Customer Reviews (11)

Charles Babbage: Victorian Era Technologist
Author, engineer, visionary, genius.Charles Babbage.The man born to lead humankind into a utopian era propelled by automatic computation machines.But by some cosmic prank he was born not at the first glow of the electrified age, but much earlier in a coal-fired industrial age in which neither precision production machine tools nor even the standard screw thread existed.And electricity?The triode, the fundamental active device at the root of the electronics big bang, was just being nudged to life a full generation after Babbage's death.Today, countless bits of silicon at our fingertips and spread across the globe and above our heads pulse with programs which manage everything from communications to transportation to entertainment.Inspiration for our globally connected engineers and scientists springs from the incredible developments in communications, analytical tools, and nano and bio-technologies.Babbage's muse was a Victorian lady adorned in steam power.
Author Doron Swade's description of the analysis of Babbage's drawings and of the trials engaged in the actual modern day build of Difference Engine #2 leaves me with a bit of a sense of sorrow for old Charles.It just doesn't seem plausible that he could have pulled this off had he a dozen 19th century lifetimes.Production of the thousands and thousands of precision mechanical parts needed for the construction of his machine would have challenged the industrial capacity of Babbage's day.And even if all the parts had been delivered, did he foresee the time required for the assembly and testing of the machine?The author experienced that the modern day building and debugging of the engine proceeded slowly and with numerous fits and starts.Additionally, Charles may have been flawed with an inability to maintain a consistent focus on the development of his difference engine; he puttered with incessant design changes and was often distracted by any number of scientific developments occurring in his lifetime in the middle half of the 19th century.But his genius and sense of mortality drove him to the only workable solution, that being the preparation of detailed mechanical drawings for a subsequent generation of enthusiasts to discover and execute.So whatever sorrow I felt is now displaced by respect for someone who retreated from his dogged passion for assembling and publicly operating his computational engine into the more solitary labor of transferring his concept to a full set of mechanical drawings.These were the drawings which author Swade and his team used to build the machine nearly a century and a half later.
This is an interesting and educational read for anyone curious about the state of technology and the associated politics in Victorian times.The reader will meet personalities who will be remembered because we have honorably linked their names to important developments including screw threads (Whitworth), a software language (Ada), and a space telescope (Herschel).
So, no, today's world is not driven by fleets of "Babbage engines".He could not have foreseen a future reliant on millions of transistors modulating nano-amps on a device smaller than your thumbnail, and these devices replicated by the millions in our cars, phones, iPods, and dishwashers.I agree with my friend's conclusion that Babbage engines, had they been built and mass produced, would have "died out" with the rise of electronics.It is amazing, however, that Babbage foresaw the configuration of his mechanical Analytical Engine as consisting of two unique but connected components; one, a mechanical entity for carrying out arithmetic operations, and two, a mechanical contrivance where numeric values would be stored.Amazing, because his concept, although relegated to mechanical implementation, predated by a century the concepts detailed by Von Neumann who viewed the configuration of modern computer architecture as consisting of those two fundamental interfaced components - the arithmetic logical unit or central processor, and the computer memory.
Kudos to Swade for bringing the life and times of Charles Babbage to the fore, and for his years of involvement and dedication to the actual construction of Difference Engine #2.There are numerous YouTube entries where you can see the machine operating.Or perhaps you were lucky enough to be awed, as I was, as an actual witness to the operation of Babbage's dream onsite at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

Same book as "The Cogwheel Brain"
This is a terrific book. Beyond that, I have nothing to add to the previous excellent reviews, except to note that it seems to be precisely the same book as Doron Swade's The Cogwheel Brain. I nearly bought both until I checked the tables of contents...

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. ... Read more

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This Halcyon Classics eBook contains two works by Charles Babbage, the inventor of the programmable computer.Includes an active table of contents.

