On the Principles and Development of the Calculator

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CHARLES BABBAGE
On the Principies and Development of the Calculator and Other Seminal ^ Writings by
Charles Babbage and Others
Edited and with an Introduction By Philip Morrison and Emily Morrison
Crackpot to his contemporaries, genius to modern scientists, Charles Babbage (1792-1871) was the true discoverer of the principies on which all modern computing machines are based; but his time received his work with scorn, and his name has been virtually forgotten until recently. This original Dover publication is now the only complete story available of the life and work of this amazing mathematician-philosopher-inventor.
Part I consists of selections from Babbage's long-out-of-print autobiography, "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher." In tiis own unrestrained and "somewhat peculiar" way (Encyclopaedia Britannica), Babbage tells the lively story of his youthful escapades, his warm friendships (and embittered enmities) with such... Tovább

Fülszöveg

ÉaÉMÉIMittÉÉIttÉÉiÉÉÍHÉMtfttIMÉáÉHÉ
HHHHHII
CHARLES BABBAGE
On the Principies and Development of the Calculator and Other Seminal ^ Writings by
Charles Babbage and Others
Edited and with an Introduction By Philip Morrison and Emily Morrison
Crackpot to his contemporaries, genius to modern scientists, Charles Babbage (1792-1871) was the true discoverer of the principies on which all modern computing machines are based; but his time received his work with scorn, and his name has been virtually forgotten until recently. This original Dover publication is now the only complete story available of the life and work of this amazing mathematician-philosopher-inventor.
Part I consists of selections from Babbage's long-out-of-print autobiography, "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher." In tiis own unrestrained and "somewhat peculiar" way (Encyclopaedia Britannica), Babbage tells the lively story of his youthful escapades, his warm friendships (and embittered enmities) with such outstanding European figures as Laplace, Biot, Humboldt, and Sir Humphry Davy, and the dominating obsession- of his life — the création of a machine that would forever remove the mistakes and wasted effort inevitable in any extensive arithmetical calculations.
His dream has only now come true, but to convince yourself that Babbage was indeed far ahead of his time, turn to the articles by the inventor and by his contemporaries that explain the principies and opération of his brilliant — but never completed — calculating machines. There is a 60-page study by Dr. Dionysius Lardner of the first great invention, the Différence Engine; a 70-page work by L. F. Menabrea (translated with notes by the Countess of Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter and a believer in Babbage to the tune of the family jewels) on the vastly improved Analytical Engine; a paper by Major-General H. P. Babbage on his father's work; and a dozen more articles, sketches, and letters by Babbage himself on various aspects of his great dream. These sections will be especially interesting to scientists and technicians working with modern-day computers, for it details the true birth of their profession.
Introduction by Philip and Emily Morrison. Index. 8 illustrations including plans of Babbage's engines. xxxviii + 400pp. 5% x 8y2. Paperbound Vissza