Article in The British Critic October 1822

The British Critic October 1822, Vol. XVIII pages 362-369
ART. III Anonymous [probably E. Smedley]

 Letter to Sir Humphry Davy, Bart, President of the Royal Society, &c.&c. On the Application of Machinery to the Purpose of Calculating and Printing Mathematical Tables, from Charles Babbage, Esq. M.A. F.R.S. Lond. and Edin., Member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Secretary of the Astronomical Society of London, and Correspondent of the Philomathic Society of Paris. 4to 12pp Baldwin & Co. 1822.
 It is, if we remember rightly, no less industrious a student than John Locke, who has declared, that "Labour for labour's sake is against nature;" and if there be any one mental toil, which, more than others, appeals for all practicable mitigation, to this universal anti-laborious principle, it is assuredly that which the distinguished Analyst, whose pamphlet forms the subject of our present notice, has justly termed "the intolerable labour and fatiguing monotony of a continued repetition of similar arithmetical calculations," and which we fully coincide with him in designating, as "one of the lowest operations of human intellect." To transfer this irksome though necessary and important occupation, from mind and matter -to make the wheel and axle the substitutes of the brain in those processes which seem to assimilate and almost to reduce it to the rank of a mechanical engine, and one frequently of very questionable accuracy- to present to the mind of the mathematician, without the exhausting weariness of many hours of perplexed and fallible calculation, those precise results which are essential to his investigations and discoveries. That such a consummation should, in any degree, be effected, must always have appeared one of the most delightful chimaeras; and, until the appearance of Mr. Babbage's Letter, would certainly have been regarded as not only chimerical, but most extravagantly so. Such, however, is the object attained by the very astonishing and valuable invention, which his Letter announces: an invention, we do not hesitate to say, of more extensive utility, and likely -we might say certain- to conduce to vaster results in science, practical as well as speculative, than any single discovery on record. "I am aware," he good-humouredly observes, "that the statements contained in this letter may perhaps be viewed as something more that Utopian, and that the philosophers of Laputa may be called up to dispute my claim to originality." Mr. Babbage might, however, feel confident that the guarantee of a name so much and so deservedly esteemed as his, by men of science, whether at home or on the continent, could not fail to command, for any communication to which it was attached, an immediate and respectful attention. Were any further testimony required to the success of this gentleman's invention, and some, perhaps, there may be, who, in so extraordinary a discovery, might doubt the coolness and accuracy of judgement of the Projector himself, such testimony would be abundantly furnished by the illustrious President of the Royal Society, to whom Mr. Babbage has addressed his Letter, who, he tells us, has examined the machinery, and whom he vouches for the accuracy of his statements regarding it.
 It is not, of course, to be expected that the Letter on our table should fully develope the principles, whether of pure mathematics or of mechanics, which have enabled its ingenious writer to construct, in his own words, "a machine which shall perform calculations. "We learn, however, that the theory of differences, which has already afforded such extensive assistance to analytical computation, is the arithmetical principle on which his his engine is constructed. That the results of pure science should have been successfully brought into action, upon the laws of dynamics, so as to produce a piece of mechanism, which exhibits the latter tangibly and visibly acting in subservience to the former, is, independently of the value of its consequences, one of the most prodigious and beautiful triumphs of science. But the merit of Mr. Babbage's discovery does not stop here. Not to enquire, what, at present, cannot, within any limits of safe prediction, be answered, to what further and future issues the principles which he has discovered may lead, the first and obvious use of his machine is to insure the construction of mathematical tables of, we may say, any description, of unlimited extent, and of infallible accuracy.
 Four distinct engines are enumerated by the Writer, of which he has contrived the structure; but the only one which he has yet completed, and which it is his object, in this Letter to announce, is, as we have already in effect stated, one for calculating tables by the method of differences. It is described by the Writer himself as being
 [Extract from p.4 of quarto original
 "One which is capable of computing any table by ...