Contents:

On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, And on Some of its Causes

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Chapters: Isaac Newton, Alan Turing, Bertrand Russell, Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, J. J. Thomson, Andrew Wiles, John Horton Conway, Paul Dirac, Edmond Halley, Roger Penrose, Freeman Dyson, Alfred North Whitehead, George Boole, Oliver Heaviside, Christopher Wren, G. H. Hardy, Ronald Fisher, Max Newman, Isaac Barrow, Edward Waring, Thomas Bayes, William Mccrea, Karl Pearson, John Edensor Littlewood, Thomas Bradwardine, Peter Barlow, Emery Molyneux, Edward Wright, Robert Hues, John Dee, John Couch Adams, Lewis Fry Richardson, John Wallis, William Penney, Baron Penney, George Peacock, George Green, Thomas Harriot, Baden Powell, I. J. Good, John Dawson, Thomas Blundeville, James Jurin, William Oughtred, William Whiston, Douglas Hartree, Ian Stewart, John Kingman, Maurice Kendall, Shahn Majid, Conway Berners-Lee, E. T. Whittaker, Roger Cotes, William Hopkins, James Hopwood Jeans, Timothy Gowers, John Gough, Geoffrey Ingram Taylor, David Cox, Dorothy Maud Wrinch, Alan Baker, Jonas Moore, John Nunn, Harold Jeffreys, Shaun Wylie, Sydney Chapman, William Leybourn, Edward Arthur Milne, George Walker, Alan M. Frieze, Henry Briggs, Ernest William Barnes, John Collins, Harold Scott Macdonald Coxeter, Daniel Pedoe, Richard of Wallingford, Leonard Digges, William Gascoigne, Joseph Proudman, John Holwell, Isaac Milner, William Crabtree, Thomas Lydiat, Peter Swinnerton-Dyer, George Darwin, John Hymers, G. Spencer-Brown, Harry Bateman, Charles Hutton, David Spiegelhalter, Edmund Wingate, James Dodson, Frank Adams, Richard V. Southwell, Nicholas Saunderson, Edward Brerewood, John Fletcher Moulton, Baron Moulton, Jonathan Mestel, Samuel Morland, James Cockle, Frank Kelly, Samuel Foster, Graham Nelson, Bill Parry, Robert Smith, Owen Saunders, Ronald Rivlin, Wendy Hall, Ben J. Green, George Barker Jeffery, Walter Warner, Eaton Hodgkinson, David George Kendall, Robert Leslie Ellis, Hertha Marks Ayrton, Ruth Lawrence, Bernard de Neumann, Tom Willm...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=14627 ... Read more

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Der Erwerb des Buches enthält gleichzeitig die kostenlose Mitgliedschaft im Buchklub des Verlags zum Ausprobieren - dort können Sie von über einer Million Bücher ohne weitere Kosten auswählen. Das Buch besteht aus Wikipedia-Artikeln: Karl Marx, Charles Babbage, Silvio Gesell, Max Weber, Léon Walras, Ferdinand Lassalle, Vilfredo Pareto, John Stuart Mill, Charles Fourier, David Ricardo, Friedrich List, Franz Oppenheimer, Albert Christian Weinlig, Friedrich Engels, Jean-Baptiste Say, Jeremy Bentham, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Johann Heinrich von Thünen, Eugen Dühring, Jean-Charles-Léonard Simonde de Sismondi, Thomas Robert Malthus, Christoph Wilhelm Gatterer, August Friedrich Wilhelm Crome, Friedrich Albert Lange, Irving Fisher, Johann Ernst Spitzner, Carl Heinrich Edmund von Berg, Antoine-Augustin Cournot, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Rudolf Hilferding, August Franz von Haxthausen, Karl Heinrich Rau, William Henry Beveridge, Thorstein Veblen, Wilhelm Roscher, Franz von Miller, Wilhelm Hübbe Schleiden, Max Preßler, Gustav Schmoller, Albrecht Daniel Thaer, Henri de Saint-Simon, Lorenz von Stein, John Bates Clark, Arnold Toynbee, Eberhard Gothein, Johann August Schlettwein, Theophil Christen, Fritz Karl Mann, Johann Beckmann, Friedrich von Gottl-Ottlilienfeld, Lorenz Karsten, Josef Hellauer, Eugen Böhm von Bawerk, Rudolph Eberstadt, Moritz Jellinek, Johann Karl Adam Murhard, Emil Lederer, Frédéric Bastiat, Gustave de Molinari, Hermann Paasche, Friedrich von Wieser, John Rogers Commons, Karl Bücher, Eduard Baumstark, Adolph Wagner, Julius Lehr, Lujo Brentano, Alfred Marshall, Viktor Böhmert, Henry Charles Carey, Karel Engliš, Johann Friedrich Gottfried Eiselen, Georg Hanssen, František Cyril Kampelík, Wilhelm Lexis, Friedrich von Kleinwächter, Siegfried Strakosch, Emanuel Herrmann, Carl Menger, William Stanley Jevons, Arthur von Scala, Josef Kaizl, Charles Dunoyer, Karl Rodbertus, John Atkinson Hobson, Theodor Hertzka, Friedrich Julius Neum...http://booksllc.net/?l=de&id=2664 ... Read more

