an experimental scientist who constantly discussed improvements with those who were making them. At the time, most of the mechanical improvements were being made by people with little formal education, but with a great deal of practical experience. The majority of the members of the scientific establishment were reluctant to get their hands and bodies dirty by entering the factories, but Babbage never hesitated. He was also very instrumental in the creation and expansion of scientific societies, although he also wielded a very caustic pen in describing the pompous irrelevance of some of the members.
Babbage also commented extensively about the relationship between the owners of the factories and the workers. His approach was to examine the problem in a scientific manner, largely refusing to take any side based on emotion. Many of his comments emphasize cooperation between the two groups and one can see some of the modern concepts of revenue sharing, worker ownership of stock, employee training and benefits. Babbage's writings were very influential and controversial, they were a strong influence on Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, who took a quite different approach. He was also an advocate of free trade and foresaw much of what went wrong in the British Empire.
Charles Babbage has always had a place on my list of technological heroes, but after reading this book, he has been allocated a higher rank. He was a man with a great deal of understanding of how English and western societies were changing and many of his fundamental ideas of computing were over a century ahead of his time. Given the enormous economic benefits of the computer, had all of his projects been funded to completion, England may have remained an industrial powerhouse well into the twentieth century.

Published in the recreational mathematics e-mail newsletter, reprinted with permission.

A Superb Read; Not What I Expected
I read this book last year (2000) after reading a book of Ada Lovelace's letters (mostly to Babbage). I had purchased my hardcover copy at the Computer Museum in Boston MA back in the late 80's or early 90's, but had not read it because it looked daunting and dry. Was I wrong! This book is very readable and utterly fascinating; in fact a page turner that I could hardly put down. I've been looking for a softcover (or even another hardcover) for some time, so I could loan to friends. How delighted I am to find one! Babbage was a fascinating character and this book not only illuminates the man but also the times and the politics and the other fascinating technological events and efforts of the day. The discussion of the "great gauge wars" (the fight for the "ideal" width for railroad tracks) and Babbage's involvement was delightful. It appears he may have invented the first working strip chart recorder. This book was delightful and I got so involved with Babbage that I cried when his death occurred and the book ended. He was a giant among scientists and yet was frustrated all his life, by petty politics and short-sighted politicians, in the effort to build his stupendous and wondrous machines. A wonderful story, full of technological history. Other highlights: descriptions and pictures of the machines (of course); description of the effort to build a tunnel under the Thames river (by the the Jr and Sr Brunels); Babbage's methods (at times he did all phases of the work for his projects) and his workshop; his notes on working out the operation of the machines; family life; involvement in the technical societies of the day. (The book of Ada Lovelace's letters is also highly recommended if this is an interesting area for you.)...

The Computer was Invented well before Reticulated Electricit
In the early 19th century, a moderately well-off and very well educated Englishman dreams up an elaborate calculating machine for doing log and trig tables. When he begins this project, the railroad and the telegraph do not yet exist. The machine tools and manufacturing methods of the day are not up to the task, so the Englishman pushes out the envelope. He more or less succeeds in building his machine, but the British government is not interested.

The inventor goes back to the drawing board, and dreams up a much more elaborate machine, still all mechanical and steam driven, that essentially embodies all the abstractions of a von Neumann machine. Data and instructions are fed to it via punched cards. His collaborator for a number of years, and the author of the best description of the machine and what it can do, is Byron's daughter. The inventor is well known to all intellectual Britons of his day, including Charles Dickens. The inventor even realises that Boolean algebra may prove important for the sort of machine he is struggling to build. The Italian government is fascinated. But the British government again cannot be bothered, and thus refuses to fund the first computer. And so all that we have are hundreds of detailed blueprints.

The above, and more, is a true story, told in this remarkable book. After this book was printed, IBM paid to have Babbage's machine built by a Swedish team. It works as Babbage expected it to, and is exhibited in the IBM museum in Armonk NY. ... Read more

Book Description
Written but never published during his lifetime, this memoir of the founding father of computing is an indispensable primary source of information about Babbage's personal character and work. It brings to light his astonishingly wide range of interests, from mathematics to political economy and social reform, and dispels the myth of an "irascible" and "eccentric" personality, helping to clarify Babbage's position in the history of science.