 ... and the extent of the approximation depends on the            magnitude of the machine."]
 There is a minor and accessory invention which, for its ingenuity and importance, would, of itself, claim for Mr. Babbage a very high degree of credit. We must let him announce it for himself.
 [Extract from page 4 of quarto original
 "Supposing these engines executed ...
 ... independent computers using the same tables will            agree in the same errors."]
 To persons practised in scientific enquiries, the utility of this invention is, at once, so obvious as to render any comment impertinent. But it is not only to the few, who take an interest in the progress of mathematical knowledge, that our pages are dedicated; and, warmly as we feel in that cause, we should have hesitated to enter at any length into account of a discovery, which had for its sole object the abstract science. It is because we are deeply and sincerely impressed with the value of Mr. Babbage's invention, as a matter of NATIONAL INTEREST, that we challenge for it the serious attention of the public. It does, indeed, appear to us, that the immense importance of such an engine must be irrestibly impressed on even the most unscientific minds, from the single consideration, that it secures the
accurate formation of those tables, on the rigid exactness of which the science of navigation is mainly, if not wholly, dependent. The highly valuable results, which will flow from the general use of the engine, might be illustrated by several other instances; but the one which it has now occurred to us to present to our readers, must, we should conceive, weigh strongly with a nation, whose wealth, fame and liberties, are bound up with her nautical prosperity and skill. The consequence attached by one of the most able and enlightened of our public bodies, the Board of Longitude, to the possession of accurate and comprehensive tables, will appear pretty clearly from a circumstance related by Mr. Babbage in the course of the following extract.
 [Extract from page 7 of the quarto original
 "On the variety of tables which such an engine ...
 ... ordinary purposes of human society."]
 It is impossible to quit this subject without enquiring how far a discovery, which is yet little more than a secret in the sole possession of the mind with which it originated, is likely to be rendered available to those high purposes which it is calculated to serve: and we confess, without disguise that it is our desire to suggest the answer to a question, which to a question, which to us appears of such vast moment, that it has induced us to devote this portion of out Journal to a notice of Mr. Babbage's Letter. Assuming as we have a right to assume, on his own assertion, and the concurrent and approving testimony of some of the most competent authorities in the country, that the machinery which he has invented does possess the power of performing those stupendously important operations which we have attempted to describe -bearing in mind the expence not only of purse, but what, in the case of such a man as Mr. Babbage, is of far higher account, of time and thought, which the maturing and executing his project must have cost him, -is it, we will ask,,, reasonable and just to expect, that he should impart to the world the fruit of his ingenuity and assiduity, without an adequate and liberal remuneration? It is not the cause of Mr. Babbage, but of the interests and character of the nation, that we are advocating. We would wish to see the merits of this extraordinary discovery fully and attentively examined, by persons of the most unquestionable capacity; and if they are once established, after such a test, we cannot conceive a subject more clearly pointed out for PARLIAMENTARY NOTICE; we cannot conceive that it will not be dealt with as such, by a Government from which so liberal a proposal, as that made to the French Board of Longitude, emanated on a kindred subject. It cannot be supposed, that the same policy which led to the offer of five thousand pounds, for the possession of tables constructed by a rival nation, and, however carefully formed, inevitably not free from some of the many errors, "quos humana parum cavit natura," should not suggest the ample remuneration of a brilliant production of the genius of our own country, by which (were it even susceptible of no further application) those very tables might be reformed, corrected and extended. The effect of Mr. Babbage's invention is not confined to this country. The rapid dissemination of scientific information, aided by the extraordinary interest of the subject, will have given it general notoriety; and, feeling as we do, justly and honestly proud, that such a discovery should have originated in England, we should be sincerely mortified if any foreign government should anticipate out own in appreciating and appropriating its benefits.

References

The British Critic.  Volumes 17-18  F. and C. Rivington. 1822 pp.362-.