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Chapters: Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage, Paul Dirac, Isaac Barrow, Edward Waring, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, Stephen Hawking, George Biddell Airy, Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet, William Whiston, Joseph Larmor, James Lighthill, Isaac Milner, Robert Woodhouse, Thomas Turton, John Colson. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 146. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 31 March 1727 ) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian who is considered by many scholars and members of the general public to be one of the most influential people in human history. His 1687 publication of the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (usually called the Principia) is considered to be among the most influential books in the history of science, laying the groundwork for most of classical mechanics. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the scientific revolution. Newton also built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours that form the visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound. In mathematics, Newton shares the credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of the differential and integral calculus. He also demonstrated the...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=14627 ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Analytical Engine, Difference Engine, the Difference Engine, Charles Babbage Institute, Babbage, Babbage, Dynamometer Car, Babbage, Walworth Road, Georgiana Babbage. Excerpt:Trial model of a part of the Analytical Engine, built by Babbage , as displayed at the Science Museum (London) The analytical engine , an important step in the history of computers , was the design of a mechanical general-purpose computer by English mathematician Charles Babbage . In its logical design the machine was essentially modern, anticipating the first completed general-purpose computers by about 100 years. It was first described in 1837. Babbage continued to refine the design until his death in 1871. Because of the complexity of the machine, the lack of project management science, the expense of its construction, and the difficulty of assessing its value by Parliament relative to other projects being lobbied for, the engine was never built. Some have said that the technological limitations of the time were a further obstacle to the construction of the machine, but this has been refuted by the "partial" construction of one of Babbage's machines by his son Henry, and now by the construction of one of his simpler designs by the British Science Museum. Indications are today that the machine could have been built successfully with the technology of the era if funding and political support had been stronger. Design Babbage's first attempt at a mechanical computing device was the difference engine , a special-purpose calculator designed to tabulate logarithms and trigonometric functions by evaluating finite differences to create approximating polynomials . During this project he realized that a much more general design was possible and started work designing the analytical engine. The input (programs and... ... Read more

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Chapters: Isaac Newton, J. K. Rowling, Charles Babbage, Michael Faraday, Geoffrey Chaucer, Eric Clapton, W. H. Auden, Freeman Dyson, Jane Goodall, Rick Wakeman, Olivia Newton-John, Christopher Wren, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Clive Barker, Cliff Richard, Ian Hislop, David Suchet, Thora Hird, Edward Wright, Jade Goody, Clarke Carlisle, Jermain Defoe, Linvoy Primus, Mary Whitehouse, Bear Grylls, Emma Darwin, Nicko Mcbrain, Simon Mayo, Tamsin Greig, Darren Moore, Alexander Everett, Alan Titchmarsh, Simon Conway Morris, Carlo Nash, Bill Bratt, Stu G, Jeremy Vine, Malcolm Saville, John Gower, Tim Vine, Hugh Dennis, Larry Lamb, Gavin Peacock, Antony Hewish, Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet, Simon Jenkins, Richard of Wallingford, Brooks Mileson, Sean Davis, Mark Williams, Cannon and Ball, Alfred Merle Norman, Martin Smith, David Tibet, Dan Walker, Martin Ruane, William Hugh Clifford Frend, Emile Sinclair, Donald Nicholl, Richard Rufus, Geoffrey Moorhouse, John Lodge, Peter Vardy, Lindi St Clair, Oxford Calculators, Judith Herrin, Ian Arkley, Jessie Penn-Lewis, Enoch Hood, William Derham, Joel Pott, Bruce Grindlay, Anne Kerr, Milton Jones, Tina Heath, Tony Cummings, John Walker, Henry Ley, Jen Ledger, Chris Eaton, Greg Sammons, Alan of Lynn, Ronald Sims. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 640. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE (born 30 March 1945) is an English blues-rock guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. Clapton has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo performer, as well as a member of rock bands the Yardbirds and Cream. He is the only person ever to be inducted three times. Often viewed by critics and fans alike as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time, Clapton was ranked fourth in Rolling Stone magazine's list ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=10049 ... Read more