Buxton's memoir was written between 1872 and 1880 and is volume 13 in the Charles Babbage Institute Reprint Series for the History of Computing. ... Read more

Book Description
Charles Babbage was thirty years old in 1821, as was his close friend, John Herschel, and in English intellectual circles they were both regarded as brilliant mathematicians. One day as Babbage worked in preparing logarithmic tables, a tedious and boring task, he commented to Herschel that he thought he could invent a machine to do these calculations with far more speed and accuracy than a human calculator could. And so was born an idea that would fascinate, tantalize, and absorb him for the remainder of his life. Over the years he drew plans, expanded them, modified them, and finally invented two machines, the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. The first was capable only of generating tables, but the Analytical Engine could do much more. It could convert into numbers and print the results of any formula that might be required. It could also develop any analytical formula the laws of whose formation were given. Using punched cards it could store early results in a calculation and then use them to make further calculations when they were required. He had invented the first mechanical computer. ... Read more

Book Description
The first attempts to mechanize the production of numerical tables were remarkable in conception coming at a time when a "computer" was in fact a person rather than a machine. This book is the first to provide a unified picture of the difference engines that were the mechanical predecessors of today's digital computer, to emphasize them as part of the history of numerical tables, and to give equal weight to the technical and social aspects of their creation.

Lindgren analyzes the difference engines of Müller and Babbage and the mathematical principles on which they are based, tells the story of how Georg and Edvard Scheutz learned about Babbage's engine, discusses the design and operation of the Scheutzs' machine, and tells why Babbage failed technically and the Scheutzes failed commercially. The often detailed technical descriptions bring to light the inventors' own ways of thinking as work on the engines progressed

Michael Lindgren is Curator at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

another failure, alongside Babbage and Lovelace
So it wasn't just Babbage. He is now belatedly well known. Considered to have built the first computer. Though it was never fully functional. But what Lindgren has uncovered is that around the same time, Muller and the Sheutzs in Sweden were trying roughly the same approach, independently of Babbage.

Both sides hit upon the idea of replacing a human with automated machinery, in a programmable fashion. The Swedes also seemed to have within themselves the equivalent talent of Ada Lovelace, in being able to devise software.

But both groups failed within their lifetimes. A bridge too far. At best, their efforts were seen as intellectual curiosities by their contemporaries. If anything, this research by Lindgren reinforces a common conclusion about Babbage's work. The Swedes' efforts can be seen roughly as a parallel experiment to Babbage. His failure is considered by us [20th-21st centuries] to be due to the primitive technology that he had to start with. The failure of the Swedes to commercialise their work suggests that it wasn't Babbage's fault that he failed. Or theirs that they failed.

It would be 90 years later, before economically viable machines could be made.

A glorius story about two almost unknown swedish inventors
The story of Georg and Edvard Scheutz is a well written and entertaining scientific book. A young schoolboy, Edvard Scheutz, succeeds in his kitchen to construct a difference engine that works better then that of the famous Charles Babbage. The story of how father and son struggle together to make their difference engine a profitable invention is incredibly interesteting both in a technical and economical aspect but also in a social aspect. Interesting is of course also why a genious invention like theirs becomes such a financial failure.
This is a book to read both for those who have a general interest in history of techology and for those who have a particular interest in swedish history and inventors. ... Read more

Book Description
Charles Babbage (1791-1871) is today remembered mainly for his attempt to complete his difference and analytical engines, the principles of which anticipate the major ideas of the modern digital computer. This book describes the evolution of Babbage's work on the design and implementation of the engines by means of a detailed study of his early mathematical investigations. Babbage is an almost legendary figure of the Victorian era, yet relatively little is known about him and no authoritative account of his life and work has appeared. He was primarily a mathematician and his early working life was devoted mainly to the study of pure mathematics. While containing much biographical information, this book concentrates on this crucial aspect of Babbage's work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the best books on Charles Babbage
In the process of doing research on Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace and writing "Ada, The Enchantress of Numbers" I had the good fortune to read this book.It is intelligent, thoughtful, and discusses not only Babbage's mathematical work but gives insight into the process of discovery.It is a gem. ... Read more