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Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Alan Turing, Tim Berners-Lee, Alan Cox, Alan Sugar, George Boole, Clive Sinclair, Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Edgar Frank Codd, Maurice Vincent Wilkes, Paul Graham, Christopher Strachey, John Horton Conway, Jonathan Bowen, Adam Osborne, Hugh Mcgregor Ross, Robin Milner, Julian Seward, David Wheeler, Angela Beesley, Charles Antony Richard Hoare, Simon Peyton Jones, Paul Davis, Frederic Calland Williams, Peter J. Landin, Tom Kilburn, Michael Burrows, Philip Wadler, Tommy Flowers, John Venn, David H. D. Warren. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : Alan Mathison Turing (23 juin 1912 - 7 juin 1954) est un mathématicien britannique, auteur de l'article fondateur de la science informatique qui allait donner le coup d'envoi à la création des calculateurs universels programmables (ordinateurs). Il y présente sa machine de Turing, le premier calculateur universel programmable, et invente les concepts de programmation et de programme. Il est également à l'origine de la formalisation des concepts d'algorithme et de calculabilité qui ont profondément marqué cette discipline. Son modèle a contribué à établir définitivement la thèse Church-Turing qui donne une définition mathématique au concept intuitif de fonction calculable. Durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, il a dirigé les recherches sur les codes secrets générés par la machine Enigma utilisée par les nazis. Après la guerre, il a travaillé sur un des tout premiers ordinateurs, puis a contribué de manière provocatrice au débat déjà houleux à cette période sur la capacité des machines à penser en établissant le test de Turing. Vers la fin de sa vie, il s'est intéressé à des modèles de morphogenèse du vivant conduisant aux « structures de Turing ». Il a été pers...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Computer Sciences, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1121 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Reviews the history of the discipline and its concepts, and profiles contributors in the field. The impact of computers on society is explored, with examples in literature and film to illustrate and support trends. ... Read more

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Kapitel: Aristoteles, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Alan Turing, Blaise Pascal, Charles Babbage, John Von Neumann, David Hume, Karl Popper, Bertrand Russell, Georg Cantor, Charles Sanders Peirce, George Boole, René Descartes, Claude Elwood Shannon, Wilhelm Von Ockham, Giuseppe Peano, Gottlob Frege, Edmund Husserl, Diodoros Kronos, Johannes Buridan, Frank Plumpton Ramsey, Johannes Duns Scotus, Lewis Carroll, Gotthard Günther, Jesús Mosterín, Petrus Abaelardus, Boëthius, Francis Galton, Rudolf Carnap, Averroës, Willard Van Orman Quine, John Corcoran, Hans Reichenbach, William Rowan Hamilton, Porphyrios, Leonid Wassiljewitsch Rutkowski, Antiphon, Georg Pasch, Jodocus Trutfetter, Friedrich Kambartel, Johann Heinrich Lambert, George Edward Moore, Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, Andrei Nikolajewitsch Kolmogorow, Joseph Maria Bocheński, Alexander Von Aphrodisias, Chrysippos Von Soli, Theodor Ziehen, Peter Geach, Charles Leonard Hamblin, Al-Farabi, Alfred Jules Ayer, Kuno Lorenz, Alfred Tarski, Hermann Lotze, Moritz Wilhelm Drobisch, Johann Conrad Arnoldi, David Kellogg Lewis, Alexander Alexandrowitsch Sinowjew, Christian Donati, Georgi Iwanowitsch Tschelpanow, Johann Friedemann Schneider, Karel Berka, Platon Sergejewitsch Porezki, Tadeusz Kotarbiński, Michael Dummett, Balthasar Rhaw, Augustus de Morgan, Petrus Ramus, Jules Vuillemin, Saul Aaron Kripke, Christian August Clodius, August Friedrich Müller, Georg Henrik Von Wright, Johannes Neldel, Jaakko Hintikka, Ibn Baddscha, Gottfried Schlüter, William of Sherwood, Ernst Schröder, Solomon Dodaschwili, Antoine Arnauld, Johann Gottlieb Hardt, Rolandas Pavilionis, Albert Von Rickmersdorf, Dōshō, George Bentham, Sebastian Küchenmeister, Johann Daniel Arcularius, Hui Shi, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, Matthias Varga Von Kibéd, Nikolai Onufrijewitsch Losski, Christian Friedrich Petzold, Johannes Ittig, Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg, Reuben Goodstein, Leon Henkin, Dirk Van Dalen, Bernhard Mensing, Simon H...http://booksllc.net/?l=de ... Read more

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ON THE RECIPROCAL INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE AND EDUCATION.

That the state of knowledge in any country will exert a directive influence on the general system of instruction adopted in it, is a principle too obvious to require investigation. And it is equally certain that the tastes and pursuits of our manhood will bear on them the traces of the earlier impressions of our education. It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that some portion of the neglect of science in England, may be attributed to the system of education we pursue. A young man passes from our public schools to the universities, ignorant almost of the elements of every branch of useful knowledge; and at these latter establishments, formed originally for instructing those who are intended for the clerical profession, classical and mathematical pursuits are nearly the sole objects proposed to the student's ambition.

Much has been done at one of our universities during the last fifteen years, to improve the system of study; and I am confident that there is no one connected with that body, who will not do me the justice to believe that, whatever suggestions I may venture to offer, are prompted by the warmest feelings for the honour and the increasing prosperity of its institutions. The ties which connect me with Cambridge are indeed of no ordinary kind.

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The present volume may be considered as one of the consequences that have resulted from the calculating engine, the construction of which I have been so long superintending. Having been induced, during the last ten years, to visit a considerable number of workshops and factories, both in England and on the Continent, for the purpose of endeavouring to make myself acquainted with the various resources of mechanical art, I was insensibly led to apply to them those principles of generalization to which my other pursuits had naturally given rise. The increased number of curious processes and interesting facts which thus came under my attention, as well as of the reflections which they suggested, induced me to believe that the publication of some of them might be of use to persons who propose to bestow their attention on those enquiries which I have only incidentally considered. With this view it was my intention to have delivered the present work in the form of a course of lectures at Cambridge; an intention which I was subsequently induced to alter. The substance of a considerable portion of it has, however, appeared among the preliminary chapters of the mechanical part of the Encyclopedia Metropolitana.

I have not attempted to offer a complete enumeration of all the mechanical principles which regulate the application of machinery to arts and manufactures, but I have endeavoured to present to the reader those which struck me as the most important, either for understanding the actions of machines, or for enabling the memory to classify and arrange the facts connected with their employment. Still less have I attempted to examine all the difficult questions of political economy which are intimately connected with such enquiries. It was impossible not to trace or to imagine, among the wide variety of facts presented to me, some principles which seemed to pervade many establishments; and having formed such conjectures, the desire to refute or to verify them, gave an additional interest to the pursuit. Several of the principles which I have proposed, appear to me to have been unnoticed before. This was particularly the case with respect to the explanation I have given of the division of labour; but further enquiry satisfied me that I had been anticipated by M. Gioja, and it is probable that additional research would enable me to trace most of the other principles, which I had thought original, to previous writers, to whose merit I may perhaps be unjust, from my want of acquaintance with the historical branch of the subject.