Book Description
Charles Babbage, considered the founding father of the computer, was a key figure during a great era of British history.Best remembered for his pioneering work on analytical and difference engines, the forerunners of the modern computer, Babbage was also an active campaigner for reform in both science and society.Babbage's wide-ranging interests ran from economic theory and statistics, to lighthouse signalling and postal services.His book, Reflections on the Decline of Science in England and Some of its Causes (1830) reflected his attempts to reorganize and control the conduct of scientific activity at a national level.In addition, he published widely on theoretical and practical science and social reform.In this book, Anthony Hyman, the acknowledged expert on Babbage's life and work, has selected passages from these many publications--reflecting his innovative scientific work and his thoughts on such subjects as taxation, abolition of life peerage and the assurance of lives--subjects which anticipated the preoccupations of present day society. ... Read more

Product Description
Short excerpt: The difficulty of understanding the processes of manufactures has unfortunately been greatly overrated. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Economics of industrialization by a contemporary observer
Written in 1832, this book is a contemporary observer's account of how machinery and manufacturing helped create unprecedented prosperity during the Industrial Revolution in England.The book is basically a text on economics as applied to manufacturing.It was intended for a lay audience, particularly ambitious factory workers.Much of the information that's cited in the book came from the author's direct observations in factories in Britain and on the Continent.

The first third of the book examines in detail the machines themselves, as examples of how machines increased productivity in various ways:by quickly making many copies of some object, by applying super-human forces to materials, by working faster than humans can, etc.This section will interest mainly historians of technology, although there are some curious tidbits; e.g., caterpillars that can be tricked into making lace (p. 94).

The author then considers factory management, which includes the importance of the division of labor, of minimizing waste, of good labor relations, etc.

The book closes with a discussion of the role of government in the economy; e.g., the effects of taxes, protectionist legislation, patents, setting standards, etc.

The author, Charles Babbage (1792-1871), designed the world's first true programable computer.His ideas were a century ahead of his time; e.g., he speculates about hydrofoils (p. 41), seismographs (p. 75), the use of computers in generating tables of mathematical data (p. 162), the centralized distribution of motive power (p. 228), and the possibility of extraterrestrial life (p. 301).

He repeatedly argues that labor's and management's interests are not inherently opposed.Thus, he argues against both unions and cartels (Ch. 30, 31).In Ch. 26 - citing the example of some mines in Cornwall - he urges profit-sharing in order to motivate workers to help raise the productivity of their companys.

The book has some shortcomings:The prose is dull, pedantic.There's no table of contents nor index.The editing is sloppy:there are too many typos, and in several places, spaces between words are missing; e.g., "...beclearlyperceived,byimagingasociety, inwhichoccupation[s]..." (p. 260).Chapter 32 is titled "23".

However, the book will interest historians who seek a contemporary's account of the Industrial Revolution as it surged around him. ... Read more

Book Description
Although Charles Babbage's complex calculating machines were unique in their time, there is no full description of them. Instead, Babbage, who preferred to spend his time on design and construction, collected the various contemporary writings on his work and when he died, his son completed the collection. These assembled papers discuss Babbage's Difference Engine, which he invented in 1821 to solve the practical problem of finding a means to reliably compute the many tables needed for navigation, and his Analytical Engine, which anticipated the logical conceptions of modern digital computers. The book includes extensive catalogs of drawings and "notations" for the Analytical Engine and the first published account of Babbage's achievement by the military engineer Menabrea and its translation into English by Babbage's enthusiastic sponsor Ada (Lady) Lovelace the most important paper in the history of digital computing before modern times.: The book includes examples of Babbage's curious Mechanical Notation and several diagrams that were missing from the original edition. It is Volume II in the Charles Babbage reprint series: and was originally published in 1889 by E. and F. N. Spon, London. ... Read more