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Albert Einstein, Charles Babbage, Friedrich Bessel, Fred Hoyle, Henri Poincaré, Edwin Hubble, Arthur Stanley Eddington, John Herschel, Ejnar Hertzsprung, Riccardo Giacconi, Albert Abraham Michelson, Henry Norris Russell, William Mccrea, William Henry Smyth, André-Louis Danjon, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Thomas Gold, Francis Baily, Edward James Stone, Hannes Alfvén, Giovanni Schiaparelli, James Van Allen, Urbain le Verrier, Stephen Hawking, Arthur Robert Hinks, Fritz Zwicky, John Couch Adams, George Biddell Airy, Max Wolf, Simon Newcomb, John T. Houghton, Vitaly Ginzburg, Viktor Hambardzumyan, James Dunlop, Thomas Brisbane, Caroline Herschel, Peter Goldreich, Richard Christopher Carrington, Ernest William Brown, Walter Munk, Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, Dan Mckenzie, James Hopwood Jeans, Edward Emerson Barnard, Bernard Lovell, Gerald Maurice Clemence, Harold Urey, Hermann Bondi, Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, Rashid Sunyaev, Allan Sandage, Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Von Struve, Harold Jeffreys, Antonie Pannekoek, Sydney Chapman, Johann Franz Encke, Martin Ryle, Edward Arthur Milne, John N. Bahcall, Fred Lawrence Whipple, Jan Oort, David Gill, Otto Struve, Asaph Hall, George Ellery Hale, Harlow Shapley, Bohdan Paczyński, Margaret Burbidge, Peter Andreas Hansen, Frank Watson Dyson, Richard Van Der Riet Woolley, Albrecht Unsöld, Isaac Roberts, Jacobus Kapteyn, Ira Sprague Bowen, Maurice Ewing, Vera Rubin, Donald Lynden-Bell, Benjamin Apthorp Gould, John Jackson, George Darwin, Carl Ludwig Christian Rümker, Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander, Walter Baade, Vesto Slipher, Willem de Sitter, Ernst Öpik, Donald Edward Osterbrock, Jim Peebles, Keith Edward Bullen, Harrie Massey, Henri-Alexandre Deslandres, Frank Press, Warren de La Rue, Geoffrey Burbidge, Bengt Strömgren, Edward Bullard, Walt... ... Read more

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This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Operations Management, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was the embodiment of a polymath: elected a Royal Society fellow, holder of the Lucasian Chair of mathematics at Cambridge, founder of the London Statistical Society, author of many papers and full-length monographs and, most famously from a 21st century perspective, the architect of modern computing with his difference engines and designs for the analytical engine. The scale and complexity of these machines meant their realisation was dependent upon the latest industrial advances like parts standardization and machine tool technology. As a result Babbage committed large amounts of his time and money to the theoretical and empirical study of advanced production and engineering practice. This paper argues that Charles Babbage deserves to be recognised as a pioneer in the field of operations management. His path-breaking contributions were born of a singular intellect and degree of creativity combined with a commitment to empiricist scientific method and statistical measurement. Moreover, he was working as Britain transformed itself into the most highly industrialized country the world had ever seen. The paper draws in particular upon the various editions of his best-selling book, 'On the Economy of Machines and Manufactures', first published in 1832. It reviews the many core operations principles evident in Babbage's analyses and highlights insights that remain relevant to today's theoretical and practical concerns. The paper concludes with a discussion of how a combination of contextual and biographical factors left Charles Babbage a largely unsung pioneer in the field of operations management. ... Read more

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Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Blaise Pascal, Alan Turing, Jacques de Vaucanson, George Boole, Charles Babbage, Al-Khawarizmi, Bryan Donkin, Joseph Marie Jacquard, Pāṇini, Alonzo Church, Wilhelm Schickard, Julian Bigelow, Fredrik Rosing Bull, John Venn. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : Blaise Pascal, né le 19 juin 1623 à Clairmont (aujourd'hui Clermont-Ferrand), en Auvergne et mort le 19 août 1662 à Paris, est un mathématicien, physicien, inventeur, philosophe, moraliste et théologien français. Enfant précoce, il est éduqué par son père. Les tout premiers travaux de Pascal concernent les sciences naturelles et appliquées. Il contribue de manière importante à l'étude des fluides. Il a clarifié les concepts de pression et de vide, en étendant le travail de Torricelli. Pascal a écrit des textes importants sur la méthode scientifique. Après trois ans de développement et 50 prototypes, Il invente la machine à calculer en 1645. Denommée la Pascaline, il en construira une vingtaine d'exemplaires dans la décade suivante. Mathématicien de premier ordre, il crée deux nouveaux champs de recherche majeurs : tout d'abord il publie un traité de géométrie projective à seize ans ; ensuite il développe en 1654 une méthode de résolution du « problème des partis » qui, donnant naissance au cours du XVIIIème siècle au calcul des probabilités, influencera fortement les théories économiques modernes et les sciences sociales. Après une expérience mystique à la fin de 1654, il délaisse les mathématiques et la physique et se consacre à la réflexion philosophique et religieuse. Il écrit pendant cette période les Provinciales et les Pensées, ces dernières n'étant publiées qu'après sa mort qui survient deux mois après son 39 anniversaire, alors qu'il a ét...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more

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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more